Seeing if eggs are fertile.

Hi all

Can someone tell me how do I check Coturnix quail eggs to see if they are fertile?
Ive noticed you cant as they are a dark shell.

Craig

if I'm fertilty testing rather then hatching I just break them open 3 days into incubation. very hard to candle until nearly at hatch point otherwise.

Candle them with a good candler in a pitch black room, then the blood vessels can be seen easily

My 3 hens all lay eggs of a slightly different colour. One lot are easy to candle, one you can just about tell if there is something there, the other you can't see a thing, no matter how dark the room and how bright the torch!

It really is best to use a purpose bought candler rather than a make shift one as they fit the egg better not letting light escape round the egg, once you know what your looking for there's not much problem seeing development at 4-7 days blood vessels and dark eye can be seen, 7 days onwards you can see the chick & vessels move until the egg is totally full ready to hatch.

Clears at a week are obvious as you can see through the egg with the definite round yolk, DIS are a little harder to be sure off depending on when the embryo dies, but quite often there will be a dark line around the air sac. I usually monitor suspected DIS for a few day before removing them.