What is the best egg candler for coturnix quail eggs?

[luludaxia]

According to your experience, what is the best egg candler for coturnix quail eggs. The one I am using now (no brand) sometimes I found it is not bright enough to see through the eggs.

 

[le_bwah]

According to your experience, what is the best egg candler for coturnix quail eggs. The one I am using now (no brand) sometimes I found it is not bright enough to see through the eggs.

I didn't like the cheap candler I got online, so I "made" one using some cardboard and my phone's more powerful light.

Cut out a piece of cardboard that will fit over a phone/other bright light source, poke a tiny hole in the cardboard (maybe a little wider than a pencil lead) and tape it to your light source. With this method, I was able to see the first blood vessels forming, the beating hearts, and the final air cells.

Coturnix eggs are also just notoriously hard to candle, no matter what you're using. All you really need is enough light to tell the "empties" and "quitters" from the live birds.

 

[Fishkeeper]

You could probably rig any bright flashlight into a good candler.

 

[ChristineR]

I think a little mag light works best. I bought a little egg candler at the feed store thinking it would be better, but it's not bright enough. I've tried other lights, too, and have found that the little mag light is most effective.

Edited to add: I haven't candled quail eggs, but this worked great for tiny Serama eggs.

 

[luludaxia]

I think a little mag light works best. I bought a little egg candler at the feed store thinking it would be better, but it's not bright enough. I've tried other lights, too, and have found that the little mag light is most effective.

Edited to add: I haven't candled quail eggs, but this worked great for tiny Serama eggs.

Does serema chicken lay white eggs? The candler I am using now has no problem to see through white chicken or duck eggs, but when it comes to quail eggs, the patterns on the quail eggs gave me a hard time. I checked on e-bay, amazon, there are many brands, all claimed themselves the best, I do not know which one to choose.

 

[ChristineR]

Does serema chicken lay white eggs? The candler I am using now has no problem to see through white chicken or duck eggs, but when it comes to quail eggs, the patterns on the quail eggs gave me a hard time. I checked on e-bay, amazon, there are many brands, all claimed themselves the best, I do not know which one to choose.

They're not speckled like quail, but I've found the mag light to work best on everything. I can see through thick goose egg shells with it, too.

 

[luludaxia]

You could probably rig any bright flashlight into a good candler.

I saw people using iphone flash light to candle quail eggs, it looks nice. But I don't have an iphone. I tried my Sumsung, didn't seem to work very well.

 

[ManitobaQuail]

Honestly, iPhone flashlight has worked THE BEST for us candling quail eggs. We candle ours on day 7 and that's the only time we candle them.

 

[le_bwah]

I saw people using iphone flash light to candle quail eggs, it looks nice. But I don't have an iphone. I tried my Sumsung, didn't seem to work very well.

I've got a Samsung that wasn't cutting it until I made a "seat" for the egg. Cut a pinhole in some plastic/cardboard so the light doesn't "bleed" out around the egg—I've seen some people use a play-dough ring for a light-tight seal.

Also, make sure you're viewing in a darkened space for best contrast—I pop into my furnace room for a full-dark viewing.

 

[TheLaboratoryBF]

+1 for iPhone flashlight. I used mine on a batch of 24 eggs I incubated in February and was able to see into each one. As others have said, make sure you're candling in a dark room. For the heavily speckled eggs, I made a ring with my index finger and thumb, placed that over the flashlight output, then set the egg on that "ring"; worked great.