Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Cool-light plug-in.
You can purchase any number of handheld electric candlers re-
sembling a small flashlight of sorts. One cool-light device resembles a bike handlebar
cover with a small 7-watt high-intensity indicator bulb inside. With this candler, you can
leave the eggs in the incubator and place the open end of the candler on top of each egg
to check the viability.
A homemade wooden candler (cutaway)
How to Candle
A week from the first day of incubation of any fowl's egg, take the following steps to
candle an egg.
1.
Take a carton of eggs into a dark room.
2.
Place the large, rounded, air-sac end of one egg against the hole on the candling
device.
3.
Examine the egg.
Held in this position, the light illuminates the entire egg, allowing you to see inside.
The empty air sac can be seen on the large end, and if blood vessels have begun to de-
velop, you'll see them as well. A properly growing egg has a dark central disk — the
growing embryo — and blood vessels extending outward away from the disk in all dir-
ections.
If you don't feel confident determining the health of the embryo at seven days, wait
another week and you'll see a much darker, much larger embryo developing. At the very
least, candle the eggs when they're moved to the hatcher, three days before the end of
