Flashlight for darker egg candling

[Hooterville]

What do I need to look for in a more powerful flashlight to try and candle my marans and welsummer eggs? Is it watts or LED or ??
Who would think flashlight could be so complicated?

I did a search and someone recommended a Surefire, but the one I saw at Lowe's was $65.00! Is there one a little cheaper that may help me see into the darker eggs?

TIA!

 

[speckledhen]

Probably the best would be a Surefire. It's quite expensive. I just use an old slide projector and can easily candle Welsummer eggs.

 

[joebryant]

GOOD LUCK FINDING ANYTHING THAT WILL CANDLE BROWN EGGS!
I recently tried candling brown eggs with a three-million candle lantern, and I still could not see veins on the seventh day. I asked Miss Prissy, and she suggested my waiting until the 14th day and look for a large black blob that would be a well developed embryo; that worked for me.
BTW, I set the eggs aside that didn't have a large black blob and checked them after the hatch was finished. Sure enough they only contained what looked like scrambled yellow yolks.
Next time, I won't hesitate to immediately remove the eggs that don't have a black blob showing.

BTW (edit)... I covered the wide beam to seal off all light escaping except a one-inch circle above the bulb.

 

[klf73]

surefire is awesome! I do sometimes use a mini mag, but unless the batteries are very fresh, it doesn't always work...
down side to the surefire is it gets VERY hot, so you can't hold it on the egg too long

 

[Hooterville]

I was afraid that the brown eggs are going to be hard to see into--these are some really dark ones too. Glad for the dark eggs, but not happy that I won't know what's going on in there!

After my success with finally candling a white egg (and seeing something!), I'm just dying to know what's going on in those brown ones!!

I'm going to see if my neighbor will let me use their slide projector--I would be very disappointed if I shelled out the money for a surefire and still couldn't see anything!

 

[Poison Ivy]

I use a surefire and I wait till day 14 to candle my black copper eggs. Then I only look for the top of the aircell since it's the only thing you can really see in the egg. I love my surefire and I had to buy the rechargeable batteries for it because I use it all the time so it's worth the money.

 

[Hooterville]

Hey Poison--are you saying that you can tell on day 14 that you have a viable embryo in the darker eggs by the air cell size? If I could just know that I would be able to relax a bit more!

I just don't want to get to hatch date and be completely disappointed to find that they never had a chance!

Maybe I can pretend to be Irish today and see if I can't weasel a St. Paddy's day present out of my DBF.

He would probably like a Surefire himself!

 

[Poison Ivy]

Yes on day 14 in the BC eggs I only look at the aircell. You can tell the egg is developing compared to the clear ones. I just candled two weeks ago told my sister which ones were no good. When we cracked them open she said wow you were right on all of them.

 

[Hooterville]

Good deal--Surefire shopping tonight! I know I'll eventually get my money out of it!

 

[old mill poultry]

I tried the sure fire flashlight. It was okay but for my maran eggs still had trouble til hubby got me this from cutler supply. It runs around 50 dollars but so worth the price. I've had it for two years now and the bulb still has not burned out. I believe it is by brinsea.
http://www.cutlersupply.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=13_95&products_id=614