air sac is way too small need advice please!!

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chickengirl72

chickengirl72

Chirping
Aug 11, 2015
74
7
51
PNW
Hi,

I'm trying to figure out what to do with my duck eggs. I've had 2 failed batches of duck eggs, the last batch were peeping a few days ago and didn't pip, didn't hatch. So incredibly heartbreaking and sad, especially after listening to them peeping. I think i had my humidity way too high (around 65%) and in hindsight, when i candled right before lockdown, and saw the beaks in the air sac, the air sacs were way smaller than they should have been. I've been staggering batches of eggs in a hovabator with turner and fan, then moving to a still air hovabator for lockdown. I just started 13 duck eggs and 14 chicken eggs the other day and have 14 duck eggs that are on day 15 now. I'm in troubleshooting mode because i don't want to lose any more ducks. Right now i have the humidity at 45% in the incubator. The eggs that have been setting at 65% for 2 weeks i candled today, and traced the air cell. According to this diagram the air sac in all 14 duck eggs looks a lot more like the day 7 reading, so it's about half the size it should be.



I think i should probably just take all the water out of the tray and reasses in another week. Anything else i should consider? What humidity level should i be aiming for to correct the tiny air sacs? I really don't want to mess up all the eggs that i just put in there either!! I was also thinking that i should read up on dry incubating, are there any good resources that you would recommend? I live in the pnw and it's usually pretty wet and humid here in the first place, except in high summer.
 
I know nothing about hatching but you might want to check out this thread on BYC.

My hatching journey -Adventures of a complete newbie

This has quite a few people on it, they give great information. Sorry I can't help you! Good luck
 
I would go ahead and get the water out, then see where the humidity stays at... also, either mist or sponge the duck eggs once a day... I know that sounds counterproductive, but the evaporation of water off the shell will help pull more moisture out of the eggs... humidity will spike for a bit after misting/sponging but it will drop again once it evaporates...
 
chickengirl72 said:
Hi,

I'm trying to figure out what to do with my duck eggs. I've had 2 failed batches of duck eggs, the last batch were peeping a few days ago and didn't pip, didn't hatch. So incredibly heartbreaking and sad, especially after listening to them peeping. I think i had my humidity way too high (around 65%) and in hindsight, when i candled right before lockdown, and saw the beaks in the air sac, the air sacs were way smaller than they should have been. I've been staggering batches of eggs in a hovabator with turner and fan, then moving to a still air hovabator for lockdown. I just started 13 duck eggs and 14 chicken eggs the other day and have 14 duck eggs that are on day 15 now. I'm in troubleshooting mode because i don't want to lose any more ducks. Right now i have the humidity at 45% in the incubator. The eggs that have been setting at 65% for 2 weeks i candled today, and traced the air cell. According to this diagram the air sac in all 14 duck eggs looks a lot more like the day 7 reading, so it's about half the size it should be.



I think i should probably just take all the water out of the tray and reasses in another week. Anything else i should consider? What humidity level should i be aiming for to correct the tiny air sacs? I really don't want to mess up all the eggs that i just put in there either!! I was also thinking that i should read up on dry incubating, are there any good resources that you would recommend? I live in the pnw and it's usually pretty wet and humid here in the first place, except in high summer.
Click to expand...
First, do you have an idependent hygrometer that you have checked for accuracy? If they are that small, I would run dry for a few days and recheck for proper growth. A lot of people have better hatches at 30% humidity un until lockdown and then higher it for hatch. 65% is way too much for the incubation period.
 
RavynFallen said:
I would go ahead and get the water out, then see where the humidity stays at... also, either mist or sponge the duck eggs once a day... I know that sounds counterproductive, but the evaporation of water off the shell will help pull more moisture out of the eggs... humidity will spike for a bit after misting/sponging but it will drop again once it evaporates...
Click to expand...


AmyLynn2374 said:
First, do you have an idependent hygrometer that you have checked for accuracy? If they are that small, I would run dry for a few days and recheck for proper growth. A lot of people have better hatches at 30% humidity un until lockdown and then higher it for hatch. 65% is way too much for the incubation period.
Click to expand...

I agree. Amy gave me this same advice when my eggs looked a week behind on day 23 I believe it was. So for 2 days I went dry and had my humidity running at 15-20%. The four good eggs that I put in the hatcher all hatched. I still had to assist 3 of them that maybe had a little bit too small of an air sac but had I not done this I think they would have all drowned. I wouldn't suggest going to 15 or 20% and I doubt Amy or Ravyn would suggest going that low at this point either. You still have plenty of time to grow those sacs before lockdown. Good luck!
 
Last edited:
thanks for all the advice. i think i'll get rid of the water for now. if the other eggs get too dry too fast, i'll correct for that later, i guess. i have another hygrometer, so i'll throw them both into the incubator and see how they read against each other. the ambient humidity for our area today is 76%. i think i read somewhere that you can put a dish of rice into the incubator to get the humidity to go lower if needed. i'll try misting and taking out the water for now and see what happens.
 
BigWeenMachine said:
I agree. Amy gave me this same advice when my eggs looked a week behind on day 23 I believe it was. So for 2 days I went dry and had my humidity running at 15-20%. The four good eggs that I put in the hatcher all hatched. I still had to assist 3 of them that maybe had a little bit too small of an air sac but had I not done this I think they would have all drowned. I wouldn't suggest going to 15 or 20% and I doubt Amy or Ravyn would suggest going that low at this point either. You still have plenty of time to grow those sacs before lockdown. Good luck!
Click to expand...
thank you for the encouragement! i wish i had checked on here when i lost the first batch of eggs. there are so many helpful people on here. :) :) :)
 
MandyJ said:
I know nothing about hatching but you might want to check out this thread on BYC.

My hatching journey -Adventures of a complete newbie

This has quite a few people on it, they give great information. Sorry I can't help you! Good luck
Click to expand...
Thank you, i will have a read of that thread. :)
 
i took the water out of the tray. one hygrometer is reading 34% and the other one is saying 36% so pretty close to each other. the air sacs are the same today as they were yesterday.
 
You should see them start growing pretty quickly (after about 24-48 hours with the lower humidity). It's really easy to calibrate a hygrometer. This way you will known for sure your exact humidity.

You will need:
Your hygrometer;)
A small soda bottle cap
Salt
Water
A small ziplock bag.

Fill the soda cap with salt. Add a couple drops of water. Stir. Blot off any extra water on top with a paper towel. You want the salt to be the consistency of a slushy. Put the bottle cap salt slushy in the ziplock bag, put your hygrometer in there and seal it tight. In 6-7 hours your hygrometer should read 75%. If it's reading low or high, write down the number and you will known how much it's off by. I always do this before each hatch or every couple weeks when I'm consistently hatching. Another thing is that right before internal pip the air cells "draw down", meaning they grow significantly bigger in a short time and will take up half the egg. If you candled when you had internal pips and the air cells still looked small then they must have been really small. You are on the right track now and still have time to correct them for your current batches. You can trace the air cells with a pencil about once a week. This will really help you see how much growth they have had compared to your last trace marks. Good luck!!
 

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