Strange Candling

[Ch1cken Tender]

Hi, folks! I was candling some of my incubator eggs today, and I found that their development looks a bit strange. Any ideas on why they look this way?

Here are some photos of one of the eggs -

 

[Susan Skylark]

Could you describe the abnormalities you are seeing as well as stage of incubation ? The top one has a big dent between the growing tissue but air cells and veins look normal, may just be at an awkward stage of development and perfectly normal. I’ve seen a few day 4-6 quail eggs that have a temporary “dent” like that and they do fine, they also get “sludgy” at that stage, oozing when turned, just a difference in the viscosity of embryo and egg fluids. If it is early days yet, just give it time.

 

[Ch1cken Tender]

Could you describe the abnormalities you are seeing as well as stage of incubation ? The top one has a big dent between the growing tissue but air cells and veins look normal, may just be at an awkward stage of development and perfectly normal. I’ve seen a few day 4-6 quail eggs that have a temporary “dent” like that and they do fine, they also get “sludgy” at that stage, oozing when turned, just a difference in the viscosity of embryo and egg fluids. If it is early days yet, just give it time.

The “dent” in the egg was the only abnormal thing that I was seeing, so it’s good to hear that it’s probably just fine!

I’ve had to guess the day the eggs are on in terms of incubation because the hen that had been setting on them left them… My best guess is that they are on day 15 at the earliest.

Also, I just discovered that the incubator these eggs have been in was getting a bit wonky on humidity and temperature. I hadn’t put in a secondary humidity/temperature gauge because mine was in another incubator, but I got curious because of the eggs’ appearance. So, I switched that gauge over to this incubator. The gauge said that the temperature was at 98.5 degrees and humidity was at 70%. I’m not sure how long this has been going on. How do you think it will affect the hatch?

 

[Susan Skylark]

I wouldn’t worry about humidity but low temp slows development or may kill eggs. If that is day 15 I don’t think it looks healthy (should be much further along/bigger/darker). Try to get the temp up and watch how they progress, if they are late that is normal in this situation. Hopefully it is just a much younger egg developing slowly due to low temp and interrupted incubation. If development stops or doesn’t progress then you obviously have issues but if they keep going prognosis should be pretty good.

 

[FarmerGirl101]

I think they are likely less than day 15 when comparing these candling photos to the day by day candling photos.

 

[Ch1cken Tender]

I wouldn’t worry about humidity but low temp slows development or may kill eggs. If that is day 15 I don’t think it looks healthy (should be much further along/bigger/darker). Try to get the temp up and watch how they progress, if they are late that is normal in this situation. Hopefully it is just a much younger egg developing slowly due to low temp and interrupted incubation. If development stops or doesn’t progress then you obviously have issues but if they keep going prognosis should be pretty good.

Good to know! Thank you.