Candling Eggs!

[Poultrykeeper12]

Hey Byc! Today i`m on day 3 of incubation, and I just want to know if you can see anything inside the egg by this day. I did candle them just a few moments ago, and just saw that the egg yolk was darker and that's it. Thank you!

 

[BaaKaaawk]

You won't see really anything much at 3 days except maybe a dot if you have really good eyes and candler. Each of these images is about 2 days apart. The first thing most people see that is distinguishable is the veining in the yolk around day 6.

 

[GermanKennhuhn]

From my experience, I find that the earliest I can see development is day 5, maybe 4 if I’m lucky. I still prefer to wait until day 7 before deciding if they’re fertile/developing, but I’m no expert! Good luck!

 

[Poultrykeeper12]

You won't see really anything much at 3 days except maybe a dot if you have really good eyes and candler. Each of these images is about 2 days apart. The first thing most people see that is distinguishable is the veining in the yolk around day 6.

View attachment 2075683

Thank you!

 

[Taylorenee]

I candled my white egg on day 3 and I saw Tiny spider veins. Today is day 6 and I can see their heart beating in the white eggs.

 

[Taylorenee]

Today's picture

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

I respectfully disagree with the others. You can absolutely see changes that early. Here are some duck eggs at Day 3 taken about 12 hours apart.

What you described as "darkening of the yolk" could absolutely be an early sign of fertility. Without being there myself it's difficult to give a definitive answer on someone else's eggs.

I'll also add a picture of a Cream Legbar egg at 72 hours (day 3). You can see the embryo and changes to the yolk. This is my current hatch. Are you in the April hatch a long? If not you should join.

 

[BaaKaaawk]

Today's picture

Super cool! Looks just like the chart lol.

I respectfully disagree with the others. You can absolutely see changes that early. Here are some duck eggs at Day 3 taken about 12 hours apart.

What you described as "darkening of the yolk" could absolutely be an early sign of fertility. Without being there myself it's difficult to give a definitive answer on someone else's eggs.

I'll also add a picture of a Cream Legbar egg at 72 hours (day 3). You can see the embryo and changes to the yolk. This is my current hatch. Are you in the April hatch a long? If not you should join.

You have to remember most people don't have super awesome equipment. With normal good equipment you can tell if a chicken egg (don't know about ducks) is fertile around day 5-6. That's all we were saying. An untrained eye really can't tell much before then definitively enough to make a yes/no call. At 6 days even a complete novice with a picture can tell.

 

[Ridgerunner]

In my opinion there are three basic things that affect when you can see what.

1. The experience of the person doing the candling

2. The quality of the equipment and set-up. Lumens of the light and darkness of the room, for example.

3. The egg shell. A white egg isn't too bad. The darker the brown the more the challenge. A light blue egg isn't that bad but harder than white because the blue goes all the way through the shell. A dark green one can be pretty rough.

Some people can see development at thee days or even before. Some have issues at 7 days. Just because you can or cannot does not mean everyone can or cannot.

@Poultrykeeper12 my suggestion is to not make any radical drastic decisions early in your incubation until you gain some experience.

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

Some people can see development at thee days or even before. Some have issues at 7 days. Just because you can or cannot does not mean everyone can or cannot.

I think this is the best thing anyone has posted on this thread so far. Wholeheartedly agree.

People are constantly posting on BYC and about struggling with candling at every stage of incubation. I will continue to post my first hand experiences when I feel they have the potential to be helpful to others. Especially those new to incubating.