Egg Candling

If you’ve ever had parrot eggs (intentionally or not), you’ve probably been curious about what’s going on inside. Candling is the process of shining a light into an egg in order to examine the contents. Obviously, this used to be done using an actual candle, but these days we have a lot more options. You don’t want to cook an egg with an actual flame trying to get a peek.

Candling is done to check if an egg is fertile or to monitor the status of a growing embryo. Long candling lights are made specifically for this purpose and are usually wand-like. That helps to reach down into a nest box without having to displace the egg or remove it from a protective mother. Whether or not your particular pair of birds is ok with you messing around in the nest box (most aren’t) determines how easy it is to go about it. The other option is an ovascopes, which is basically an egg stand lit from below. They give good results, but can’t be used  while the eggs are still in the nest box.

Otherwise, just about any decent light source can be used to candle bird eggs. The only thing to be aware of is excessive heat. Almost all small flashlights today are LED, so that shouldn’t be a problem. We have gotten into the habit of simply using the LED flashlight on our phones. The best candling light is the one you have on you at the moment!

Of course, if we want to take pictures or video to document the developing egg, that means both of us have to have our phones out. One of us holds the egg over the light while the other operates the camera. The best results will be in a dim or dark room to really see the internal details most clearly. The egg doesn’t have to be directly touching the light, but you’ll get a better view if the light isn’t spilling out past the egg and shining into your eyes. Don’t press the egg directly against a hard lens.

You can gently mark eggs with a pencil while you’re doing this, to indicate certain features like the air sac, so you can keep track of its growth. Labeling the growth every day can be a fun and educational exercise, but probably best saved for less expensive eggs, like chickens instead of taking chances with rare exotic birds. It’s also not a bad idea to label the eggs in some way so you can keep track of them when you have more than one.

Most of the information out there about egg candling is specifically geared towards chickens and other poultry, but the basic principles still apply to parrots. Whatever light source you’re using, place it at the “fat” end of the egg. This is where the air pocket should be. Slowly turn the egg over the light and look for any details inside.

If the egg is freshly lain, it will probably be much harder to detect if it’s fertile yet. That’s ok, it doesn’t hurt to let an infertile egg stay in the nest box or incubator a bit longer. After just a few days, you should have much more obvious signs. Blood vessels will start to become visible, with a darker spot toward the middle where the small embryo is located. That’s a great sign. The chick will have a good oxygen supply. No blood, no baby bird.

A fertile egg will usually be much redder after about 5 days to a week. You will probably be able to see some kind of pulsing or heartbeat. At this point, if the contents of the egg still look yellow with no sign of blood vessels, it’s safe to say it isn’t fertile and you can safely discard it, giving the parents a chance to try again. If in doubt, it’s always better to wait a little longer just in case. Don’t assume that an egg isn’t fertile because you can’t see anything happening yet. It doesn’t hurt to leave it, and you could accidentally prematurely toss out an egg that might have actually been fertile.

If you find a skinny red line around the inside of the yolk, that indicates an embryo that was fertile but isn’t anymore. For some reason, it’s not viable anymore and it just stopped growing.

Give it a try! Just be very careful and handle the eggs gently. You don’t want to drop any! Also, don’t have them out of the incubator for too long so they don’t start to cool down too much. Don’t let your curiosity tempt you to check more often than necessary. Remember that every time you open the incubator, you’re impacting the temperature and humidity. Let nature take its course, you don’t have to keep peeking inside unless you have reason to suspect possible problems.

Check out a few of our photos and videos showing what this looks like.