How soon can you candle an egg?

[FaithAnn]

How soon can you candle an egg and expect to see veins and/or an embryo?

 

[silkiechicken]

How bright is your light and what color is the egg?

A white leghorn egg and a high powered flashlight or projector, no maglight type thing, will be able to show you some veins IF you know what you are looking for by day 2/3.


That said, first time candler, a brown egg, a standard maglight, and you might be able to see something at day 6, but day 14 is where you will be able to tell for sure if there is something.

So don't toss anything till day 14 unless there is no dark blob inside.

 

[FaithAnn]

They are Barred Rock eggs, brown, but not dark. I am using just a regular LED flashlight to candle, nothing fancy. I just put them in the incubator, but was just wondering when I would be able to tell if they are developing. The eggs were shipped and I am not too optimistic about a good hatch.

Thanks for your help

 

[Akane]

You can possibly see veins on day 2 but even with light bantam eggs and a good light source I haven't seen any until day 4. On really dark brown eggs you may never get to see veins. I have no idea what's alive and what's not in my incubator right now except for those that have pipped. I tried everything the past 2 weeks and could not candle those dark brown eggs.

The average time to candle is day 7-10. That's when most can trust what they see. Usually I'll candle day 7, mark the potentially bad ones, check those again day 10-12 and if they don't look like they are growing anything toss them. Then I candle again day 18 when I go to raise the humidity for hatching. Occasionally I'll candle in between those times especially if I still had questionable eggs or eggs I really want to hatch.

 

[milleryardchx]

I'm doing my first incubation this week and I'm on day 8 i candled yesturday and i'm working with really dark eggs I could see a air sac and a dark area on day 7 so I have been told that means i have growth there was one i'm not sure about that I will check again at day 14 to know for sure if anything is growing.

 

[tplummer]

I usually wait 4-5 days. By then i usually see veins or something.