Shipped egg air cell's loose, didn't know til day 5 of incubation!!!

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meganhundley

meganhundley

Songster
8 Years
Aug 6, 2015
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Heathsville, VA
Anyone who can, please help!! I have no clue what to do. I recently got 12 Welsummer eggs in the mail. Before I go any farther, I'll say I am VERY new to all of this. This is my first ever incubating and candling experience. So I "candled" the eggs after I got them. I didn't know that I was supposed to tilt the egg to see if the cells were detached. So thinking all was well I set them in the auto egg turner of my up and running LG styrobator after letting them rest for 24 hours. Well today at 1 pm started day 5 of incubation and I went to put a sponge in so I could get my humidity where I wanted it. I tried candling again just to check air cell growth and to see if I could see any blood vessels. I tilted each egg a little when I did so. In some of the eggs the air cells moved around in the fat end. Not sure if they are completely detached or just loose. I'm not sure how many are like this, honestly, after I saw the first jiggly cell, I got so worried I didn't notice how many more were the same, I'm thinking 3, 4, maybe 5 are like this? So my question is: Should I stop turning them and let them sit fat end straight up without turning at all for a couple days and see how that goes or keep turning them and hope for the best or seperate the good from the bad and continue to turn the good while I stabilize the bad? I've gotten so many different answers that now I have no clue what to do. Will letting them sit cause more harm than good? Can a chick still develop and hatch from an egg with a loose or detached air cell? Will the growing chick push the air cell into the right postion? I was planning on assisting any that appear to need help if and when they start to hatch. I'm so confused and have no clue what I should do from this point on. Any advice is welcomed and appreciated.
 
Here's my recommendation. Realize that it comes with no guarantees on success, as shipped eggs are extremely difficult to work with.

Check each egg carefully for the condition of the air cell. If any eggs have completely stable air cells when you candle today, they can be incubated on their sides and turned (or tilted side to side, depending on your incubator).

If there is ANY juggling of the air cell - either because it is saddled or completely detached - incubate those eggs with the fat end upright for the next 5 days. Do not turn or tilt them. Eggs are supposed to be turned to prevent the embryo from sticking and to ensure the embryo becomes strong; however, in my opinion the adverse effects of air cell detachment are much greater than failing to turn eggs for a few days.

On day 10, recandle the eggs to check for signs of development. With shipped eggs, you're likely to see early quitters which are recognized by a blood ring. Unfortunately, you're working with welsummer eggs, which tend to be too dark and speckled to candle well. If you can't see well enough to candle egg contents on day 10, at least check the air cells carefully. By this time the developing blood vessel network of a growing embryo will hopefully begin to stabilize the air cell. If the air cell now appears completely stable (no jiggling), you can begin gently tilting the egg from side to side at about a 30 degree angle for the next several days. If the air cell is still not stable, I would continue to keep the egg upright with no tilting until day 14 at which time I would recandle (again, you're hoping the developing blood vessel network will stabilize the air cell). With regard to the eggs that have (or did have) detached or saddled air cells, don't lay them flat until lock down.

Early embryo death is very common in shipped eggs, probably due to air cell and egg content damage. Even eggs that make it to lockdown may not hatch, although it's not clear why this happens.

Best of luck to you. Let us know how things turn out.
 
Last edited:
song of joy said:
Here's my recommendation.  Realize that it comes with no guarantees on success, as shipped eggs are extremely difficult to work with.  

Check each egg carefully for the condition of the air cell.  If any eggs have completely stable air cells when you candle today, they can be incubated on their sides and turned (or tilted side to side, depending on your incubator).  

If there is ANY juggling of the air cell - either because it is saddled or completely detached - incubate those eggs with the fat end upright for the next 5 days.  Do not turn or tilt them.  Eggs are supposed to be turned to prevent the embryo from sticking and to ensure the embryo becomes strong; however, in my opinion the adverse effects of air cell detachment are much greater than failing to turn eggs for a few days.  

On day 10, recandle the eggs to check for signs of development.  With shipped eggs, you're likely to see early quitters which are recognized by a blood ring.  Unfortunately, you're working with welsummer eggs, which tend to be too dark and speckled to candle well.  If you can't see well enough to candle egg contents on day 10, at least check the air cells carefully.  By this time the developing blood vessel network of a growing embryo will hopefully begin to stabilize the air cell.  If the air cell now appears completely stable (no jiggling), you can begin gently tilting the egg from side to side at about a 30 degree angle for the next several days.  If the air cell is still not stable, I would continue to keep the egg upright with no tilting until day 14 at which time I would recandle (again, you're hoping the developing blood vessel network will stabilize the air cell).  With regard to the eggs that have (or did have) detached or saddled air cells, don't lay them flat until lock down.  

Early embryo death is very common in shipped eggs, probably due to air cell and egg content damage.  Even eggs that make it to lockdown may not hatch, although it's not clear why this happens.  

Best of luck to you.  Let us know how things turn out.   
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Thank you for responding, I'll try that and see how it goes. Sorry it took me so long to get back to you. 1 of my bantams came up missing yesterday and I went looking for her but I'm assuming a hawk got her. Quite a few were flying really low yesterday, alot lower than normal. But I'll definitely try your suggestion and see how that goes.
 
meganhundley said:
Thank you for responding, I'll try that and see how it goes. Sorry it took me so long to get back to you. 1 of my bantams came up missing yesterday and I went looking for her but I'm assuming a hawk got her. Quite a few were flying really low yesterday, alot lower than normal. But I'll definitely try your suggestion and see how that goes.
Click to expand...
I'm so sorry about your bantam. I hope she turns up. I had a bantam a couple of years ago, and a hawk got her. I was so sad, as she was the sweetest thing.
 
Of course the 1 that disappeared was my favorite :( I'm hoping maybe she's sitting on a nest somewhere. The 2 bantam hens I have (1 now) have a nest hidden somewhere that I just can not find anywhere. And their eggs are so tiny that finding a nest of them in 6 acres of land with tall weeds here and there is going to be like finding a needle in a haystack :/ I just don't think she's still around though. The 2 roos and the other hen seemed out of sorts yesterday, kind of down in the dumps. And they normally all hang pretty close together so if she was still around I'd think they would try to stick kind of close to her. I'm almost positive that a pred of some sort got her. And they are Nankin Bantams so they are really hard to find, hardly anybody sells them. I got them at a chicken swap so I'm hoping when the swap comes back around this month there will be more Nankins there. The little Nankin flock I have is roo heavy now, lol. I have 2 roos and 1 hen. The poor girl, lol.
 
Oh, an update on my eggs: All of the air cells are loose but none are completely detached. I unplugged the turner and they are sitting upright, fat end up. So you don't think they will get stuck to the shell? I read some where that turning is only mandatory from days 1-10, days 3-7 being the most critical. Day 7 just started at 1 pm today. I'm so worried that none will hatch or even develop. I wish I could see the blood vessels when I candle but the shells are so thick and they are brown and speckled on top of that so I don't think I'll be able to see any development for a few more days. Do you think maybe I should.plug the turner bag in til tomorrow so we're past day 7? I'm sorry, but I'm a BIG worrier, lol.
 
I'd keep the eggs stable and upright for at least 4 to 5 days to see if you can get the air cells to reattach and become stable. I think unstable air cells are a bigger risk than failing to turn at this point, especially since you've already turned them days 0 through 7.
 
They are embryos, I posted a pic on another thread and everyone said that it's an embryo!! I'm so excited!! I tried to post a pic here but for some reason it wouldn't give me the option.
 

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