Newbie Candler - What did I see?

[enggass]

Hey all,
Day 4 here and out of curiosity I thought I would candle just a few eggs while I added water to the 'bator.
Welsummer eggs. Dark, but not as bad as Marans...
Anyhow, I saw a very clear air sac in tact, but all I could see besides this is a dark wide mass encircling/filling the center.
I candled down on the egg fat end up. No veining or embryo was visible, but I think this is due to a dark egg and untrained eye???
All were like this.
Thoughts?

 

[mstricer]

Nothing probably. You should wait until day 10, and even then with dark eggs you will see the same thing.

 

[enggass]

Well, at least I did see the air sac developing nicely. Is that a good sign when dealing with shipped eggs?
Also, when I looked at a few when I was setting them, they did look different - I think I could see the shadow/shape of the yolk when I set them,
but now there seems to be more going although details are not visible...
What did you mean by nothing?
Thanks.

 

[latebloomer]

there is a sticky at the top of the
incubating and hatching eggs forum

that has picture of what you should be able
to see on each day when candling

you may want to check it out

 

[greenfamilyfarms]

The dark mass was probably the yolk. At day 4 with dark eggs, you probably couldn't see anything. Wait and candle again around day 10.

 

[enggass]

Quote:
Thanks. I did check that, but I did not see any details like those pictures show.
Either the eggs are too dark or my light not bright enough. I can see through enough to clearly see the air sac at the top, but down below it is just a dark mass.
More of a mass than when I set them though.

 

[pinkchick]

Morning Steve!

I agree with the others and say wait until around day 10, by then you should be able to see good viening in the Wellie eggs and embryo development. Often in my Wellie eggs on day 10 I can see movement, but I candle with a homemade candler that uses a 13 watt CFL. I can see into the Wellie eggs very good with that light up to day 18 on lockdown. The Marans eggs are another story....I can see air cells and sometimes at the most some viening near or around the bottom of the air cell but that is about it, by day 18 with the Marans eggs they should just have nice air cells and pretty much at this point you shouldn't be able to see anything as the chicks should be creating a huge dark mass in the rest of the egg. If some are clear or do not develop or develop and quit, you should be able to tell pretty much without a doubt by day 14, but sometimes I leave them until day 18 if I am unsure and candle again.

Glad everything is going good!

 

[enggass]

Thanks Kim,
As I said, it looks as though there is more going on than when I set them, but no details can be seen to speak of.
What I think was the yolk when I set them appeared as a dark ball, bot that dark mass has grown considerably and the air sac is much more visible.

 

[pinkchick]

This sounds like good news Steve! A couple of times I have picked one or two eggs from a set and candled them every couple of days to watch development and yes it seems in the first few days that the yolk appears to be getting more mass and a little darker...may seem like you can't see anything to amount to right now, but sometime by day 5-7 (depending on egg color...it's much easier to watch in a light egg

) you can already see a little black blob in there, then by day 8-10 you can see even more of a little black blob and with all hopes you can see that little blob moving around too. Wait until you see what's going on in there on days 14 or 15 or depending on when you decide to candle again. It's cool to see what we can see when we peek in. One of lifes little miracles.

 

[koakritters]

hi, this was my first time candling too, and i am on day 11 (with some days of too low temp so i think i'm behind a bunch...

) and i have brown eggs. I still can't see the veining, but I can definitely see something moving, what looks like a heart beating!!! I have others that definitely have nothing inside them, and now it's obvious that something is growing in the others.