candling help!!

[nhchickenfarmer]

im doing my first hatch in a little giant with auto turner, ive had my eggs in about a week now, all different breeds, i can only see veins in one and its a silkie egg, i have some brown eggs " barnyard mix" and theres a dark area that moves with the egg in some of them but i cant see veins, is this the yolk? are they junk? also some of my eggs are to dark to see through " black copper marans" any tips or just hope for the best?

 

[JLeigh]

Is this a mix of chicken and guinea eggs? Guinea eggs are hard to candle because of their thick shells. Chicken eggs are not as difficult as I understand it. I don't know about BCM eggs - they ARE dark!

PeepsCA has some great photos on this forum that show candling of guinea eggs, and I'm sure there are great photos of chicken egg candling elsewhere on BYC forums. And she can tell you what you should be seeing at the different stages of development. I just look for squiggly lines and dark spots LOL, until I start to see the embryo moving in the egg. Then I get totally blown away with excitement.

Since you're new to it, I'd wait another four days before re-candling so you can get a better idea of what's going on in the eggs, though. Good veining is unmistakable when you see it, and it's so cool!

Are you candling in a 100% dark room and using a very strong light source? That helped me a lot with guinea eggs.

 

[nhchickenfarmer]

no, only chicken, i accidently posted in the wrong section, i am in a dark room using an LED flashlight, i can see great veins in one of my silkie eggs but others are either to dark, perfectly clear, or have a dark spot the size of a nickel in them with no visable veins

 

[JLeigh]

That's okay about posting in the wrong spot.

Whether they're chicken or guinea eggs though - don't throw out any "clears" until you're sure they aren't fertile. They probably aren't, but I had one that I would have sworn was infertile, and it hatched. For that matter, if there's any doubt about fertility or development, keep the egg in the incubator for a while longer. If you're not a pro, and I'm definitely not a pro myself, then waiting a few more days won't hurt a thing. Better safe than sorry.

Good luck!!