Air cells too small.

[Talavar]

Hi everyone. I'm currently incubating a dozen eggs, and they are at day 19. I used "recommended" humidity, and the air cells in many of my eggs are very small. Was wondering if after internal pip, i could scratch a tiny hole in the aircell side and empty excess water, for fear of drowning chicks. Pretty new to this, so I'm not really sure of the internals.. All I know is what the gramps have told me, and what I've read, but experience is king. So here I am. lol

 

[Willow2253]

Could you post candling pics? A safety hole is an option once they’ve internally pipped. You just put a hole in the shell to the air cell and let the chick do the rest. There’s not going to be anything you’ll need to pour out. This can make them take a little longer to pip and zip themselves, but decreases the chances of running out of air before they can pip.

 

[Talavar]

Could you post candling pics? A safety hole is an option once they’ve internally pipped. You just put a hole in the shell to the air cell and let the chick do the rest. There’s not going to be anything you’ll need to pour out. This can make them take a little longer to pip and zip themselves, but decreases the chances of running out of air before they can pip.

Sorry, didn't get this till just now, but have a little update.
The aircells in the eggs grew at an extremely rapid rate in the last 12 hours. I'm assuming the chicks atleast partially absorbed their egg sac throughout the day, which seems to have made much more air space. I do however have one egg that had a very tiny aircell, which doesn't seem to have grown at all/very little. Still waiting to see the results for that one, but doesn't look good. I'll see about getting a picture of the egg in question.

 

[Talavar]

here's a shot of the egg. as you can see, the aircell intersects at almost the tip of the egg, and there isn't much space.. keep in mind the aircell is facing the camera, If I had turned the egg 45 degrees counterclock, you'd see that the cell is quite thin.

 

[Willow2253]

The air cell does draw down before hatch, that’s probably what you’re seeing.

 

[JaeG]

It's amazing how much the air cell increases in size close to hatch.

Good luck!

 

[Megalodon]

Hi, this is a little late, but how did your hatch go? I’m in the exact same situation right now with my batch of eggs.
So the air cell will drastically change during lockdown? What was your humidity during lockdown??

tysm!!

 

[Artichoke Lover]

Hi, this is a little late, but how did your hatch go? I’m in the exact same situation right now with my batch of eggs.
So the air cell will drastically change during lockdown? What was your humidity during lockdown??

tysm!!

It does shift and grow a bit as the chick moves into hatching position. Go ahead and maintain the recommended humidity for lockdown. Even if they miss the air cell they are usually all right as they can make make the initial pip straight through the side just like they would if they are malpositioned