Air Cells on shipped banty eggs look weird- is this normal?

[Chellester]

The newbie hatcher here with yet another question!

Okay, here's the setup: I have 3 different batches of eggs in my incubator. The first batch are Mille Fleur D'uccle eggs, shipped to me, 14 days in the incubator. The second batch are mixed layers, from my neighbors, 10 days in the incubator. The third batch are silkies, shipped to me, 7 days in the incubator.

The banty eggs that were shipped to me have misshapen air cells, especially the silkies. The air cells are where they are supposed to be at, but they don't have a nice round shape... they look warped and maybe a little larger than what they should be. The eggs I got from my neighbors air cells look nice and round, and actually look a bit smaller than what they're supposed to be at this time. They all seem to be developing normally otherwise.

I did not leave the first batch (the Mille Fleurs) settle before putting them in the incubator. I did leave the Silkie eggs settle for 12 hours, but the Silkie eggs look worse than the Mille Fleurs.

The temp has been holding steady at the recommended 99.5 degrees. I have been trying to hold the humidity at around 50-55%. A couple of times overnight it dropped to 35%, but it was only for a few hours and when I caught it I brought it right up again. I am using an egg turner, and it has been working normally. There has been no power outages or anything like that.

Any thoughts?

 

[jimnjay]

Air cells on shipped eggs sometimes do get messed up. They can still hatch, however. I have had many shipped eggs where the air cell sort of runs down the side a bit. All you can do is watch them and make sure they are not going to spoil. 14 days is a good time to detect movement. If you can determine if they are developing normally you should not have any problems hatching the. When it comes time to stop turning, make sure the egg is slightly tilted with the small side down. You can prop them if necessary around the edge of the incubator or use pipe cleaners. This helps the chick to orient itself properly in the shell.

 

[Chellester]

Jaynie, that's exactly what the air cells look like; like its running down one side of the egg. I am already seeing movement, so that's a good sign. Actually, almost all of them are quite active.

Thank you; I feel a lot better now.

I realize that this is my first attempt at hatching and there is a learning curve, but I would have still felt bad if they were dying as a result of something I was doing wrong. I understand that some of them won't make it even if I do everything right, but I want to know I am doing my best to bring them all into the world!

 

[jackiedon]

Chellester,

Several of my silkies are the same with the air cell down the side. I candled some last night which would have been day 12. THere was lots of movement inside of them which made me feel better. I guess it's one of those wait and see.

jackie

 

[Chellester]

Jackie, I forgot to mention above that I read somewhere silkie egg's air cells can be strange looking. Like you, as long as I can see them moving inside, I'm going to take it as a good sign.