Broody Hatching -- Candling Eggs on Day 10

My Buff Orpington went broody and I decided to try hatching under her. The first attempt failed miserably,  and I put some eggs under her that had been destined for breakfast.

Waiting was really hard, but Day 10 is here and it is time to candle the eggs. Woo hoo!

I waited until nightfall when the chickens were settled into their roost and reluctant to stir themselves to investigate my mysterious activities. I crept up the broody cage and gently slipped eggs out from under Buffy. She was in a good mood and only pecked me a few dozen times, hardly removing any fingers.

Like everything else on my little chickeny ranch, my egg candler is improvised from available parts. In this case, I used a toilet paper tube and an LED flashlight.

Improvised Egg Candler

How to Use Improvised Egg Candler

This is what professional egg candlers look like:

One egg was pretty porous and did not seem to have any development. The other three looked about right for Day 10.

Egg Day 10

For now, I left the questionable egg on the nest, in case I learn more about candling eggs. I put the others back and rescued my fingers from the furious fowl.

There are many, many discussions on BackYardChickens.com about hatching chicks and embryo development. BYC member silkiechicken posted this excellent collection of egg candling pictures. I used it to identify the lack of development in the porous egg and the apparent health of the other eggs. BYC member shookpoultry posted this amazing animated image of embryo development.

Go Buffy go!

Update: Recandled porous egg. Think it may be viable after all. The general wisdom at BackYardChickens.com is that any egg that *might* be viable should be given a chance.

Porous egg has defined air cell and dark center

Update: Success! One hatched!! The porous one was as dead as the others. I think two weeks on the kitchen counter is not good for hatching viability....