Candling a Chick Egg at Day 16

Incubated eggs are candled to see how the growing embryos are doing. We candle by holding the egg up to a very bright light in a dark room. The light doesn't hurt the embryo.
This chicken embryo is sixteen (16) days old. When you watch the video, see if you notice:
* The air sac inside the egg.
* The 16-day old chicken embryo (see how much bigger it is than the 11-day old embryo) moving inside the egg. The movements are much stronger and if you look closer you can see the legs and feet kicking!
* The blood vessels are very easy to see now

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Embryology
• chicken
• chick
• egg
• cam
• embryo
• candling
• candle
• 4-H
• youth
• University
• of
• Nebraska
• Lincoln
• UNL
• Extension

[chipmunk11271]

ok so i just candled my eggs at day 15 and the 1 was moving like crazy but the other 1 not at all that i could tell? so do u know if this is normal or is my overreacting and freaking out for good reason?

[4HLancasterNE]

@chipmunk11271 It's hard to tell from just one candling whether the embryo is alive or not. Sometimes they will move a lot....sometimes not at all. Movement is not the only thing to look for. Do you see some nice healthy blood vessels? If so the embryo is probably healthy. Early embryonic death will begin to look quite different than normal development...you will start to see dark "globby" areas that don't have independent movement but will follow the movement you create handling the egg.

[CaseyPovey]

Hi, I just candled one of my eggs thats at 12 days. its not a white egg but a brown slightly speckled egg. The air sac is as expected. I saw the shape of the embryo very well and lots of vasculature but it all looked quite dark and wasnt moving...Im afraid its dead but hoping otherwise...and idea??

[tvshowuploader3]

UM did u got this chicken froma grocery store or a farm? is it ok if I can see the blood vessels with a light or something then put it towards the egg shell to check it is alive?

[chipmunk11271]

@4HLancasterNE well earlier that day they were fine and for somereason felt the need to ck them again later when i was turning and when i looked i could still see the blood vessels didn't look ne different than the other 1 but the chick its self almost took up the entire shell so i couldn't see much at all today is day 16 for me i will ck when i get home again....keep ur fingers crossed for me

[URAbunnylover2]

wow you can see the feet and everything!! my egg candler is not that bright, so when i candle eggs past day 14 you cant really see. lol