Air cell importance?

[mandelyn]

Ok, so my slow growing eggs are filling the shell now after a recent candling. The air cells must have been ruptured in shipping, and I noticed this before... but let them continue on anyways.

Does this mean the air is too thin now, having been released into the egg? Another appears to have moved... a bubble on the side of the egg. That means it isn't accessable to the chick for the first breath, right?

Does that really happen? First breath is from the air cell?

Do I need to poke a small "pip" hole to allow air into the egg? I'm unsure of when they should hatch, it was supposed to be yesterday, but they're still going. I chalk it up to a low temperature at some crucial point. Thought all was lost, but these last 4 eggs are still kicking.

I've never gone through this before... not a standard hatch for me. What I'm used to is Bantams. Set them. Candle. Candle. Candle. Lock down. Prepare brooder. Put chicks in brooder and throw away empty shells. Watching temp and humidity along the way, never any major issues.

This time, I added an auto turner, tinkered with the temperature a bit (still air) to get it where it needed to be with the higher elevation of the eggs from the turner.

I removed the turner Thursday as scheduled and have been hand turning the remaining eggs until they filled the shell with chick.

What can I do to increase the already downed hatching odds for these last couple of eggs?

I have more eggs coming this week to try again. Not using the turner... going to stick with what I know and hopefully see a hatch rate that I'm used to.

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

I would still use the turner for your next batches, it's not the turner's fault that the air cells were broken, it's the USPS. The turner will turn them many more times than you likely will doing it by hand, and will do it through the night too.

You shouldn't be turning the eggs now. If the turner was scheduled to be removed on Thursday, and they were due to hatch yesterday, they should have been stopped being turned on Thursday to let the chicks get into the correct position to hatch and pip the correct part of the shell.

Yes, the first breath is really from the air cell. Chicks that pip the wrong area can drown. You need to leave the lid closed at this point and don't touch the eggs, if you keep opening the lid to continue turning them, you are dropping the humidity in the incubator and if a chick pips a shell that you don't see until you open it, you could shrink wrap the chick in the inner membrane inadvertantly.

Good luck with them and with your future hatches!

 

[mandelyn]

Even though they were behind schedule in development?

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

Yes, because you don't have any way of knowing how FAR behind in development they are.