When you want to get a sneak peek into the insides of eggs without cracking them open, egg candling becomes your best bet.
If you are a hatching addict, I understand how difficult it might be for you to see a rotten egg in the incubator. Many times, I woke up in the morning and went to clean my poultry, only to be welcomed by a stinking smell of rotten eggs. Since then, I started conducting research on how to make sure that I do not have to go through this problem ever again.
Hi! I am Stacy Smith, and today I will share my decade-long experience of how to use an egg candler. After reading this guide, you will have a good idea about what to do and what not to do when your eggs are about to hatch in a few weeks.
So, without any delay, let’s dive right in!
To help you conduct this process successfully, I have listed a few steps that have always fetched me the best results. They include:
The first and foremost step in this process is to find yourself a dark room where you can throw light on the eggs (like, literally). When using a cool-lite tester, place the light where the air sack has started to develop. This is generally present at the larger end of the eggs.
Make sure that you keep rotating the eggs slightly till you locate the area where the seal can form best. Remember that it's only the light that can give you a glimpse into the inside of the eggs when you conduct the procedure in a room that is pitch dark. Hence, this step would give you a tremendous view into the insides of the egg.
As I have already mentioned, winners are those eggs that have managed to develop into embryos. To identify if a particular egg is a ‘winner’ egg or not, the best thing to do is to try and locate a network of white-colored blood vessels.
Once you spot them, look for a dark outline at the middle of the blood vessels. This is the embryo and if you spot that, you’d immediately know that the particular egg is a definite ‘winner.’ When such eggs start developing, you might even be able to spot the embryo moving or locate dark eyes on them.
From my decade-long experience of running a backyard poultry farm, I have come to the conclusion that it is best to candle the eggs no more than two times. The first time should ideally be 6 days after placing the eggs in the incubator, and the second time should be after a week.
But keep in mind that the exact timing of the first candling will depend on the kind of eggs that you are putting in the incubator. For example, I have noticed that dark shelled eggs make it challenging to see any developments during the first few days as compared to white shelled eggs. So, it is better that you give them some more time in comparison to their white counterparts.
Likewise, conduct the second phase to check if the development process is going well and to see if the “doubtful” eggs are okay. And I would strongly recommend not to candle the eggs after 14 days, as that might cause severe damage to the embryo.
The main reason why people candle eggs is to check whether they are fertilized and if the embryo is in a growing phase. And for this, what you need is a bright light that you have to put on the shell to check if certain features are developing well.
When it comes to eggs, expecting the best hatch rate at all times is not the smartest thing to do. There will always be some eggs that do not fertilize, which are commonly known as ‘yolkers.’ Similarly, some eggs can develop completely without any trouble and are known as the ‘winners.’ And then there are some that face stunted growth during the incubation period and are popularly known as the ‘quitters.’
If you locate a quitter or a yolker, I would suggest that you remove it immediately from the incubator. In case you don’t, all the other eggs may also rot. And when the eggs start to rot, they will release a gas, which, combined with the humidity present in the incubator, might make the device explode.
This will create a stinky puddle and damage all the good eggs along with the bad ones. And that, in turn, will expose the unborn chicks to unwanted diseases.
The name of the process hardly leaves any scope for a wild guess, so no score for guessing that the most crucial element in this technique is a candle. To successfully conduct this, you have to place the eggs against the light of a glowing candle and inspect the insides of the egg with caution.
For this process, you’d also need a strong bright light that can help make a tight seal on the egg’s surface. I generally prefer making DIY lights, as they help me make all necessary adjustments. But you can also purchase them from the market.
Without any doubt, candling is a crucial process for poultry owners.
It is essential when you want to keep the eggs from exploding inside the incubator and create a stinky mess. And in warm and humid poultries, this unpleasant surprise is more than common.
So, to avoid cleaning up such a mess and losing all the good eggs, all you need to do is follow the above-mentioned steps. Plus, it is important that you identify the ‘quitters’ and ‘yolkers’ first to keep the ‘winner’ eggs safe.
If you have any other queries, feel free to reach out to me in the comments section below. Until next time, ciao!
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