Candling, air sacks, and moving to an automatic egg turner.

[Sylviaanne]

I bought a Little Giant incubator that comes with a fan and an egg turner to put in it. The eggs have been in my still air Little Giant with no fan and being turned by me. They have been in the old incubator 10 days. I also bought a halogen flashlight to better see the air sacks in them. So, while I was transferring the eggs, I candled one of the duck eggs and it has it's air sack almost completely on the side, not at the top. My question is: Is this from the eggs laying on their sides and when I put them in the egg turner, will the sack move back to the top of the eggs?

I tried one of my blue/green eggs and couldn't see through it but I did it in daylight, the room was dim but not dark so I will try again after dark when the room will be much darker. Sylvia

 

[Sylviaanne]

Ok, I candled all the eggs, 20 of them. 19 of them I found air sacks and blobs of varying sizes. Hmm, went back and examined #6 again and did see an air sack and a blob. The egg has a fracture. I did accidently tap it with my flash light but when I first examined it, I thought it was just a weak spot in the shell, that was before I tapped it. I didn't notice a fracture until I tapped it with my flash light. I think maybe it was already there because how coincidental would it be that I just happened to tap it where the shell was thin?

I think the reason I didn't see an air sack the first time I examined it was because I wasn't sure what I was looking for in a dark shelled egg. Once I got through all 20 of them and could see the differences and how to hold the flashlight just right to see the air sacks, it became easier. I did examine #6 a second time but the third time was the charm.

Does anyone think #6 has a chance of going full term? The crack is on the edge of the air sack.

I think I will go back and re-read some of the ATTENTION NEWBIES TO INCUBATING thread. Thanks, Sylvia

 

[Sylviaanne]

Today is day 11 of their incubation and looking at the picture of where the air sacks should be on day 14, it looks like only 2 of my eggs are close to the day 14 line. My temp is 100 and the humidity, with NO added water is 31%.

Is there something I can do to help the air sacks improve? Or is it too early to worry?

Thanks, Sylvia