When candling an egg what do you look for?

[royturkcross]

I had a hen that was acting broody but wasn't laying so I seperated her from the others. Well then she started laying and I now have 19 eggs which I gave to her about 3 days ago but she is not laying yet!

(maybe I'm just being impatient!)

I seen on a previous thread to candle the eggs to check for fertility. What am I looking for when candling? Is there a better time in the day to candle the eggs? (All my eggs are in the nest waiting for someone to sit on them, so I work on turkey schedule.) I don't own a candle so any suggestions on how to make at home would be great.

Also I have seen you can move the eggs to the nest you prefer but is that maybe why she is not laying is because she does not like her nest (my older hen just hatched 11 poults in that nest box 5 weeks ago) but maybe this hen is pickier!! Thanks for any advice.

 

[duckyfromoz]

The eggs actually need to be incubated for a number of days before you can see the evidence of fertilization. You can break them open to look at the yolk- but you cant tell from candling an egg if it is fertile or not unless the embryo has been growing for a few days 5 -7 days is a good time to candle. At that stage you can see a vein network starting to spread- and the tiny embryo. You can even see the little pulses caused by the heart if you watch carefully.

 

[ColbyNTX]

If you are not going to incubate them, then just let them be and the hens will do their thing. If you incubate then, then don't candle before day 10 or you might think you have a bunch of duds. They won't look like a chicken egg by day 5-7 because their incubation is a week longer so they develope slower.