A chick with a massive Air cell.

[Tookie]

I incubated 4 eggs back in June, all 4 made it to lockdown, but one never did pip externally or internally, so unfortunately it didn't make it. But I noticed after time the air cell got bigger and there were bumps all around, it wasn't a straight line. Not sure if there was anything I could do, I gave it time and didn't assist. I believe it died the first day of lockdown or so.

It started looking really weird and abnormal. That wouldn’t happen with a live chick. That was day 21.

 

[casportpony]

Hey guys,

I have a chick in the incubator that is due to hatch, I noticed it is a bit later pipping than the rest so I have quickly handled it and it seems to have a massive air cell, like more air cell than chick by the looks of things. When I candle it I can see what looks like a tiny beak and a breathing motion. I am a little worried with the amount of space between the membrane and the end of shell. What are my options here, do I let nature takes it course and hope it makes it to the shell to pip or am I going to need to intervene at some stage? And how will I know if I need to intervene? Its important to note the shell hasn't been pipped yet, and I know taking it out of the incubator isn't ideal but I had a feeling something wasn't right and felt the need to candle. I will attach a photo for reference.

If any chicken mums or dads have any advice on my next port of call, I would be incredibly grateful

How's the egg doing?

When I have one like that, and I know it's pipped internally, I make a safety hole.

Have you seen this article?

Guide to Assisted Hatching for All Poultry

Preface If you need immediate instructions on how to assist a hatch, you may skip this section and go to the next one, where the instructions are. To start with, I want to address the fact that some people think assisting during a hatch is wrong. I respect the decision to not help during a...

• Pyxis
• Jul 11, 2017
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• Comments: 217
• Reviews: 132
• Category: Hatching Eggs & Raising Chickens

 

[Mel35]

The beak shadow and breathing motion is very good sign! Do you know how long it's been since internal pip? The air cell only holds about 24 hours of air, so the first thing you want to do is put a safety hole to ensure the chick has a steady air supply.

Candle the egg and with a pencil mark a point close to the center of the air cell, but a safe distance from the shadows of the chick's beak. Using a small drill bit or diamond bit by hand, very carefully poke a hole and ream it out to make a hole about 2-3 mm in size. Now your chick can breath and is safe while you take the next steps to determine if it needs help hatching. I'll get you a link for some help on that. Make sure your humidity is between 65% and 75% now to prevent drying of the membrane.

View attachment 4249296View attachment 4249297View attachment 4249298View attachment 4249299

It started looking really weird and abnormal. That wouldn’t happen with a live chick. That was day 21.

Hi Tookie,

Thank you for your reply. Unfortunately he didn't make

Hey guys,

I have a chick in the incubator that is due to hatch, I noticed it is a bit later pipping than the rest so I have quickly handled it and it seems to have a massive air cell, like more air cell than chick by the looks of things. When I candle it I can see what looks like a tiny beak and a breathing motion. I am a little worried with the amount of space between the membrane and the end of shell. What are my options here, do I let nature takes it course and hope it makes it to the shell to pip or am I going to need to intervene at some stage? And how will I know if I need to intervene? Its important to note the shell hasn't been pipped yet, and I know taking it out of the incubator isn't ideal but I had a feeling something wasn't right and felt the need to candle. I will attach a photo for reference.

If any chicken mums or dads have any advice on my next port of call, I would be incredibly grateful View attachment 4249101

Hey Guys,

Unfortunately this little fella didnt make it, I didn't get to make an air hole in time. He was the first egg I had incubated where I wasn't sure what to do but I think I have learnt a valuable lesson this time around with trusting my gut. I know alot of the time they say "let nature takes its course" and thats the route I went with this time around but I should have listened to my gut and made a hole. Lessons learned! Thank you to everyone who commented on the post. I appreciate the knowledge, the information, the experiences and the support!

 

[Tookie]

Hi Tookie,

Thank you for your reply. Unfortunately he didn't make

Hey Guys,

Unfortunately this little fella didnt make it, I didn't get to make an air hole in time. He was the first egg I had incubated where I wasn't sure what to do but I think I have learnt a valuable lesson this time around with trusting my gut. I know alot of the time they say "let nature takes its course" and thats the route I went with this time around but I should have listened to my gut and made a hole. Lessons learned! Thank you to everyone who commented on the post. I appreciate the knowledge, the information, the experiences and the support!

So sorry to hear!

 

[Wingstem]

Hi Tookie,

Thank you for your reply. Unfortunately he didn't make

Hey Guys,

Unfortunately this little fella didnt make it, I didn't get to make an air hole in time. He was the first egg I had incubated where I wasn't sure what to do but I think I have learnt a valuable lesson this time around with trusting my gut. I know alot of the time they say "let nature takes its course" and thats the route I went with this time around but I should have listened to my gut and made a hole. Lessons learned! Thank you to everyone who commented on the post. I appreciate the knowledge, the information, the experiences and the support!

I'm so sorry! It's a tough place to be not knowing for sure if trusting your gut is the right thing to do, I understand completely. All we can do sometimes is keep on learning.

 

[Susan Skylark]

You did nothing wrong! Chicks that fail to hatch happen, it is a normal part of life and incubation, making a safety hole or not won’t save 97% of chicks. I had a batch of shipped, saddled eggs last spring that looked very similar, I helped 4 hatch, every single one died, the shipping caused damage to the genetic material and most were deformed or underdeveloped even at term, they just faded away, while the healthy chicks just popped out on their own, even from wonky air cell eggs, half the eggs that made it to lockdown didn’t hatch, heart breaking but nothing I could do except not ship eggs. I just tried hatching 12 more shipped eggs also with saddled air cells or no air cell at all, 7 made it to lockdown, not a single normal air cell among them, one quit day 12 (quail) the other six hatched no problem (even the mutant which died later). The air cell, safety hole or not, isn’t the issue, rather the shipping trauma (or whatever) is. In most cases assisted hatching and safety holes make us feel like we are doing something when in reality it doesn’t actually help the outcome, if a chick can’t hatch there is usually a reason and it isn’t because you somehow messed up, typos are as common in nature as they are in this post!