c. Candle Eggs. Before candling the eggs, adjust the candler, which may be on
a candling bench (figure 1-6), so that you can stand erect with your elbows at right
angles and avoid leaning. If necessary, stand on dunnage or similar material. After
belling the eggs, place the front egg in your right hand before the candlelight, giving the
egg a quick spin as you do so. After grading that egg, candle the front egg in your left
hand in the same way, while you rotate the eggs in the right hand. Repeat the process,
so that all four eggs are candled.
d. Break Eggs Out. After several eggs have been candled, break them out
individually and compare the broken-out appearance (figure 3-6) with that observed
before the candle. Then definitely establish the quality by using the USDA Egg
Break-out Chart. This is called "setting your sights" and is done each time you inspect
eggs. After establishing the comparison, complete the candling. If the grade assigned
is not the same as the quality of the shell or air cell, give the egg the grade of the lowest
quality factor.
e. Tally. You cannot keep an accurate mental record of all the eggs candled, so
the following procedure has been devised for tallying (see figure 4-3):
(1)
Place all A Quality eggs or better into a designated tallying tray (the first
tray).
(2) Place all B Quality eggs, B* Quality eggs, Dirties, and Checks in the
proper rows of a separate egg tray (the second tray).
(3) In still another egg tallying tray, rows are designated for Leakers, Loss,
Underweight, and Shortage eggs, and eggs are placed in the proper rows. Smashed
eggs are placed in the Leaker row (the third tray).
(4) If an egg has more than one defect, A Quality eggs are used as
substitutes for tallying purposes. For example, if one egg is B Quality and underweight,
an A Quality egg is placed in the underweight row and the B Quality egg is placed in the
row for B Quality eggs.
(5)
See paragraph 1-15 for placement of trays when candling eggs.
MD0713
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