Air sac....too small?

[SilverBlaze]

Hey guys.

Okay, I may just be over-fretting. Not an uncommon occurrence with me, really.

However, I've been keeping an eye on the air sac in my eggs I'm incubating. The air sac has been small from the word go, and now we're on day 16, and it's still only about a thumb-nail down from the end of the egg. I've kept the humidity around 35% during the entire incubator, but I'm also wary of letting it fall too low and risking the chicks getting stuck in the shells. >.< GRRRRR.

When I google the egg-sac images, the pictures are showing as HUGE compared to the over-all size of the eggs. Should I be concerned, or just let it go? We're getting close to the final 3 days, so I'm not sure if i should up the humidity to the 60-65% or not, since I don't want these poor things drowning.

Please advise!!

 

[wvgal61]

Good luck

 

[SilverBlaze]

Anybody have any suggestions here? Should I up the humidity during lock-down, or leave it as is in hopes the air-sac will get bigger? Please help.

 

[klf73]

don't up humidity if you want the cell larger. The larger the cell the more fluid loss, upping it won't help the cell get bigger. Small air cells to start is a good thing, means the eggs are fresh...
eta-while waiting for my new bator to show up I had to keep my eggs that were due to hatch in the same bator as my other eggs. I didn't increase humidity as I didn't want to mess with 4 dozen eggs just to help 3 eggs. I got a pip before the new one showed and by the next day it was running around my bator. If it were me I would just keep it the same, too much humidity can hurt your hatch also, jmo

 

[countrychix]

The air sacs on my first hatch were all small. I couldn't find a hygometer to use with that hatch but I know the humidity was alway high (condensation on the glass). I worried too about the small air sac but my chicks hatched just fine; one even pipped at the wrong end and proceeded to hatch out without a problem. Good luck.

 

[SilverBlaze]

Cool, thanks guys. Every thing I was finding online was more or less saying if the air sac was too small, the chicks would drown when they pipped, and if there was too little humidity during lockdown, they'd stick in their shells. So I was freaking major. >.<

*crosses her fingers and hopes*

Thanks so much guys.

 

[Gypsy07]

My first hatch I had the exact same problem, my air cells looked tiny compared with the pictures in the booklet that came with my incubator and all the diagrams I could find online. But before setting the batch I'd weighed two of my eggs and written the weights on them in pencil, and when I weighed them again at 18 days just before lockdown, they were both bang on the ideal percentage of weight lost, at 12.5% less than they started at...

So chances are that if your hygrometer is accurate, your air cells will be fine. I wouldn't worry too much...

 

[kid-n-chickens]

I would say to continue and up the humidity during lockdown at least to 55-60%. I have had more problems with low humidity messing up the hatches than high, (they was just a little wetter) Good LUCK!

 

[miniwhipkey]

Mist your eggs. It drys them out and causes the air sack to grow. You only need to do it once a day, untill you see your air sack is large enough.