Suggestions for Management of Damaged and Mal-positioned Egg Air Cells

[pete55]

Hi

At the moment try to position the eggs with the blunt end tilted upwards and please do post pictures if you have any. The following link to an incubation article may help you further;

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=491013


Pete

 

[BeckyJaneDesigns]

Wow! THat article is awesome! I am half-way through and will finish reading today. As far as positioning them blunt-end up, what is the best way to do that? I have no racks or anything. Would an egg-carton work? Although, they wouldn't be tilted much, it would be more like straight up and down. When you have them blunt-up tilted up, how do you turn them? Just rocking them back and forth? I really wish that I did my research ahead of time and started them off in the right position! I will get some pics today to show the worst ones. Thank you for your help!

 

[BeckyJaneDesigns]

Ok, so I found something to keep them in to get them at a better angle, blunt end tipped up about 30 degrees or so. Had to keep an eye on the temperature because the eggs are sitting higher in the incubator now. Keep having to reduce the temp because it gets over 100 at the top of the eggs.
I candled them tonight so that I could make a good outline of the air cell. All 12 eggs have some amount of displacement to one degree or another. These are some of the worst ones. Forgive the picture quality! There are 2 pics of each egg. All of the babies are active.
First one (two conjoined, one on the end, one along a side):

Second one (wrap-around):

Third one (very large air cell):

 

[BeckyJaneDesigns]

Today was day 20.

 

[pete55]

Hi

The best you can hope for now is to maintain stable conditions and keep up your turning programme. You can raise the blunt end of the eggs with a wedge of cotton wool or gauze etc which will promote the ducklings to settle into the correct hatching position. You've done all you can and now its just waiting until pipping time so try not to be over anxious.

Best of luck

 

[BeckyJaneDesigns]

For the ones with the big air pocket on the side, and on the blunt end, how should I position them for 'lock-down'? flat, or tilted? Should I have all the eggs tilted? I have maybe 2 or 3 that have air cells that did not get disturbed. Another problem is that some of the ones that got disturbed have huge air cells, taking up 1/3 to 1/2 of the egg, but the ones not disturbed are still quite small. Not sure how to deal with humidity. Getting to the end here, so not sure how much I can do anyways!
Thank you for your help!

 

[BeckyJaneDesigns]

Pete,
Good news! Of the 12 eggs that I was incubating (most of which had some amount of air cell problems), 11 hatched!! The only one that did not hatch (but was fully developed in the shell) was the second set of pictures I posted. The only one that needed a bit of assistance during the hatch was the first egg pictured.

Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge!
Becky

 

[pete55]

Hi Backy

Thats great news and thanks for letting us know. A lesson in maintaining stable incubation conditions and allowing mother nature to take its course. Just shows that these eggs with air cell damage are well worth trying and especially so with rare breeds.

Once again well done and congratulations.

Pete

 

[stillmecle]

I have 4 Chinese goose eggs that I got shipped to me. All the air cells were detached and a mess. I let them sit upright for about 8 hours to get room tempurature and then put them in the incubator upright and left them for 48 hours without moving them. I then candled again and the cells were still terrible. Hatch day is February 17 and this is what the eggs look like when I candle them now. I am not sure what I need to do. The babies are all moving around put the air cells are dipping more and more and the babies are still in the middle to the top of the egg. My humidity is ar around 67% and temp is at 99.0 degrees. I have the eggs at about a 35 to 45 degree angle. What do I need to do to make sure I can get my babies to hatch? I hope you can make sense of my pics. They are the actual eggs that I traced the cells on as of today.







another egg







One more

 

[ErniesFlock]

I am currently nursing 2 Ayam Cemani & 2 Polish Tolbunt eggs with detached air cels I started out with almost 10 and every single one was detached or ruptured. I used to think it was due to aggressive handling but I learned from a science master Dr David Suzuki and he told me the pressure or lack of in the plane will cause the cel to contract and expand causing them to detach. I am now going to have my eggs ground shipped and Im thinking it may take an extra 3-4 days but if packed right should be a way less chance of the aircel detaching. He said go ahead and shake an egg and the aircel probably wont detach. Not saying poor packing and extreme bumpy roads wont damage them I am sure they will. But my handful of egg sources know how to pack. This makes all the difference in the world.

So as for my Cemani and Tolbunt eggs. I am on day 9 I kept them from moving very much by standing them upright in a cut down egg carton. They are constantly on a 45degree angle and I just shift it by hand every 8hrs. I can see the little doods in there swimming around so Pete info so far so good. Oh God I cant tell you how nerve racking this is. **** eggs cost me a fortune! The air cel looks stable except it is the weird saddlr shape and there still seems to be a little liquid (embryonic fluid I assume) moving around. It is depleting every day but I think I just feel more comfortable keeping the eggs in the position they are in.At lock down I am not sure what to do keep them the way they are? Or do I lay them down with the larger part of aircel facing up? @pete55 if you could weigh in on this I really appreciate it.

That is all thanks for reading