EFFICIENCY OP COMMERCIAL EGG CANDLING. 7 



lessness. Mold growths may escape notice if the egg is not com- 

 pletely turned before the candle, or if it is covered with the fingers. 

 If the candler does not concentrate his entire attention upon his work 

 he may make the mistake of putting a black rot or some other bad 

 egg in the case for good eggs, or vice versa. The holding of more 

 than two eggs in each hand increases the likelihood of such mistakes. 

 To reduce the chances for these errors the foreman should instruct 

 the new candlers in the proper manipulation of the eggs, and should 

 not permit talking, except about the work, or any other form of dis- 

 traction during working hours. 



In these studies no errors were noted in the placing of black rots 

 or eggs with heavily stuck yolks in the wrong case. That such an 

 error does sometimes happen is proved by observations in egg-break- 

 ing rooms where large numbers of eggs are opened. It happens very 

 infrequently, however, in well-regulated candling rooms where the 

 candlers give their entire attention to their work, and do not talk 

 and joke with their neighbors. 



Table 3. — Efficiency of candling in detecting iad eggs in breaking stock. 



' 96.73 per cent good 



62,799 eggs (174.4 

 cases) candled as 

 good. 



eggs. 



3.27 per cent bad 



2.51 per cent types 

 detectable by can- 

 dling. 



1.44 per cent eggs with adherent yolks. 



0.38 per cent blood rings. 



0.40 per cent white rots. 



0.20 per cent mixed rots. 



0.06 per cent moldy eggs. 



0.03 per cent bloody whites, heavily 



mottled yolks, and eggs with large 



embryos. 



embryos. 



■ not^detectebllTy 1^52 per cent eggs ^vith bad odors 

 candling. ^ J 0.24 per cent eggs with green whit 



In Tables 2, 3, and 11 it will be seen that few moldy eggs were mis- 

 graded. The six that were miscandled as given in the first part of 

 Table 2 had moldy, free-moving yolks, an unusual form of mold in- 

 fection. The 43 eggs reported in the last part of Table 2 contained 

 inside the shell small, watery, gelatinous mold spots which were not 

 always distinguishable or seen only indistinctly through the shell 

 before the candle. Those mentioned in Table 3 were cracked eggs 

 with moldy shells and normal contents which are more readily seen 

 by ordinary inspection than by candling. The darkness of the 

 candling room was the probable cause of this mistake. An opening 

 in the lower part of the candle to throw light on the eggs in the cases 

 below helps to reduce such errors. 



MIXED AND WHITE HOTS. 



Mixed and white rots are common types of bad eggs. Mixed 

 rots, which are an early stage of white rots, are caused by the dis- 

 integration of the yolk. In this study of the accuracy of candling 

 extremely weak eggs, eggs with seeping yolks, with or without mot- 

 tled areas, and eggs with broken yolks will be considered in the 



