Anyone tried this? Broken air cells in eggs

[KsTornado11]

On another board I read that if you go ahead & incubate eggs w/ seemingly broken air cells ( very common w/ shipped eggs) for 5 days or so WITHOUT TURNING THEM, they will develop OK. Anyone ever tried this w/ success?

 

[gabrielle1976]

I havnt had a lot of luck with shipped eggs at all but I have had a couple hatch with detatched air cells I keep them in cut down cartons , then again I havent tried it not that way maybe I would get better results but you would think that if the air cell is moveing around if you keep it in the right spot it would work better.

 

[dancingbear]

If you do a search o this section, for post about detached air cells, damaged air cells, bad air cells, etc., you find several threads it's being discussed on. I hope that helps, there's a lot on that posted. There's a lot of air cell damage in shipped eggs.

I'm incubating 21 eggs with varying degrees of air cell damage, right now. Some ruptured, some misshapen, some also with cracked shells. I patched the cracks w/ candle wax. The eggs were left upright to incubate, big end up of course, in the turner but with the turner not plugged in. I decided not to use the auto turner, I don't want these damaged eggs in constant motion. I took out the turner, and put them in carton bottoms with additional air slots cut in the cups. I made sure they remained up right this whole time. I candled 10 of them on night 6, and 7 showed live embryos. I'm waiting a couple of extra days to candle the whole lot, but this gives me reason to be optimistic.

I didn't turn them at all the first 6 days. I'm now tilting the 'bator a couple of times a day. I prop up one end a couple of inches. Then set it level again for awhile. Then prop the opposite end from the one that was propped before. It's not a lot of movement, but enough that the embryos will be exercised a little, and it should be enough to keep them from sticking to the sides of the shell. I think they need to move some, but not too much. The closer to hatch they get, the less fragile they should be.

That's my theory, anyway. I guess I'll find out in a couple of weeks!