Against the odds hatching thread (with pictures and questions)

[adirondak5]

Any updates ? Did you candle them again ?

 

[K0k0shka]

Any updates ? Did you candle them again ?

I didn’t get around to candling on day 14, but I did candle them on day 15 (yesterday). Haven’t had a lot of time for candling and to write up a full update, between Easter and my son’s birthday yesterday. Will write a proper post tonight. In short, everybody is still alive and moving, readings have been stable, but I have some questions and concerns about stage of development and air cells.

 

[aart]

No hurries on a post, but glad they, and you, are well.

 

[K0k0shka]

No hurries on a post, but glad they, and you, are well.

Thanks. I do want to post tonight though, because the eggs don’t care about my schedule and their timers are ticking away I want to have time to react and course-correct in case anything isn’t right... because they’re running out of time (lockdown is in just 2 days!!).

 

[K0k0shka]

Candling, day 15

All the chicks are alive and moving! Wohoo! The incubator is doing well, too. Temperature is hovering between 99 and 100. No major dips or spikes. We had a massive wind storm last night and lots of people lost power, but luckily we didn't. I hope the weather and our luck holds for another week.

Since the air cells were a bit on the big side last time, I upped the humidity and have held it between 45-50% since (it was 30-40% before). The air cells on the farm-next-door eggs are so perfect, they're like the textbook charts. All perfectly circular, and expanding evenly. The shipped eggs that traveled a few states still have wonky air cells, but they seem to be evening out into a more circular shape. The coast-to-coast eggs though... maaaaan those are some terrible-looking air cells, and they seem to be getting worse! The weird shapes are getting exaggeratedly more weird and stretched out That's the majority of my eggs, so I'm worried. What are their chances of hatching? They seem to be developing otherwise, kicking and everything.

I'll start with some air cell pictures. Here's a comparison between the eggs that traveled 8 minutes by car (the first two), and one of the eggs that traveled from NC to MA:


The third egg has that one dip in the air cell shape, but is otherwise not too bad.

And then... there are the coast-to-coast eggs:



Because their air cells are so deformed, it's hard for me to tell if they are the correct size. They are changing shape as they expand, and they're doing it unevenly on different sides. On some of them, the air cell looks way too big for day 15, but it doesn't seem to be equally "deep"... so maybe it's the same volume of air, just distributed differently? Or could they really be so much bigger? What do you do if your eggs are losing moisture at different rates, but they have to share one incubator and one level of humidity?

For comparison, here are some pictures of the eggs with better air cells:



I tried taking some pictures of the markings from the side, so they'd look more like the egg in the diagram and be easier to compare to it:




I need some experienced opinions on the air cells... Do they look okay in terms of size, weird shapes and all? Are the eggs with the misshapen air cells doomed? Is there anything special I need to do to help them, besides be prepared to assist in the hatch? Anything to do preemptively to improve their odds? I read about putting them in a carton fat end up at lockdown and letting them hatch upright, so I'll do that. Anything else? I know I have more eggs than chickens I want to keep, so losing some isn't going to be the end of the world, but the bad air cells (and the earlier blood rings) aren't distributed evenly between the different varieties of chickens, and some are way more threatened than others - the partridge orpington in particular, of which I only have 2 remaining eggs, both with bad air cells - so, some of these I want to put more effort in just to make sure I get some representation among the chicks...

Here are some videos of the most active chicks:

How do the eggs look in terms of development? It's hard to find consistent information and images/videos on BYC or the internet. Some images look similar to mine... others don't... Descriptions I read say that by day 15, the chick should fill most of the egg. What's "most"? Should I worry that mine aren't filling it enough?

I will have more questions later, so please do check back later. Lockdown is on Thursday!!! I just need to go to bed now because it got late again

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

The wonky aircells will continue to improve and grow right up till hatch time. I think you're on track with the upright hatching. That's the best thing I've found to improve hatch rate. I'd be cautiously optimistic on this hatch. You've taken such good care of them. Their odds are as good as they can possibly be.

This is the only pic I can find of a saddled air cell on day 14. It was like this on a couple of sides. That's one of the reasons I like upright hatching. When you lay them on their side it kind of collapses on the chicks. I feel that makes it more difficult for them to position and pip. This chick hatched just fine.

 

[K0k0shka]

The wonky aircells will continue to improve and grow right up till hatch time. I think you're on track with the upright hatching. That's the best thing I've found to improve hatch rate. I'd be cautiously optimistic on this hatch. You've taken such good care of them. Their odds are as good as they can possibly be.

This is the only pic I can find of a saddled air cell on day 14. It was like this on a couple of sides. That's one of the reasons I like upright hatching. When you lay them on their side it kind of collapses on the chicks. I feel that makes it more difficult for them to position and pip. This chick hatched just fine.

View attachment 2090426

Thank you, this gives me hope!! I’ve been extremely careful with these eggs. From troubleshooting and helicoptering over the incubator, to how I hold and candle the eggs, and even how I open the incubator - lifting the lid just a crack, enough to fit my hand through. I see photos or videos (including the official Little Giant how-to video!) of people removing the lid entirely to add water or take eggs for candling, and my reaction is Or people candling upside down with the air cell pointing down.... My eggs have only been upright since I set them - my turner is the upright tilting kind, and I only candle them upright, fat end up. So they better give me some babies!

 

[K0k0shka]

P.S. This makes me especially happy to hear because, despite saying I’ll be going to bed, instead I spent all this time reading about how shipped eggs are notorious for dying in lockdown, and there’s nothing I can do... so that was pretty depressing. But now I can finally go to bed with some hope.

 

[adirondak5]

I think you are doing a great job and taking very good care of the eggs . This thread is a wealth of knowledge . Thanks for posting .

 

[K0k0shka]

I think you are doing a great job and taking very good care of the eggs . This thread is a wealth of knowledge . Thanks for posting .

Thanks! I’ll be happy if it can help others. Have you set your daughter’s eggs yet? How’s that going?