EFFICIENCY OF COMMERCIAL EGG CANDLING. 13 



EGGS WITH OLr\'E-COLORED YOLKS. 



Eggs with- olive-colored yolks, caused probably by the character 

 of the food eaten by the hen, are discarded by inexpert candlers 

 because of the yellowish-green appearance of the yolk before the 

 light. This egg is normal in taste, odor, and appearance except for 

 the greenish tinge in the yolk. It contains no bacteria and shows 

 no chemical deterioration. Such eggs formed 2.1 per cent of the 

 rejects. 



EGGS WITH MOVABLE AXE CELLS. 



Eggs in which the two shell membranes have been separated or 

 broken so that the air cell changes its location as the egg is turned 

 before the candle are frequently graded as bad because of the 

 diffi'culty of seeing the condition of the yolk. This difficulty is in- 

 creased if the yolk is weak or the shell is brown. A quick twirl of 

 the egg before the candle to throw the yolk near the shell aids in 

 identification. Eggs with movable air cells constituted 1.2 per cent 

 of the rejects studied. 



ACCURACY IN RECANDLING REJECTS. 



In qrder to test the accuracy of the recandling of the rejects both 

 eggs salvaged as good and eggs rejected as bad were broken and 

 their condition noted. 



Table 6. — Kinds of had eggs found on breaking eggs recandled from rejects 



as good. 



I'i2\ good eggs. 

 f 13 mixed rots. 

 U% pees misoandlpd J ^^ ^^'^^e rots. 



\6i eggs miscanaiea •; ^ ^^^^ ^^-^ slightly stuck yolks. 

 104 bad eggs. A (2 moldy eggs. 



71 eggs not distinguisliabIe/47 eggs with green whites. 

 [ by candling. \24 eggs with bad odors. 



The percentage of bad eggs found in 3,877 eggs recandled from 

 rejects as good averaged 12.75 per cent, and showed wide variations 

 for the different lots of eggs observed (Tables 5 and 8). These num- 

 bers are markedly higher than those found in better grades of eggs 

 after candling (Table 1). This difference is to be expected, because 

 the higher the percentage of bad eggs present, the greater are the 

 chances for errors in candling. Besides this factor, there is the in- 

 creased difficulty of detecting the good eggs mixed with the rejects as 

 compared with better grades of eggs, because they consist of types of 

 eggs set aside by the original candlers as puzzling or impossible to 

 grade. The types of bad eggs rejected during the breaking of 525 

 eggs recandled from rejects as good are given in Table 6. In plants 

 having an egg-breaking department the eggs salvaged from rejects 

 are broken, the bad eggs eliminated, and the good eggs used for 

 freezing or drying. 



