Appleyard ducks and 1st candling of eggs on day 7 of incubation

There were two things I was really looking forward to.  Getting two new ducks and candling the eggs on the 7^th day of incubation.

I like the colour of the Appleyard ducks we got.  The male duck (drake) has a shiny green sheen on his head and the female duck (hen) is almost white.  They were a bit shy and skittish today.  We’ve separated them from the roosters in case they bully them.

Aren't they a cute couple?  A drake (male duck) and a hen

Okay, so I’ve candled the eggs and got so frustrated for the first time ever.  I don’t know what I’m looking at and I don’t know what I’m looking for and the books don’t show anything as it is in real life.  Nothing matches anything in the pictures in the book.  I’m starting to wonder if I needed a different flashlight.  I got this flashlight free so it’s not really meant for candling I guess.  I’m only half way done candling.  I’ve candled 24 of the 48 eggs.  I can only keep the incubator open for so long before it starts affecting the health of the eggs.  A good result at this first candling is that I should see a web of blood vessels surrounding a dark spot and so far none of them is showing and I feel discouraged that they are going to be bad eggs.  But then again I don’t know what I’m looking at because the egg shell is brown and being dark it is hard to candle anyway.  I could see a dark patch but no veins.  And on some I actually see a dark spot move so I hope it's a good sign of life.

And to add to my frustration we had given unique id numbers to each and every egg and when it came time to finally candle them, I wound up with 12 of them having the same id number.  So there were 12 duplicate egg ids.  Somehow my husband and I must have been marking the eggs the same numbers because each set was a different handwriting.

So far, I’ve culled one egg because it showed nothing and it was completely clear which means it was not fertilized.  I even cracked it open to confirm and it is indeed not fertilized as the blastoderm does not have a smooth circumference.  Most of the eggs were cloudy which according to the book are either fertilized or they are dead.  But I've put them all back in the incubator except for the one I definitely confirmed isn't fertilized.  I'll try to look at them again tomorrow.

I’ve found this video and none of my eggs looks like what he sees so I’m thinking maybe my flashlight is not suitable for candling.  I’ll use a different flashlight tomorrow.

For now, I’ll have to leave it till the morning when I do the other 24.  I definitely cannot be a scientist as I don’t have the patience and I easily get discouraged at the first sign of failure.