Candling Chicken Eggs Step-by-step

1.    Wash your hands thoroughly. Eggs are porous, and bacteria from your hands can penetrate the egg and kill any life inside. Make sure your hands are super clean before you start!

 

2. Take an egg from the incubator and carefully place the larger end directly above the light. Hold the egg gently near the top with your thumb and forefinger. 

 

3.    Gently rotate the egg, tilting it slightly to one side until you can find the best view. Note: darker colored eggs such as brown, blue, or green are much harder to see through and may require you to wait until the embryo has developed further and you can see it more clearly. 

 

4.    Check the eggs for any cracks or marks and then look for the air sac and mark with a pencil the line between the sac and the fluid in the egg. This will help you compare the size of the air sac as you go along.

 

5.    Mark the egg with a number using only a pencil, never a pen or sharpie because the ink can penetrate the shell.

 

6.    Depending on the date in which you candle look for signs of development.

 

7.    Carefully place the egg back into the incubator. 

 

8.    Make a notation for each egg.

 

The most vital key is having “soft” hands and delicately handling the eggs. Of course, the less you hold the eggs, the less chance there is of cracks or mishaps.

 

Day 10

The chick is growing and moving some. The air cell has expanded. There will also be a large black blob, which is an eye.

 

Days 10-17

If you candle daily, you can watch the chick getting bigger and bigger day by day, until it takes up so much of the egg you can’t see much anymore!