Candling Eggs To Verify Fertility - A Better Way

Lady Gouldian hen on seven eggs due to hatch.

I have found a better way to candle eggs.

It's rare that my pair of Lady Gouldian finches are ever both out of the nest at the same time. However, when the sound of the vacuum cleaner made the hen leave her nest for a few moments, it was long enough for me to snatch a peek at her eggs. I used my new method of candling for the first time and found it worked wonderfully and I didn't even have to touch an egg.

In the past, I've shown eggs being candled using the center of a toilet paper roll, duct tape and a flashlight. This works, but you have to pick up the egg, place it over the hole in the duct tape, view it with the light shining through the tube, then put the egg back in the nest. The procedure is repeated for multiple eggs, and there is a certain degree of risk to each egg.

The light attached to my Kindle above is
bright and works perfectly for egg candling.
The flexible  neck can snake around to any
side of a clutch without moving the eggs.

As a new Kindle owner, I bought a light for my Kindle in case our electricity goes out. It's something to do in the dark. When the "Mighty Bright" light arrived, with its flexible neck, it occurred to me that it should work well for candling eggs. I used it in the finch nest and it was wonderful. I didn't have to touch or disturb the eggs and could immediately see that, YES, they are fertile!  Hurray!

I bought this light from Amazon.com and it was relatively inexpensive. I'm very pleased with it.

The photos below are actually of infertile Bourke eggs from last year that I kept in the refrigerator. I like to share them with children who visit. Since my Bourkes are not being allowed to reproduce yet this year, I did a mock-up to show the "Mighty Bright" light to you and how well it works. I'd like to have a photo of it candling the finch eggs, but who knows when an opportunity will arise without having to chase the finch parents off their nest. I'm being more careful with them than I need to be with the other birds. My parakeets are used to me being nosy. Smile. 

Peace & Blessings!