problems candling brown eggs

A mag light works best. The small ones. I candle my marans and wellie eggs with one and they are way darker than the eggs you are talking about.

 

mags do work the best and i have to go in my bathroom where there is not a window you need total darkness. I too do marans eggs and I can see them if it is totally dark

 

Ditto on the mag lite but I got this night fishing head lamp at Wal-Mart for twenty bucks and it it really good at candeling.

 

I have not hatched eggs myself yet, but I've been doing a lot of research on BYC on how to (since I plan to hatch some soon!) Anyway, from what I've read, it seems like some folks don't candle eggs. (Especially really dark ones like Marans, where it's really hard to candle them anyway.) And that if you have an egg going bad you'll smell it before it gets to the point of exploding... or you'll see it 'weeping' or 'sweating.'

Also someone said that they ran an experiment in their school and eggs that weren't candled by students had a higher hatch rate than those that were candled...

So, hopefully you'll be able to candle using the techniques the other folks described, but if you can't.... all is not lost!

Correct me if I'm wrong, anybody I've just been reading a bunch of old candling threads...

 

I am the one that doesn't candle eggs that I want to hatch in the school. The second batch I let the students candle the eggs. I have an LED flash light that works great. I got it at Walmart, in the auto dept. It is the only thing I have found to work as good as a true egg candler. Any time you candle an egg, due it in total darkness. I never candle eggs at home and my hatch rate average is will above 85%. It is a MESS when one goes bad and blows up.

 

I'm new to this too... but have found when candling darker eggs I couldn't see life for certain until day 7.

Then like everyone says get a good strong SMALL head LED flashlight (so you can cup your hand around it) and do it in complete darkness. Also, once you identify where the air cell is, you can mark it with a pencil.. and the first signs of a chick will be on the side of the egg that the air cell is tipped/ angled the highest.

I've circled the air cell in pencil on all the eggs and when I candle later it helps me find the side quickly where the activity shows best. Also, it helps to be patient and let your eyes adjust to the darkness.. it may look ALL dark at first, but then you'll start to see the air cell and the lighter small end... and the middle area where you can see dark and lighter areas and the movement or pulsing inside the egg.

 

I no longer candle at all...my hatch rates are very good...much better than when I candled.....BUT, when I did, a mini mag light was the only way to go....................It was great fun seeing what was going on in there.....but my hatch rates improved too much to justify the "peek"..................

 

I went and got the mag light everyone talks about because it supposedly worked so well. Couldn't see a darn thing. Less than my other led flashlight I got from a camping and sports place. My solution was to use both. Set them on the wider led flashlight and then spot lighted down from the top and sides with a mini maglight.