I just don't get candling. Need an interpreter, please.

[HobokenChickenEmergency]

This is my 2nd attempt at hatching. The first was a complete flop, and a waste of money to boot. If I don't get at least 1 chick out of this, my incubator is going to take a sail out a window!

Ok, yesterday was day 5 for my EE eggs and day 3 for my bantam leghorns. I candled last night, and saw one bantam egg was scrambled. When I opened it, I was right. Total mess, broken yolk and all.

Then things got weird.

My EE eggs hard to see into, even with an LED light. I couldn't see veins or anything.

My bantam eggs were a little better, since they're white. In 2 of them I saw....something. One just looked liked a dark spot right under the shell. The other looked like a lopsided V, maybe 1/2 inch across and thick, also right under the shell. What are they? Any ideas?

I've seen all the egg development charts around, but this boggles me. Any help would be most appreciated.



I'm using an LG still air, if that helps. From what I hear on here, it's the Beelzebub of all incubators. We originally got it for snake eggs, for which it was perfect. If it's not going to be useful for anything else, it's outta here.

 

[speckledhen]

You candled way too early. 3 days is way too early. Wait till 10 days and then you will be certain of what you're seeing. NEVER break open an egg till at least 10 days. And doing it too early will jeopardize the embryo. You can actually kill it by rough handling during candling.

 

[HobokenChickenEmergency]

I will take your advice.

The problem with forums is that everyone does things differently. I've heard so many conflicting things on here about when to candle. Like "wait till day 7" or "you can candle every day" (which is why I thought it was ok to try it just once).

Thank you!

 

[spook]

I agree with the fact that at 3 days you cannot see an eye, at 5-7 days you will see what I call a "dancing eye", only in light colored, tan or white, can you see slight veining around just the yolk, and a dark spot that is the eye of the chick.
Don't judge your hatch on this candling- hence the term, never count your chickens before they hatch.
Around days 10-12, you can see enough veining to cull- if in doubt, don't throw it out.
Make the room as dark as possible, I often use a 75 watt light bulb in a large box, set the lamp in the box, or the box over the lamp with a hole 1/2" round. Then after dark, use the flash light or candling box method and look.
The darker the egg shell, the harder it is to see. Never candle until atleast a week, not only that, but some eggs you cannot tell, but look at the other to compare.
Using the flashlight, I have to cup my fingers to make a hole, then place the air sac end towards the light, then I could see it better, but I have also been at it for a while.
Good luck and we all do things differently!

edit- you are going to candle at weeks 1, 2, and the final last day to move them 18 or you can wait at that point until 21, but I'm wicked nosey! This is a fun event, try enjoy it without biting your nails! )

 

[Solsken Farm]

Hey Hoboken, I'm originally from Jersey.

Listen, yes, 3 days is too early, but also, blue/green eggs are harder. So your ee eggs might be difficult to candle. The best you might get is to be able to see the air sac and some dark shading. If you can see right though the egg, it might be clear.

Good luck! And don't give up. It takes time.....

 

[silkiechicken]

Unless you know what you are looking for, best to wait till 10 or 14 days, at earliest 7 before candling. It is often hard to figure out what you are looking for if you haven't done it before, but once you get more experience, just move the first candle date back to see what goes on. There are 100 ways to do the same thing, and nothing is better than your own experience.

Just keep temp stable, and the eggs turned every 8 hrs or less. If they are fertile, they will show by day 14.

 

[daisychick]

I just had a whole batch of EE eggs. And it is really hard to see veining or much of anything in them at least with all the lights I have tried. I still want to get one of the higher dollar led lights to try that. I have just learned through 3 batches of green eggs on what to look for. Must wait till day 7 or even better day 10 on the green eggs. Then you can see that about 3/4 or 1/2 of them will appear darker and you can see the aircell at the other end. At about day 18 I could finally see a few veins in the darker shells. The white eggs will tell you a lot of what you are looking at so use them for a reference. I bet if you wait and candle at day 10 on the white eggs you will see movement and see a lot more.


Ok that is the end of my piece.

 

[HobokenChickenEmergency]

Thanks everybody!


I was more worried about the egg-bomb factor than anything else. Especially with the leghorns, since they took so long to get here (they sat at the post office over a weekend, and I didn't know how old they were before that. Ebay eggs!).


I have them in our bedroom, and dh would throw a fit if an egg blew up in there. Although I doubt it would be worse than the smelly socks he stuffs under the bed.

 

[spook]

oh hunny, you can smell that "bomb" way before it explodes!!!!!! The only egg that I've seen blow was day 32 for a goose, and it was bad.
I have also had chicks hatch, heat issues, "soft chicks" and never want to experience that again, they smell bombish before they hatch.
So there is a bit of warning!

 

[AK Michelle]

I have a small LED light that was a stocking stuffer, you plug it into your car's cigarette lighter to charge it, anyway, it's the size of a cigarette lighter so that tells you how big the lens is that the light comes through. It fits nicely on the end of the egg and is bright enough that we could see veining in all but the darkest eggs and we only set them on Sunday.

We didn't even pick them up, just went in to turn them, touched the little light to them while we were there.

Michelle