Candling on Day 14 - Questions

KellyHM

Crowing
11 Years
Sep 10, 2008
7,097
50
289
Lakeland, FL
So I candled my eggs for the second time on Day 14 and it seems (to me anyways) that there are some wierd things going on.

First of all, I can't see into some of the eggs at all...I'm assuming this is b/c the chick is big and taking up a lot of room?

Next, about 1/4 of my eggs seem to have a HUGE air cell that is at the big end, but then kind of wraps part way back around the side of the egg. In some of these I can see the chick swimming, so I know they're still viable. Any ideas?

My temp and humidity have been good the whole time, so I don't think it's that. I'm new to the candling thing, so maybe all this is normal and I'm just clueless. Any ideas are appreciated!
 
The ones that you can't see into is probably because of the chick taking up all the room. As far as the air cell goes, what has your humidity been? An unusually large air cell is caused by low humidity while incubating, as far as I know. Your humidity should be between 45-55% for the first 18 days. Hope someone else has help for you..
 
My humidity has been 52-58% the entire time, which is why I don't think it's that.
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You might want to try calibrating your hygrometer. I have 2 different ones in my incubator, and one reads 51% the other reads 70%. There is a thread somewhere on here on how to calibrate them, maybe you and i both should check it out? I don't know any other reason why the air cell would be so big?
 
I've found a post that explains how to calibrate them, if you want to try it

True BYC Addict

From: Wisconsin
Registered: 09/18/2007
Posts: 3917
PM Re: Questions...I know they have been asked before...But....Calabrating hydrometer-from Speckledhen.

1. You can calibrate a hydrometer by mixing in a bowl 1/2 cup of salt in 1/4 cup water. Actually a couple TBSP of salt moistened with water is enough.
2.Place bowl inside a zip lock baggie with your hydrometer. After at least 8 hours, your hygrometer should read 75%.
3. If it says, for example 80% you know that it is reading 5% to high and then you can make adjustments in your readings.
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Hope this helps...gonna do mine right now!! I had only 1 egg in my last set, and it looked that way, and never hatched
 
That post was by speckledhen by the way, but now would be a good time to do it...that way it can calibrate while you sleep, so you don't get the urge to watch it constantly!
 
My limited experiences are that on some of the shipped eggs we have set, the air cells were very oddly shaped, like they somehow got detached in shipping. Some wrapped around the side, others were almost clover leaf shaped.

Of these odd looking air cells, one batch was Marans, I could see nothing at all other than the odd cells. We managed to hatch 10 of 12. We are hatching another group right now, 6 of 8 made it past day 18, and of those 4 are out, 3 blue and 1 splash silkie.

I would also say that these were all set with "other" eggs, in which the air cells developed correctly. I am not sure I would mess with humidity, ours looked all wrong but we just went with it and had some fairly good successes.

With all that said, we are rookie hatchers, so take it all with a grain of salt.


Don
 
Kelly, are these shipped eggs? If so, it sounds like the air cell may have been damaged in shipping. They can still hatch, but are less likely so keep an eye on those. I would also confirm your instruments are reading accurately. You wouldn't believe how many folks have said my temp/humidity are perfect, only to stick another instrument in there and find out it was way off. Better to double check.

Jody
 
Quote:
This is great news! I have a full bator and many of my eggs, (now on day 12) have weird shaped air cells, many just as you described. I'm using the dry incubation method, but my humidity averages 40% in the bator most of the time. Some air cells are huge, or at least they seem big to me. I'm sticking to the dry incubation method for this batch, and we shall see the results soon. After candling them again today I've eliminated a total of 9 eggs out of 49. After cracking them open, I found that they were all definitely duds, so I fed them to my dogs, they loved it. Only one of the 9 I opened had a fetus, and it was so tiny, an itty bitty quitter. The rest are full of life. The babies are moving and the eggs are full of veins. This is my first time and I'm enjoying it so much. Can't wait!
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