Egg candling methods and apparatus are provided wherein non-live eggs, inverted egg,and side air cell eggs can be quickly identified. A method of candling eggs includesexposing a plurality of incubated eggs to an environment having a temperature differentfrom a temperature at which the eggs were incubated； obtaining a thermal imageof the eggs； and analyzing the thermal image to obtain surface temperature informationfor each egg. The surface temperature information is utilized to designate eachegg as live/non-live, inverted, or having a side air cell.
