Egg Candling! Tips, Tricks, and Best Practices.

[Maqui25]

When I saved three of my Ducks, the Mother Duck had left the nest and the eggs were ice cold. They all three hatched and that was how I got my Mule ducks, half Muscovy and half Mallard derived. I only had a styrofoam cooler and a 40 watt bulb shining right on top of them with a cup of water and they hatched. I did not have an incubator and they were far enough along that they made it just fine. You are most welcome and I pray yours makes it too. Please let me know if it does.

Thank you so much for your wishes Unfortunately it didn't make it. Yesterday it stopped moving, no veins visible and there was a little pool of blood. I don't know what went wrong, I also didn't have an incubator but I was constantly monitoring temperature and adding wet pieces of cotton around it. Maybe too much handling in the late stage? I opened it and the beak had already punctured into the air bubble. I'll upload the last candling picture, it might help someone. I also have the autopsy pic, if anyone knows how to diagnose it please dm me and I'll send it, it might be to graphic to show it here.

 

[Luv Ducks]

Thank you so much for your wishes Unfortunately it didn't make it. Yesterday it stopped moving, no veins visible and there was a little pool of blood. I don't know what went wrong, I also didn't have an incubator but I was constantly monitoring temperature and adding wet pieces of cotton around it. Maybe too much handling in the late stage? I opened it and the beak had already punctured into the air bubble. I'll upload the last candling picture, it might help someone. I also have the autopsy pic, if anyone knows how to diagnose it please dm me and I'll send it, it might be to graphic to show it here.View attachment 4054421

You are most welcome and so sorry that you lost it. So many things can go wrong when we incubate them ourselves. My one Mule Duck was a sticky one and it was because I had the homemade incubator way too humid. If I had not opened the shell up to help it out and washed it off after getting it out, she would have died for sure. She was one big gooey mess. She is fine now though and over 2 years old. They say Mule Ducks only live a year and a half so I know she is on borrowed time. At least you tried your very best. It was good that you did that.

 

[Cassandra71]

Hello, I am new to hatching and have many questions thanks to this site most are easily but have one or two first will it hurt to turn the eggs when candling. Second how do could you tell if you have hens or roosters before candling or is there anyway to know for sure what the sex is going to be before they hatch.

 

[Susan Skylark]

Candling obsessively doesn’t bother the eggs, and maybe the best part of hatching. There isn’t a way to sex an egg/chick prehatch and for many species/breeds you can’t even tell for weeks after hatch (certain colors or traits are sex linked recessive and if bred for specifically can tell you at hatch if the bird is female, in quail roux (red) coloration is one such trait, if you breed a homozygous male to non roux hens every red chick is female). You’ll see all sorts of theories from egg shape to magnets that some people swear will tell you chick sex prehatch but if this was a functional concept, big chicken would be all over it. You just have to wait and see.