Candling eggs

[Nicos]

Not so sure I should have done this- cos they all look very different!

There is one which should be due Sun/Mon which is completely black- i reckon it's rotten- but it has no smell- I'm going to leave it but concerned it may weep???
I found this site

Candling Pictures by The Easy Chicken for beginners

but mine all seem different!

Any advice????

[BrideXIII]

well Lynda is the expert, I am sure she will be along as soon as she spots the thread
Good luck with them though.

[Flummery]

Beware of the black one - I believe they can explode!

[Nicos]

Beware of the black one - I believe they can explode!

...do they smell first??? I'd hate for it to be a fully grown chick and I crack open the shell

[Flummery]

Dunno - but I think Snadger had some experience of this.

[Birdie Wife]

Leave them under the broody - she can tell if they are duff and will usually push them out. Mark the black one with a pencil and if she pushes it out then take it away. You could mark a number on the others and keep a notebook of your observations?

[lynda66]

i found that some black ones had babies in ..... some didn't lol ..... if the egg is bad when you stick it to your nose it will smell, the ones that leaked were gross, but they start leaking slowly, the best indicator i found was the rotten ones had no air bubble, if they have an air bubble they should be ok ..... i had one egg i candled i was convinced there was nothing in, yet produced a baby ..... i gave up in the end cos i don't think i was very good at it lol

[Nicos]

It was quite funny doing it cos as I removed a couple of eggs- to disturb her less- and candled one of them, she tucked the other one back underneath her!!!
Think I must have candled about 8 times for 4 eggs!!!!

[poly]

From what I remember, if your eggs are due to hatch in a few days you would expect to see a solid black mass within the egg with a distinct area of clear/white (depends a bit on egg colour and strength of candling light) which forms the air sack to the rounded end of the egg. Which ties in with what lynda66 said. Don't know if she had access to any, but if your broody was already sitting on a clutch, could she have borrowed some eggs from your other chickens at a later date. This could account for different stages of egg development. However once chicks start to hatch and move about she will loose interest in the un-hatched eggs...

If you are taking one or two eggs at a time to candle, you could always mark them with a pen/marker pen, so you know where you are. You must have some great natured birds cos they can be a bit cross when disturbed!

Hope this is of some help

[Nicos]

Thanks for the advice!
Yup- they are real softies- they squawk when you enter the room- but then you can do what you want with them. I'm trying to leave them alone as much as poss ...but we may have babies in the next couple of days if they have developed .

The three of them are definitely sitting....there's a batch due very soon- another 10 days later and another couple of eggs the following week.
So- a potential of 11 chicks if they all hatch from 3 gals.