Was the position wrong when I candled?

[chicksgalore]

I have 26 eggs in the bator and I candled maybe 10 on Day 8. One was clear and obviously infertile. All the others looked the same. They had a dark mass on one side--however, I read that the chick should be forming in the large end of the egg. When I candled, I held the egg up and down rather than on its side and the mass was filling about one third of the egg (up and down). Any input on this?

 

[speckledhen]

Sounds normal to me. The big end will be the ever increasing aircell. And till the end, there will also be some space at the pointy end of the egg.

 

[kelseygirl707]

I'd like to know the answer to this too, that is exactly what I see in all my eggs, but I was only at day 4 when I candled, So i'm figuring it's just to early to tell yet. Except for the one small white egg I had (all the rest are brown and chocolate), it had a tiny blob with veining, YAY! But for the brown eggs, I just see a dark mass the fills the rounded end, about 1/4 - 1/3 of the egg.

I guess I'm just going to have to be patiant.

 

[buckeye lady]

That's what they should look like at this point. There will be a blob in the growing eggs usually at the top of the eggs big end. Are you turning egg or are the in a turner? If you are hand turning the blob tends to be on one side, the side that is currently up.

 

[kelseygirl707]

Quote:
Whew, that makes me happy! Yes I have the Auto turner, so I guess I'm doing good. Now at this point the only way I'd know if one wasn't developing at all is if there is no mass at all right?

 

[buckeye lady]

Yes, No mass/blob would be visible. The blob looks like a shadow.
Go to BYC learning center and check the candling eggs section.
Also- I found this website helpful-
http://www.msstate.edu/dept/poultry/avianemb.htm

 

[chicksgalore]

I am hand-turning so that would make sense buckeye lady. Great! I'm probably going to candle again on Day 14.

Also, isn't it harder to see the veins in brown or dark-colored eggs?

Kelseygirl, I also have 1 small white one and the others are brown.

 

[buckeye lady]

Light brown eggs candle pretty well. What are you candling with? I use my hand and a mini-mag lite. I have been able to candle even my Maran eggs with this method. I have not been able to candle EE eggs. You can candle everyday if you like for the first 18 days.

 

[chicksgalore]

I have a big flashlight. I tried using my hand but that seemed to shadow the egg too much. So I cut the top out of a pop can and a hole from the bottom where I set the egg (can turned upside down of course).

I'm excited to do it again--maybe tonight. There was at least one clear one I saw the other night so I'm going to take it out when I find it again. Today's Day 11.

Yesterday when I did one of my checks, the temp had hit 103.5 again.

Again, I hope this wasn't for long enough...I had dreams about this last night though that all the chicks were dead.

 

[Shiningfeather]

Quote:
I have wondered about the EE's. I have some in the bator as I type this and tried to candle 2 last nite since they were on day 10, and could really not see hardly anything. I cut a hole in a box and use a jumbo mag light. I could barely tell there was a blob, that was all I could see. It was one of the light blue eggs, I didn't even try the olive green ones. Are all EE's this hard to see, and why?