Candling Question

[D56auction]

I'm incubating mostly Bielefelder and a few olive eggers. 22 started and at day 8 I have 5 clear Bielefelders and the rest are dark with air space. I don't see veining or movement or anything exciting like most of the pictures. I'm hoping this is because the shells are relatively opaque. Is there any reason the eggs would be dark at this point and not be developing?

 

[howdypartner]

in my experience, brown eggs will be hard to see through. I didn't think that there was any new development in my eggs until they hatched! if there was no new growth, however, it could be because of embryo death. if the egg is dark and has an air sac, I say to leave it alone and see if it hatches. When i first incubated eggs we lost 2 of them, despite seeing development. Good luck!

 

[Shadowfire]

I agree that it's hard to candle a brown egg, especially for inexperienced people (no offense, just an observation), but you should leave the eggs alone on day 18-22 as the chick will be positioning itself for the hatch or already trying to hatch. I would wait a few days and see what happens; there's not really much you can do at this stage. Best of luck!

 

[aart]

Some eggs are impossible to candle..dark brown, olive, some blues.
I've had some so dark that I could hardly see the air cell.

 

[Merrymouse]

Just want to chime in...I had this same exact thing happen. I have mostly dark eggs too and Im a newbie and I was so discouraged when I candled I didnt see all this lovely veining and "eye" spot etc. Turns out all (except one quitter) are still developing and Im on day 18 and the eggs were moving in the bator. When I candled I only saw air sac then mostly just dark, very dark area seeming to fill the entire egg. Keep them in. The second time I candled day 15 I had a very obvious quitter, no air sell and mostly clear egg but could see an eye spot, on eggtopsy it looks like it quit around day 7. So don't lose faith those dark eggs are tricky.