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Candling Eggs..?

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Guest:
I have Blue Wheatens in my incubator on day 6. I use a big Maglite to candle, which works great w/ all other eggs except these, can\'t see a thing, but I can make out the air cells. Is this an indication they are developing? Anyone have any suggestions?

bantamhill:
You should be able to see very small blood vessels.

Bantam

Mike Gilbert:
If the eggs are truly blue and not green, you should be able to see some embryo development.    The air cells are a good sign, but wait four days and try it again.

Guest:
I think the problem may be with using a standard MagLite. What you want in a candler is three things: 1. the light concentrated, 2. powerful light; and 3. eggs kept away from the heat of the light.

If you notice commercially available candlers from the cheap to the expensive, the light shines through a tube.

If you want to use the MagLite, first thing, I would do is change out the bulb and put in an LED bulb -- you can upgrade a MagLite to LED -- all of them -- you\'ll get 5x or more the brightness out of the light, with less heat. I would do this for all the other uses you put your MagLite(s) to, so it\'s a worthwhile investment.

I\'m definitely going to do it to mine, especially when I take up night flying once more (I won\'t do that till I have my instrument rating, but that\'s another conversation for another board).

Next if you really want to go crazy...go to a pilot supply store and get a plastic tube that affixes to the MagLite to make it a flight line baton -- now you don\'t use this to mashall your chickens ;) but you set the egg atop the tube.

Failing that, eggcartons.com sells a small candler with a 4-watt bulb (incandescent) for about $10.

Do your candling in a darkened room, also.

--Ron

Guest:
I too use a maglight, but I take electric tape, the black stuff, and tape off all but a small 1/4\" x 1/4\" hole then candle. By blocking the light scouce, you concentrate it and can see much better. I candeled my Marans the same way, and their eggs were much darker. Good luck!

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