Air Cell/ Humidity

[dawnh]

Hi Guys

I'm currently on Day 17 and I'm worried that my air cells are too small

This is my first hatch, and I just want things to go smoothly! To me, they look about the size of Day 14, maybe even smaller

I have a still air styrofoam EcoStat incubator, have had some issues with temp, but nothing too serious as I have 7 wigglers out of 12 (4 non fertile, 1 stinker!). I also have 10 duck eggs in with them, which up until 2 days ago I was dampening. When I was dampening humidity did rise to approx. 50% for half the day, then lowered to 30-35%. For the last 2 days it has been a constant 30%.
My question is, would you postpone lockdown to Day 19, just to make sure they stand a fighting chance? I do have another incy to move them to for lockdown, so that I can carry on dampening the duck eggs.

TIA, Dawn

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Hi Guys

I'm currently on Day 17 and I'm worried that my air cells are too small

This is my first hatch, and I just want things to go smoothly! To me, they look about the size of Day 14, maybe even smaller

I have a still air styrofoam EcoStat incubator, have had some issues with temp, but nothing too serious as I have 7 wigglers out of 12 (4 non fertile, 1 stinker!). I also have 10 duck eggs in with them, which up until 2 days ago I was dampening. When I was dampening humidity did rise to approx. 50% for half the day, then lowered to 30-35%. For the last 2 days it has been a constant 30%.
My question is, would you postpone lockdown to Day 19, just to make sure they stand a fighting chance? I do have another incy to move them to for lockdown, so that I can carry on dampening the duck eggs.

TIA, Dawn

You can always candle and mark the air cells and take a pic of the marked air cells and post them if you'd like some opinions. If I felt my air cells were too small I would run dry for 24 hours and recheck and if I had to I'd run dry another 24 hours. If I felt it was necessary I would push lockdown back a day if I had no pips to give it more time, but only if I felt it was really necessary.

 

[dawnh]

 

[dawnh]

Sorry for the poor quality! Will try for better pics tomorrow! After marking, there's only 2 I'm worried about. The blue Cream Legbar at top middle and the Cuckoo Maran at top right. They seem to be at about Day 7

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Sorry for the poor quality! Will try for better pics tomorrow! After marking, there's only 2 I'm worried about. The blue Cream Legbar at top middle and the Cuckoo Maran at top right. They seem to be at about Day 7

I was going to say that one in the top right corner is waaaaayyyyyyy small. Both to the left are decent, the middles could be a bit bigger, but that one is small. Apparently it has a thicker less porous shell. Since you have two bators, I would probably pull the smallest ones with the most worry to the hatcher incubator and run it dry for 24 hours until you go into lockdown and see if you can increase the size of those and then add the others at lockdown when you are ready to increase the humidity.

 

[dawnh]

I've been running completely dry for 3 days now? Humidity today has been 25/30%. All except the 2 worry ones have increased in size since last night. The troublesome 2 have hardly increased at all

I don't know what else to do?
I've moved 4 into lockdown, temp 101*, humidity 70%. Going to leave the terrible twosome in the dry incy for another 24 hrs and see what happens.

Thanks for listening to me fretting!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I've been running completely dry for 3 days now? Humidity today has been 25/30%. All except the 2 worry ones have increased in size since last night. The troublesome 2 have hardly increased at all

I don't know what else to do?
I've moved 4 into lockdown, temp 101*, humidity 70%. Going to leave the terrible twosome in the dry incy for another 24 hrs and see what happens.

Thanks for listening to me fretting!

They must have really thick shells and small pores!

 

[dawnh]

They have always been the hardest to candle! Will they all be ok if I do what I planned, with the others being in lockdown and everything? What do you think their chances are of hatching ok? All 7 had movement when I candled earlier. This is worse than being pregnant!!!! I don't remember fretting this much!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

They have always been the hardest to candle! Will they all be ok if I do what I planned, with the others being in lockdown and everything? What do you think their chances are of hatching ok? All 7 had movement when I candled earlier. This is worse than being pregnant!!!! I don't remember fretting this much!

The air cell increases after lockdown and when the air cell is drawn down that'll give them a better chance. It's not optimal, but they have a fair chance. As long as they have not pipped they should be ok for another 24. Before you go to bed I'd candle and see if I could see any internal pip though. Cause you wouldn't want them to externally pip in the middle of the night into a somewhat dry incubator. If they have internally pipped, I would put them in with the others for lockdown.

 

[dawnh]

Just doubled checked and there's no internal pip, so I will leave them til tomorrow, then lock them down and cross my fingers!

Thank you so much!