Candling Guide
Candling Equipment and more
Often incubation is overlooked as an obscure process, mostly because the growth process is occurring 'behind closed doors' inside the chicken egg shell. When in reality, the quality of a quail is only as good as the egg from which it is hatched, for which proper breeding and diet.
Being able to follow the development of a chick from such an early stage as candling might help us understand the growth process and result in improvement of incubation results. Having an insight of viewing the internal contents of an egg is called the process of candling.
This name originates from the times where candles were used at a light source used in the earlier days of development of the incubation process. Candling an egg is as simple as, in a very dark room, holding up the blunt end of a chicken egg up to a strong LED candling torch allow the light to penetrate the shell and illuminate the inside of an egg.
When is it best to candle?
Make notes about your incubation and candling observations so that you will be able to remember what to do next time.
Of great importance in candling is the experience factor. Don’t worry too much if you don’t get all of it the first time, repetition, comparing and readjusting is key to getting the most out of this process.
After a little while, you will see the chicken eggs that are different and be able to tell a good one from a dud.
The first time is prior to setting the chicken eggs. This enables the observation of the freshness of the chicken eggs, which relates to storage conditions. Remove eggs with faults.
The second time is 1/3 way through incubation. This will indicate the infertile or clear chicken eggs, and will give the first humidity indication.
The third candling is after 2/3 through incubation. This will give a good idea of the continued development, and the critical moisture indicator. This is the last chance for humidity adjustment.
The fourth time is at the transfer to hatcher (3 days before hatch for chicken eggs). For other species, candle about three days before due hatch date. This candle will indicate that the humidity has been correct and that all is well.
When candling, compare the air cell size to the image above. If the air cell is not tracking well, such as the air cell is too small then reduce humidity in incubator.
