when looked under a candle, what if it's all black ?

[MamaChic21]

Broody mom on her 23rd day, about to go in the nest box and check her eggs under a candle or a flash light, does that matter ? Secondly, what if it's all black and I can't see nothing inside, what does that mean ?

 

[funnybirds]

it could mean they are ready to hatch any minute and so the small air sac is all you should see, if her eggs arent impossible to see through. Are they brown or colored eggs? Those are way harder to see through in my humble and very inexperianced opinion.

 

[MamaChic21]

Their very light brown, close to tan color. Waiting for my hubby to come from work, so he could hold the mother hen, and I could look at the eggs

 

[funnybirds]

I will keep my fingers crossed for you. Do you have a really good flashlight and an empty clean flower pot?
Thats what I have been using and it works really well.

 

[MamaChic21]

Thank you I do have few flash lights. Do you put the flower pot upside down and egg in the middle with the flash light on the bottom ? How does that work, like that ?

Nope, nothing :-( just came back from the nest box and checked 2 eggs of hers and I couldn't see anything

 

[minihorse927]

You didn't see anything as inside the egg looks black or the egg is to dark to tell?

 

[MamaChic21]

there was nothing, no black or anything. Maybe I looked at it wrong

I held the egg and another with flash light to all sides of the egg, and nothing. It looked like an egg you'll see when it was day light, like that

 

[SpringChickens]

If it truly was all black, that's a good sign. What I look for is the air cell - that should be light while the rest of the egg is impossible to see through. You'll also need a very strong flashlight - a weak one is much more difficult to use, especially for someone just learning.

Good luck.

 

[Tala]

Quote:
You should be shining the light THROUGH the egg, um, it shouldn't look like an egg out in daylight. You should be candling in a dark room, and the egg itself should "glow" there shouldn't be any light shining on the outside of the shell "like it's daylight"

Read this sticky with pictures, might help https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=261876

 

[MamaChic21]

I've saved that website and nothing I saw today looked like that. It's almost day 24 and no sign of hatching. It's sad, as family, we all got too excited even my husband who thinks he doesn't like animals. ( I think he does, he knows if he shows me, there will be a lot more pets around ;-) Tomorrow, I will get a stronger flash light. Now what if after few days, if it doesn't hatch, what then ?