Candling Light Recommendations

[rick54]

At first, I thought why even candle my eggs at all. Just throw out the bad eggs after everything was done hatching. In talking with a person who raises game birds, he advised me that after one exploded egg in the incubator, that after that happens, I'd want to candle my eggs after 7 days. I guess the smell is pretty bad!

So I'm willing to save myself a bunch of grief, and go with the candling. Since this is my first time trying my hand at incubating eggs, and starting off with quail eggs at that, can anyone give a recommendation on a good candling light to use? Where to purchase?

How many days after you set the eggs do you do a first candling? Thank you for the candling information in advance!

 

[LittleMissEmily]

Someone with knowledge please comment on this!! I am also in the same exact situation! I have a bunch of quail eggs in the mail on their way to me and I'm going to be using a Hova-Bator to incubate for the first time ever.

 

[quail raiser]

I have a very bright flashlight that i candle with, just get in a dark room and stand the flashlight on its end. I hold the egg with one hand and use the other hand to seal the light around the egg. quick andd easy to get the eggs done and back in the incubator

 

[LittleMissEmily]

I've seen some things about people using only LED flashlights because they don't put off too much heat, is this necessary?

 

[chiques chicks]

I've never managed to see in a wish egg. My old eyes don't make the issue easier.

The few minutes out of the incubator don't cool the eggs enough to be an issue, at least not with chickens. When I've done quail, I haven't candled so can't comment for sure because of their smaller thermal mass, but I would imagine it holds true.

 

[chiques chicks]

Best candler I've ever had, I made from a light socket screwed to a piece of plywood. I built a metal box with a proper sized hole in it and put it over the bulb. I used a 100 watt bulb, so it got hot. I should dig that contraption out and replace the bulb with an LED. That should solve the heat problem. Then the box could be thin wood.

 

[rick54]

Well I went ahead and pulled the trigger on a Magicfly Bright Cool LED Light Egg Candler Tester from Amazon. It was 17.99 and will be here next week. It had very good reviews, so I thought why not.

 

[mobe_45]

The smell is horrible, and it takes some good sanitizing to remove it. Before I knew a dark ring indicated a bad egg, I let one go and it blew up. I candle at 7 days.