I have 90 eggs in the incubator; this is the 12th day. Today I candled the eggs (100 Watt bulb in homemade candler) and had 15 brown eggs that were infertile or had stopped developing. But about a dozen of the eggs are green and I can't see anything but the airspace inside the egg. I'm a bit nervous about the thought of a rotten egg blowing up in there, though I never have had it happen in about 6 incubations, back when I didn't know how to candle them.

Is it possible to candle these green eggs? In a darker room with a brighter bulb? Anyone had any luck seeing anything?

Thanks,

-- Elizabeth in E TX (kimprice@peoplescom.net), March 04, 2002

Answers

If you get good advice,let me know.I have 6 green eggs in the incubator right now,and can only see the air space. BTW,I'm in Leona(halfway between Houston and Dallas on 45)What area are you in? Johna

-- Johna(East Tx,too) (marcnjohna@aol.com), March 04, 2002.

Can you make a candler with the "coffee can and flashlite" method? Works well on mallard eggs. Info on making one: go to www.poultryconnection.com and click on LINKS. go to Quackers Home Page, and head for incubating and what not. What fun and how exciting! I won't be getting ducklings until April! I'll just have to read about all your peeps and quacks! LOL LQ

-- Little Quacker (carouselxing@juno.com), March 04, 2002.

Johna, I'm more northeast than you, north of Tyler, south of I-30. After doing some reading I think maybe it'd be possible to tell non- viable green eggs by comparing the size of the airspace with brown eggs that I know have living embryos. It seems that a bad egg will have a larger airspace than the ones with developing embryos, at least on the seventh day, which I've already missed. I don't know if that'd be the same whether it was an egg that was simply infertile, or one in which the embryo had died. I may try tomorrow night again (husband's asleep in the incubator room now)and crack open the green egg with the largest air space to see what there is to see.

Little Quacker, I love your site! I really must get some ducks next! I have a pretty good homemade candler made with a small cardboard box, but that green shell is so dense I just can't see. You have a link on your site to an antenna device to put on an egg, but I think that's to see if the chick is ready to pip--it looks as though it's for detecting movement--really cool though!

I will keep you guys posted on my green egg experiment. I've spent the evening searching the Internet and the only words of wisdom I've found is that it's more difficult to candle eggs with dark shells, which is no help at all.

-- Elizabeth in E TX (kimprice@peoplescom.net), March 05, 2002.

A mag flashlight in a dark room works well. But on some of the darker colors, be it blue, green, brown, or whatever, it's still a bit difficult.

-- ~Rogo (rogo2222@hotmail.com), March 05, 2002.

I candle eggs by putting the large end of an egg into the end of an empty toilet paper tube and then shine a bright flashlight (like the "Mag" mentioned above) into the other end. Losing 27 eggs on an incubation of 90, isn't really that bad of a loss. I would dispose of any eggs that are questionable...Then you can rest at ease about explosions....Phew! The smell of an exploding rotten egg...No thanks!

-- Harmony (harmonyfarm57@hotmail.com), March 05, 2002.

Maybe this page showing Candling of Ostrich Eggs, http://nzfarmstays.com/candle.html will provide some info., seems that much can be seen when candling the thick ostrich egg shells, just changing size of dark space.

Have some green egg layers that I plan to incubate before long and would appreciate your feed back on this.

-- BC (desertdweller44@yahoo.com), March 05, 2002.

Hey Quacker - I tried finding your site on that durn poultryconnection and couldn't find it. would you or someone provide the url? would like to see it.

-- B. Lackie - Zone3 (cwrench@hotmail.com), March 05, 2002.

A question for Little Quacker, Every time I pull up poultry connection and try to get into links or the ones under interaction which have exhibitions leghorn forum and warerfowl forun, general waterfowl forum and poultry forum I get thrown into Best Sellers at Amazon. com and cannot get back to poultry connection, I have to x out, Do you have any known reason why I cannot bring up these titles? Has anyone else have an answer for me? Mary

-- Mary (marwel@microserve.net), March 05, 2002.

Firstly, here is the addy for Quackers Home Page: http://www.poultryconnection.com/quackers/index.html. I should tell you that is not My home page. It is the effort of a good friend who is wonderfully talented! LOL I when I read the post about trying to get to the LINKS I went right back to TPC and did click on that and went right to what I was looking for, so I don't know what the problem is from your end. I am so lame with computers! I would go to TPC, and e mail Tim, the webmaster and ask him. He is a patient and helpful person, not unlike Chuck. LOL I know he will do his best to try and figure out what is happening. There are so many great links there it can keep you busy for weeks just checking them all out. Blue Hen Farm, Dogwood Acres, Janes Cottage etc. etc. Have fun. LQ

-- Little Quacker (carouselxing@juno.com), March 06, 2002.

Well, people, I tried again but just can not see anything inside my green eggs. I'm going to just leave them all and hope for the best; at least the shells are all thick and strong. Day 16 today so they don't have long to go. Thanks for all the input, and I'll let you all know how my hatch went!

-- Elizabeth in E TX (kimprice@peoplescom.net), March 08, 2002.