Wha the heck is happening?!

TheHenMaster91

In the Brooder
5 Years
Sep 23, 2014
41
1
24
Ketchikan, Alaska
So Ive been incubating 6 turkey eggs in a Styrofoam type incubator with an auto turner, it rocks them vertically. Everything looked normal. I moved them to a mini eco advanced and laid them on their sides for hand turning. I turned 3x a day, X rolls to the right and O roll back to the left. I candled them all today for lockdown, most had saddle shaped air cells that take up a little under half of the egg. What happened, what would causes perfect air cells to suddenly morph? What do I need to worry about?
 
No they were not shipped and the air cells were normal 3 days ago. Im not sure what happened but it definitely happened either when I switched them to the other incubator or when I was turning them, can you turn eggs wrong? What would cause normal air cells to morph that close to hatch?
 
No they were not shipped and the air cells were normal 3 days ago. Im not sure what happened but it definitely happened either when I switched them to the other incubator or when I was turning them, can you turn eggs wrong? What would cause normal air cells to morph that close to hatch?

Are the eggs still in lockdown? It sounds like the air cell may just be drawing down around the chick. What day is it?
 
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Day 1 of lock down is today, I filled the two middle chambers fully with water per Brinsea instructions. Should I be worried then that the chicks are getting shrink wrapped? I can add more moist material to up the humidity, I know turkeys like it really high for hatch like 80% or so, but Id rather not open the incubator at all.
 
Are the eggs still in lockdown? It sounds like the air cell may just be drawing down around the chick. What day is it?
xs 2. It's very possibly what you are seeing is the air cell drawing down. Sometimes it can be a quite drastic looking. I wouldn't get too upset yet.

Day 1 of lock down is today, I filled the two middle chambers fully with water per Brinsea instructions. Should I be worried then that the chicks are getting shrink wrapped? I can add more moist material to up the humidity, I know turkeys like it really high for hatch like 80% or so, but Id rather not open the incubator at all.
What is your humidity now? If it's not as high as you think it should be, it'd be better to higher it.
 
Day 1 of lock down is today, I filled the two middle chambers fully with water per Brinsea instructions. Should I be worried then that the chicks are getting shrink wrapped? I can add more moist material to up the humidity, I know turkeys like it really high for hatch like 80% or so, but Id rather not open the incubator at all.

Do you have a hygrometer in there? I just started lockdown today also with the mini Brinsea and I only have 1 well filled and I'm at 70% humidity. It depends on what your ambient humidity is. Be careful filling both wells. Sometimes I fill 1 well and put a toothpaste cap I'm the second well. This hygrometer fits nicely in the mini:
400

And it's under $5 online. You should calibrate it also. But I have a couple and they were all around 5% in range.
 
My humidity in my house is around 20% I think, I dont have a hydrometer in my mini because the one I had didnt fit and...Im dumb and lost my reptile one. I will dig around for it again tonight. I have had two other hatches in this incubator, the first hatch was perfect, the second hatch the chicks seemed to get sticky too fast while still hatching. Both times I fully filled both sides of the pot, turkeys need even higher humidity I hear so now Im really worried. If both pots are filled and I need to up the humidity what are my options?
 
Those minis don't leave much room for anything. If you can squeeze a sponge or cut up strips of a sponge you can add wet sponge to help. You can also use wet cloth. Any thing that will increase surface air of the moisture/water. If worse comes to worse you can mist the inside of the incubator.
 

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