Topic of the Week - Candling Eggs

Another great topic!

- What do you use to candle eggs?
Brinsea Ovascope
Ovacombo.jpg ova_1.png


- What about candling dark shelled eggs?
Sometimes I'll use a second flashlight, but the Brinsea is pretty bright.

- When do you start candling eggs?
Depends on the eggs. High-value eggs, like pea eggs, or turkey eggs, I wait until day 5-7. Mutt chicken eggs and duck eggs I might start candling at day 2-3 just for grins. :D

- What do you look for when candling and what are the signs you need to give up on an egg? (I.e. what is normal, what are the warning signs, etc).
Hmmm, this I can probably explain better with pictures. Let me see what I can do to find some good pictures that show what I look for.

One thing I'd like to mention, and I speak from experience, is that every time you open the incubator you run the risk of damaging your eggs, and what I mean by that is accidents happen, like dropping eggs, or dropping stuff onto your eggs. Imagine how sick I felt when I dropped a shipped pea egg on day 25 and it started leaking blood through all the cracks. :hit
 
Another great topic!

- What do you use to candle eggs?
Brinsea Ovascope
View attachment 1376356 View attachment 1376357


- What about candling dark shelled eggs?
Sometimes I'll use a second flashlight, but the Brinsea is pretty bright.

- When do you start candling eggs?
Depends on the eggs. High-value eggs, like pea eggs, or turkey eggs, I wait until day 5-7. Mutt chicken eggs and duck eggs I might start candling at day 2-3 just for grins. :D

- What do you look for when candling and what are the signs you need to give up on an egg? (I.e. what is normal, what are the warning signs, etc).
Hmmm, this I can probably explain better with pictures. Let me see what I can do to find some good pictures that show what I look for.

One thing I'd like to mention, and I speak from experience, is that every time you open the incubator you run the risk of damaging your eggs, and what I mean by that is accidents happen, like dropping eggs, or dropping stuff onto your eggs. Imagine how sick I felt when I dropped a shipped pea egg on day 25 and it started leaking blood through all the cracks. :hit
What is the lumen number on this?
How many lumens is the light?
(I don't know the proper way to ask about the brightness level:oops:)
 
What do you use to candle eggs?
20180507_155648.jpg

What about candling dark shelled eggs?
I don't know of the Cortornix Quail Eggs count but alot of them are very hard to see through some times. And since I got this candler it has been alot easier. Just have to be in a very dark room.

When do you start candling eggs?

I get so impatient I start at day 5 and candle about every 4-5 days until lockdown.

What do you look for when candling
I look for veins and signs of life and make sure the embryo is growing.
and what are the signs you need to give up on an egg? (I.e. what is normal, what are the warning signs, etc)
I wont usually give up on an egg unless I know its 100% not growing. Usually if there is no growth whatsoever in the eggs, really bad cracks in the eggs, bad blood rings and no progress.
 
I'm still new at incubating as I've done less than a dozen batches but I'll give my input.

-What do you use to candle eggs?
I use an egg candler that plugs into the wall. i originally bought it because it has different adapters to use on quail versus chicken eggs. Now I just use the one adapter on both kinds.

- What about candling dark shelled eggs?
I use the same candler on my Marans eggs but I usually can't see anything until day 14.

- When do you start candling eggs?
I candle before setting to check for cracks. I then candle on days 7, 14, and 18 for chicken eggs. For quail it's just days 7 and 14. I have to be very careful about humidity because I live in a very dry climate and use the dry incubation method so I don't like to open the incubator more than necessary.

- What do you look for when candling and what are the signs you need to give up on an egg? (I.e. what is normal, what are the warning signs, etc)
Like I said I'm still new, but the first thing I always look for is veins. I keep a record and mark all the eggs with + for clear veining, X for glowing eggs (usually means infertile), and a ? for unknowns (Marans eggs usually get ? or X) . Then on day 14 I check to see if there is a dark shadow forming and will check my old notes to compare. On day 18 I look for an almost full egg and put any potentials into lockdown. I also use the time while candling to weight the eggs. I do this instead of tracking air cell growth to make sure the egg has lost enough weight.

I don't take out any eggs until day 14. If an egg is clear/glowing or has a huge blood ring it is removed. Any that are questionable are left in. If an egg doesn't have a nice large shadow by day 18 it is removed.

This year I have also encountered detached air cells, but only on those a broody is setting. Those eggs are not due to hatch yet so I'm not sure how they'll fair but I left them to the broody.
 
- What do you use to candle eggs?
I use an ordinary flashlight. I see no reason to use anything fancier because an normal little LED flashlight works great as long as it's not too bright or too dim (many of ours are actually TOO bright).

- When do you start candling eggs?
I don't like candling too often because I use a broody bird and I don't like bothering her more than I need to. I candle for the first time at 7 days (by that time there's almost always clear blood vessels in a good egg), then again at 14 days. That's it.

- What do you look for when candling and what are the signs you need to give up on an egg? (I.e. what is normal, what are the warning signs, etc)
I look for blood vessels. If there's none and all I see is a yolk, it's probably not fertile (or was laid too recently). If there's a clear blood ring, I remove it. If I'm not sure whether it's good or not, I usually keep it and then check again a week later. I don't know a whole lot, so that's all I look for, but so far I've had almost a 100% fertility AND hatch rate.
 

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