Candling is a way to check and see if an egg is fertile and growing. Its pretty simple, you need a dark room or area and a very bright light. There are fancy machines you can by to do this or you can use a little LED flashlight. I opted for the LED method. Basically you take a flash light and place the less pointy end of the egg against the light. You then look to see if you can see anything. Depending on where the egg is in incubation process you will see a little dot or it may be mostly opaque. There are many charts available online to help you determine the status of your eggs.
The first egg I checked was opaque and I could even see a vessel looking thing. Then I checked 3 more eggs. Each time it was the same. I finally stopped when Momma hen started to growl at me. I did not want to upset the Momma.
Well, the eggs are fertile or at least they were. I couldn't figure out what went wrong. Momma has been great the entire time. The eggs were very fresh and came from a reputable breeder. So I decided to give it 2 more days.
By Saturday there was still nothing. I figured it was a fail. I was bummed but I guess that's what happens in the chicken business. Later that day I sat down on my computer and checked the Facebook page for Independence Urban Farm. Facebook recently added some new metrics to their business pages so that owners can see how well they are advertising which spurred me to look at some of the old posts.
That was when I saw it. I got the eggs on March 26th which meant they eggs were not finished yet!!! In fact there still 3-4 days away from hatching! I was relieved, my little eggs still have a very good chance. Momma is still doing great and we know at least 4 eggs are fertile.
With any luck this Wednesday, April 17th we will have 10 baby chicks. Once again we are counting our chickens before they hatch.
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