Candling Practice!

[Stephanie8806]

Hey there BYC! I just received my NR360 incubator, and am running it empty with two separate thermometers and hygrometers in it to calibrate it. While it’s stabilizing, I couldn’t resist candling some of my infertile hens eggs to practice!

Now, I know you’re supposed to candle when it’s dark, but I can actually see alright... so I figured I’d post them here to see if my assessments are correct, and if you guys see anything else! Mostly looking at shell quality and air cells right now, as I have no rooster and these are NOT fertile.

The most yellow egg is from my white leghorn. The air cell is super visible, and there looks to be a few pores, but not bad at all.

The grayish egg is from one of my Easter Eggers. Hardly any pores, and it looks like the air cell is a little on the side.

There is one orangey egg that has a couple of dark speckles(calcium deposits) and it’s fairly clear of pores. Air cell looks to be appropriately placed in the fat end.

The other solidly orange one has a good air cell and almost no pores. Looks great!

The final orangey one looks as though the air cell is in the right spot, but I didn’t capture it because it had a lot more pores than the rest AND appears to have a hairline crack. I would not try this one in the incubator because of the crack, but am unsure if it would be considered “too porous” otherwise.

Let me know how I did and if there’s anything else to note! Thanks!

 

[JaeG]

I've successfully incubated porous eggs along with the rest before. I don't think it made any difference whatsoever, but they were eggs from my own flock that were pretty fresh.

A dark room is more necessary towards the end of incubation and particularly with brown or blue/green eggs. Pale and white eggs are much easier to candle.

What breed/s are you going to hatch?

 

[Stephanie8806]

I've successfully incubated porous eggs along with the rest before. I don't think it made any difference whatsoever, but they were eggs from my own flock that were pretty fresh.

A dark room is more necessary towards the end of incubation and particularly with brown or blue/green eggs. Pale and white eggs are much easier to candle.

What breed/s are you going to hatch?

I will be hatching shipped eggs, and am already aware that I will likely not have a very high hatch rate. I am hoping for 50%.

They will be an assortment of breeds I will know precisely once I receive them and see the breed code written on each egg. But I will be receiving blue eggs(a combo of Amerucana and legbars), sage eggs, olive eggs, and a few BCM.

Good to know about the pores! I see mixed info about hatchability online... I figured as long as they’re not cracked, I’d at least give them a try