candling question on tan & light brown eggs

[KaziCritter]

hoping im not being overly hopeful here, but i am starting to wonder about a few eggs in my incubator. I currently have a filled incubator (~44 eggs) with another 8 under a broody, 12 in the incubator are from one local chicken owner (legbars and olive eggers), 12 are from another local (marans), the rest are from my own birds. my flock is mixed and as a result i can pretty much tell who laid which egg with a few exceptions for ones where i have 3 sets of 2 girls that lay near identical size and color. my rooster has been very active and i only collected eggs to hatch from girls i have seen him mating. i know he is fertile cause one of my hens already hatched out 3 chicks with at least 2 being his and several of these eggs are from that same hen.

my problem / question is should tan or light brown eggs be impossible to see any growth even at a week into incubating? today is day 7 with internal temp being constantly 99.5. the legbar/olive eggs are showing proper growth when candled, the marans and broody are 2 days behind and the marans are showing what looks like proper shadowing (compared to a video i found of marans eggs being candled at about the same age which hatched). but the light brown and tan eggs from my birds which are supposed to be fertilized are just glowing reddish gold with no sign of veining, embryo, or movement (can see veining and movement on even the dark olive eggs (amerucana x marans according to who i got them from). not too worried cause the three that hatched didnt show anything until around 2-2.5 weeks when they were mostly too shadowed to see anything. my current candling light is a compact flourescent flood light in a reflector with a cover to restrict light to the typical 1" hole, it lights up the dark marans eggs nicely even though i cant see detail in them though i can see lots of detail in the dark olive eggs.

im thinking they are just too dark or brown to see any detailing but too light to see shadowing that im seeing in the much darker marans. A few of mine in there seem to be infertile or real early deaths (clearish egg with yolk still showing yellowish), and almost non of the eggs in question are that clear. they are all a faint reddish gold to almost goldish red with no shadowing or visible yolk shadows. most of the references and info i can find is for white eggs or dark eggs and maybe a little on blue ones, but nothing on light brown being hard to candle. I can get some photos of a few of the eggs in question if needed. just wondering if this is normal for eggs this color to be impossible to candle, if i need to do something special to see anything in them, or if i just have some crazy weird eggs.

 

[AlleysChicks]

You need a brighter light to candle with that has a good focusing beam. Brown and olive eggs are darker therefore need a brighter light to be able to see. I bought a candler off amazon that works great. I don’t have Maran eggs but I have candled various shades of brown eggs with mine.

 

[KaziCritter]

the light im using is showing the same detail in the dark olive eggs as id see in white ones so i wouldnt think thats the problem since the olive eggs are several shades darker then the light brown ones im having trouble with. if you use http://www.themaransclub.co.uk/eggs-and-egg-colour-chart/4541995077 as a reference the marans eggs i have in the incubator are about 4-6 (color varying over the dozen eggs), the olive ones would be about a 4 (with blue added ofcourse which ive read makes it harder to candle), the problem eggs would be about a 1.5 or at most a 2. how could a light that can show the detailed veining and even slight movement of a dark 4 egg not be strong enough or focused enough to see the same in a 1.5 or 2 color egg? and the bulb im using is equivalent to a 120w bulb (1200 lumens according to the package), from what ive seen looking at lights specifically for candling, most arent even 500 lumens (many list at about 250).

 

[AlleysChicks]

Ok I misunderstood. I’m thinking those eggs are infertile but wait until day 10 just incase veining should show up before you toss them

 

[theuglychick]

My Marans eggs are VERY difficult to candle. Make sure you're in a very dark room with no windows. Wait till day 10 for sure!

 

[KaziCritter]

if they were infertile why would they be a different color then the ones that are obviously infertile (solid red gold vs the clear with visible yolk)? ive been comparing them to the ones that show development and ones from the same hens that are not incubated (same as candling infertile).

and i am candling with no external light, heavy light blocking curtains on the only window and the door closed. makes it just as dark at mid day as it would be at midnight. though i did just candle the ones under my broody with no blocking out the light (near impossible in my coop) and got the same candling visibility as the eggs in the incubator that were candled in the dark. broody is on day 5 instead of 7 but could tell the definite or at least very likely infertile ones from the ones that are looking solid reddish.

im just having trouble understanding why these eggs that should be easy to candle are not showing anything other then a solid reddish color while the eggs that are supposed to be notoriously difficult are showing high detail or at least visible indications of development.

 

[theuglychick]

Can you post pics? I'm having a hard time visualizing what you're explaining.

Some infertile eggs or eggs that just never develop show no discernible yolk. Similar to if you candle an infertile grocery store egg.

 

[KaziCritter]

top 2 rows are randomly picked light brown eggs from the incubator and photos much more yellow then they are. first set of 2 (good eggs) are from the olive eggs. bottom pair are blue eggs and definitely not developing (no red color or hint of veining and the yolk is a yellow shadow), the blue photoed cleaner then the others for what im seeing. all are 7 days into incubation, included the good & infertile as an example of what im comparing to for development outside of online photos. all eggs are air cell up.

 

[theuglychick]

This sometimes happens with mine. They are definitely not developing. When I crack them the yolk is often scrambled.

 

[KaziCritter]

could understand a few being like that but all of them? thats about 20 eggs from 4 different hens (black sex link, white rock, gold laced wyandotte, and a few silkie eggs). eggs were handled carefully, not shaken or anything. and how could i have ended up with 3 chicks from eggs that looked like those ones about a month ago if color like that when candled indicated a dead or infertile egg? of that hatch there were about 12-13 eggs, 4 looked like these the rest like the infertile ones (all 4 that were developing were from the white rock). hen abandoned the nest 2 days before they hatched and one of the eggs vanished before i could bring them inside.