Candling is a process of shining a light through the shell of an egg to inspect the contents of the egg. You must performs candling to determine if the guinea fowl egg are fertile or infertile. The shells of guinea fowl eggs is thick and dark, which means that you must use a high-output candling light to view the contents of the egg.
If the light that you use during the candling process are not bright enough, you wont be able to view the contents of the egg. You should perform candling at specific interval during the incubation period. One of the first interval at which you should perform candling is at day seven of incubation.
How to Candle Guinea Fowl Eggs
At day seven, you should look for a dark spot in the center of the egg and red veins surrounding that spot. If you can view these elements with your candling light, the guinea fowl egg is fertile. If the guinea fowl egg is clear and does not have any red vein within the egg, then the egg is infertile.
You should remove these infertile eggs from the incubator to prevent them from rotting and presenting health problem to the fertile guinea fowl eggs within the incubator. The second interval at which you should perform candling is at day fourteen of incubation. At this time, the embryo inside the egg should be larger and contain more densly veins than it did at day seven.
Additionally, you should look for the air cell located at the blunt end of the egg. If the embryo inside of the egg do not move when you observe it with a candling light, the embryo is dead. In addition, you should look for the presence of a red ring within the eggshell.
The presence of a red ring indicate that the embryo in that egg has died as a result of temperature change or rough handling of the egg. If you spot such a red ring within the egg, you should immediately remove the egg from the incubator. Finally, it is important to monitor the size of the air cell within the incubating guinea fowl egg.
The air cell within the guinea fowl egg will become larger as the egg lose moisture. At the third week of incubation, the air cell should be approximately one-third of the space within the guinea fowl egg. If the air cell within the egg is too large, then the humidity within the incubator is likely too low.
If the air cell within the incubating guinea fowl egg is too small, then the humidity within the incubator is likely too high. Based off the size of the air cell within the eggs, you can adjust the humidity within the incubator. Because guinea fowl eggs requires longer incubation periods than chicken eggs, the eggs will hatch between 26 and 28 days after they are laid.
Chickens typically hatch after only 21 days of incubation, thus, patience is required while incubating the eggs. During the incubation period, you should be watching for any sign of trouble with the eggs. You should make records of any candling result so that you can identify issues with any of your flock.
In order to successfully incubate the eggs, you must use specific tools. A high-output candler will help you to see inside the eggs to check for embryos. A digital thermometer will help you to monitor the temperature within the incubator, as will a hygrometer to monitor the humidity within the incubator.
When you candle the eggs, hold the blunt end of the egg towards the light, and never hold the egg for more than thirty seconds. If you hold the egg for more long than thirty seconds, the embryo within the egg may drop in temperature. Following these steps and utilizing these tools will increase the number of keet that hatch from the eggs.