How does a 15 day old egg look when candled

[khatar]

My young American game hen has become broody and today is her 15th day of sitting on eggs. Only 2 out of the 6 eggs are her own. This is our first time we've attempted to get chicks from a broody, so I'm pretty unexperienced. I candled 4 of the eggs today and all I saw was darkness except for the air space. No blood ring visible. I couldn't see the blood vessels past the dark shadow. I'm not sure if these are alive or not so can someone tell me if they sound like they are.

 

[DraigAthar]

They sound like they are developing fine. By day 15 the growing embryo is so large that it takes up most of the egg, you'll really only see darkness when you candle.

 

[khatar]

OK, great, thank you so much. I found a chart on the internet and I was worried that because there were no blood vessels they were dead. I think I was paranoid, because all the eggs except one of them looked like that. I'm pretty sure that one was dead.

 

[DraigAthar]

Yeah, I think probably the blood vessels are just hard to see because the chick is so big now. Good luck with your hatch!

 

[khatar]

Thanks for the help!

 

[pax12]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...g-candling-pics-progression-though-incubation

that should help

 

[khatar]

Thanks, it did help! At the time I didn't see the veins like in the pic of the fifteen day old embryo. But one of the eggs has a little hole in it now, so I think their fine.

 

[deaconcarey]

help me pax12