Candling Help

[FarmFullOfFowl]

This is my first incubation. I have Embden geese at day 10 in the incubator right now and I definitely saw dark spot and veins in two eggs, and that plus a little more on one other egg. So I am excited!! I also had one clear egg that I discarded. However, there are three eggs that I am uncertain about. Two of them look the same as the picture of one of them below. What I see is a dark splotch around the side, but I cannot see the darker spot with veins in them. Its just darker in that area. There is another one that may have the red ring. I will try to get a photo of that. But if anyone who has experience with candling or incubating could look at the photos of one of the eggs I have below here and let me know what you think, that would be wonderful. I am worried about leaving bad eggs in the incubator in case they explode and ruin my good eggs. Thank you
Also, we are using a homemade candler with a hole in cardboard

 

[Emelyn]

This is my first incubation. I have Embden geese at day 10 in the incubator right now and I definitely saw dark spot and veins in two eggs, and that plus a little more on one other egg. So I am excited!! I also had one clear egg that I discarded. However, there are three eggs that I am uncertain about. Two of them look the same as the picture of one of them below. What I see is a dark splotch around the side, but I cannot see the darker spot with veins in them. Its just darker in that area. There is another one that may have the red ring. I will try to get a photo of that. But if anyone who has experience with candling or incubating could look at the photos of one of the eggs I have below here and let me know what you think, that would be wonderful. I am worried about leaving bad eggs in the incubator in case they explode and ruin my good eggs. Thank you
Also, we are using a homemade candler with a hole in cardboard
View attachment 2718396
View attachment 2718397
View attachment 2718398

That's fertile! Lucky for you!

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

Hi and congrats on your progressing eggs! I incubate quite a few goose eggs, and I would expect to see defined veins in all the eggs by day 10...but I would also err on the side of caution and leave questionable eggs in until the next candling, in case one or more are just delayed in development due to being in a cool spot, etc.

About exploding eggs: I've incubated hundreds of different kinds of poultry eggs and only ever had 1 explode in my incubator, and it was a rotten duck egg taken from under a broody. I think the risk of an "exploder" is possibly overstated, unless you have a cracked/leaky egg (had one of those recently in a batch of shipped eggs and it was cloudy inside when received, and began to smell after a couple of days in the incubator). If you monitor the eggs and they're not damaged, the risk of bacterially-caused explosion should be low. If those were my eggs, I'd recandle in a week and make the determination then.

Best wishes for a great hatch!

 

[FarmFullOfFowl]

Great! So I won't give up on those two just yet! I will try to get a picture of the one that is not like those two that was questionable. I hope these geese hang in there to the end! This is so exciting. My humidity was set at 30%, but the weights of the eggs were less than I was anticipating for a 15% overall reduction, so I increased the humidity to 40%. We are using a R-Com 20 Max incubator. I love the daily misting and cooling with goose eggs. It gives me something to do with them instead of just staring obsessed
This is exciting!

 

[FarmFullOfFowl]

Just an update to help anyone who comes here later in case it helps...
Those eggs ended up not working out. By my candling at day 15, they were about the same and I discarded them. I have two left that I am crossing my fingers on out of my seven.

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

Just an update to help anyone who comes here later in case it helps...
Those eggs ended up not working out. By my candling at day 15, they were about the same and I discarded them. I have two left that I am crossing my fingers on out of my seven.

Sorry to hear that they didn't progress. I've candled quite a few incubating goose eggs and have found that sometimes the yolk (and wishful thinking?) can suggest development when the egg actually isn't. By day 10, vein development should be pretty unmistakable. Nonetheless, I give the "iffy" ones until the next candling and then pull them if they look the same or have obviously quit.

Best of luck with the two still plugging along!

 

[FarmFullOfFowl]

Thank you!
There was another one that I never knew quite how to interpret that I was just keeping around to see how it went. But then, last week, it started oozing slightly and smelled badly, so I got it out of the incubator and cleaned the ooze out of the incubator during the good two's daily cooling and misting. I candled day 25 last night and saw movement in both so I am very glad. Less than a week to go!

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

It's great that you noticed the exudate and odor before something worse happened.

They're in the homestretch!