Hi there all, need a little candling advice. I candled my eggs at 3 days and two seemed to being going well, and the others were dark shelled so I couldn't tell. It was easy to see the veining in the eggs that I could see into.
Now it seems like the contents of all of the eggs are sort of pushed to the side, not in the middle, like they were. I still see the air sac on all of them, but the contents of the eggs seem to have settled on one side. I have these eggs under a silkie hen. Is she not turning them enough? Am I just not getting it?
Also, now I can't really see into any of the eggs, they are much darker inside. Should I start over?
I'm a candling catastrophe
BackyardHens,
I'm no chicken expert (unlike many here) but you said the eggs are under a hen so I would leave them alone. The hen will kick out any dead eggs. They just know these things. I've had lots of experience with other types of birds and the adults always know when there is a problem and will kick those eggs out of the nest.
MollyD
Hey whatcha hatching? My silkies turned some eggs so much they we shiny. I wouldn't worry like MollyD said she's toss them out.
I don't know what I'm hatching! LOL! Hopefully something!
I have a roo who is a speckled sussex and various brown egg layers, so I just hope a chick or two shows up in the next 12 days!
what has settled is the yolk. the hen knew that though LOL
Well, I figured that the yolk had settled, but does that mean that there isn't a chick inside? It does, doesn't it? I'm totally new to this, so I'm candling, but of course I don't really know what to look for... :) I just want to switch out any bad eggs so I can try again with new ones, if these ones are bad...
the chick pushes the yolk down. no chick, yolk floats
let her decide what is bad. i know how you feel. i started candling & was always clueless, even with pictures & links, till i got a GOOD candler & good eggs to look at...
i have some pics i took whie candling, they aren't very good, but i could share them later,if you like
So it is worth it to actually buy a candler?
I would start a thread about homemade ones, they are supposed to be easy to make (plus I would make one too!!) I use a flashlight in the dark.
When I had my cockatiels I use to just hold an egg up to a bare light bulb. I could see right into the eggs (of course those were white eggs).
MollyD