The eggs were put into the incubator on Sunday at lunchtime. 
Here they are in front of the candling torch four days later. Now this is way too early of course and the wrong way around.
One should candle the egg from the large end where the chick actually grows. Like this. (below) 
They recommend waiting seven days, some say 72 hours, but it is fun to see if we can see any changes. Plus the images look kind of cool.
The header image and this one COULD be the embryo sac developing. Or the blood ring of a dead egg. Or just a darkness in the shell. Who knows. I am sure we will all get better at this and I know there are a few of you out there who alreay know how to candle eggs so we will learn from you.
But in a week or so I do need to isolate and discard any dead eggs, we do NOT want explosions in the incubator.
In the first week of an embryo’s life they are kind of fragile so I have to be VERY GOOD and leave them alone until I get back from California, then we will look at these two again and see if there have been any changes.
This was yesterday. Quite beautiful in a monochrome kind of way. This did not stop The Cadet and I from doing our work though.
Benjamin (as promised) here are my boots. Icebug has not paid me to promote these boots – though I would not mind if they did. But they are solidly made, warm, not waterproof, made for the ice and they keep me on my pins. Mainly due to the pins in the soles. Not for wearing inside!
I hope you all have lovely day.
Your friend on the farm
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
44 responses to “What do you think?”
Beautiful and intriguing header and candling photos. I love boots… there are different boots for various situations. It’s always good to know what brands wear comfortably yet are rugged to take what we put them through.
Hurry home from California! I’m anxious to see the shell candling too.
They are some serious boots, just what you need in this weather. The egg photos are fascinating, but I will not be counting chickens before they are hatched. I am in kindergarden when it comes all this learning.
I’ve candled thousands of eggs, working with my 4-H poultry judging teams. Also I raise show bantams and routinely candle eggs. Once you experiment a little, you’ll not have any problem with this. You aren’t going to have an exploder early on, that would be later. Those are usually eggs that sat in the incubator past the due date. Bantam eggs can be candled as early as 4 days, but it takes at least 5 days for large fowl eggs. You will definitely see some veins forming at that stage. If none of the eggs are fertile, it’s a little harder, but if even one IS fertile, you will see the difference. When you’re first learning and you’re not sure of what you see, break the egg into a bowl (as a sacrifice) and check it. By 7-10 days there will be a definite difference between the fertile eggs and the blanks. To help you learn, mark the eggs you think are fertile from your first examination at 4 or 5 days, then see if you were correct later. The smallest minimag lites work best for me, they concentrate the beam of light. The most critical time with a foam incubator is about 3 days before hatch. You’ll often have live embryos up to that point, then they don’t hatch. If you wait a couple days past the hatch date and don’t see any movement in them, break them out and see what’s going on.
Thank you Jan, excellent info. I look forward to finding a fertile one so I can compare.. we will see when i get home I guess .. at that point we will be at two weeks..I love learning.. many thanks.. c
Great boots Celi! Ive never candled eggs but what a super idea!
[…] Image borrowed from Celie at the Kitchen’s Garden […]
I learn the most amazing things while drinking coffee early in the morning… but I have to stop thinking about this before I make my breakfast eggs!
Oh I miss having chickies and little chicks 😦
chica and chicks!
Love the pictures. Have a great trip!
I leave Saturday after noon so you have me for a few days yet!!.. c
Well plan a trip to Ohio…would be happy to have you.
The photos of the eggs are superb. I think the top one should definitely be ear-marked as a calendar or postcard photo. Fascinating to see you peeping inside the eggs. I’d never heard of candling before. Does this mean it used to be done with an actual candle?