Today marked the end of the first week for Pavelle and her eggs. With the exception of Abby’s first-time hatch, I have been candling once a week leading up to Lock Down, to give me a better idea of how many chicks to anticipate. Nothing was more disappointing than finding out Ava’s egg was infertile and that Pip was destined to be a singleton chick. (Of course, he has made up for it by being a good big brother to Abby’s subsequent hatches, so there is that.)
In preparation for Little Dude’s 4-H eggs, I have made a first time attempt at photographing the eggs as we candled them.
It’s only a week out and it’s kind of difficult at this point to accurately predict. Also, the darker the egg shell, the harder it is to really tell what’s going on in there.
Luckily for Pavelle, her eggs are white-shelled and came out fairly clear. You can see signs of development in all three eggs, which is promising.
Padme’s Easter Egger greens, however, are difficult. I had a hard time with them when we gave some to Abby, too. #1 and #3 are dark, with an outline. This is how Abby’s EE eggs were, the ones that hatched. I didn’t see much in the way of veins or anything with those very dark ones, but I got babies out of them. I’m going to say, for now, that they have babies. #2 — appears to be clear and empty. I don’t see anything at all going on in there. I’m going to wait until next Tuesday to level a final verdict on it.
But for now, I’m predicting five chicks.
There a Chick 
Ooh fun! Great photos! Candling is a sometimes puzzling yet very helpful thing: either filling us with hope or preparing us for a disappointing reality. If only they all had easy-to-see-through egg shells though! It is interesting to see the difference between Padme’s clear, presumably dud egg and her dark ones. Things are looking good for your hatch, which is awesome. 🙂
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I can only base my assumption of the dark ones off Abby’s really dark one. I assumed it was a dud and marked it with a ? But it was the first to hatch.
I don’t know why they are dark like that, though. You’d think the pale green or blue eggs would be more like a white in terms of opacity, but instead it’s almost easier to candle one of the brown ones!
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Hehe. I wonder if it’s to do with the blue/green colour or the thickness of the shell. Or both.
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It could very well be either. I don’t of anyone else candling EE eggs so I can’t ask to compare. Wish I did.
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Have you tried googling it? Looks like blue eggs are hard to candle in general!
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It does appear that way. I definitely have noticed that the shells are very sturdy.
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I have candled blue eggs. I think it is to do with the thickness of the shell that they are so hard to candle. I saw what you have seen and one had a chick and one didn’t. They were so hard to see, the whole top of the egg was a black out from the beginning. The brown and white eggs were so much easier. Having tried to crack blue eggs for baking I can attest to the thickness of those shells! Not suprising you can’t see through!
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They are a different kind of egg and shell, aren’t they? Wish me luck!
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