Day 14 Air cells, look okay?

[fightingbunny]

The inner circle line on each egg is the Day 7 air cell line and the second circle line is the one at Day 14. Do these look like good air cell changes? I found it interesting that very few of them changed evenly and most grew just on one side. Sorry for the picture not showing all sides, would it be better if they were all standing upright in an egg carton? If the air cells do not look right, should I increase or decrease humidity? The humidity has varied from 20% up to 55% depending on whether I remembered to add water...

Thanks for any advice!

 

[oregonkat]

Your air cells look OK to me. Try, from here on out, to maintain your humidity at about 40% if possible and then goose it when you get your first external pip. 60 - 70%. When you say they 'grew on one side' do you mean that there was a tilt to the air cell dipping down on one side? If so, that is totally normal.

 

[fightingbunny]

Yes, the oval on the top was "skewed" to one side a bit and all the increase to the air cell was on the "more skewed" side and not all around the oval.

 

[oregonkat]

Yes, the oval on the top was "skewed" to one side a bit and all the increase to the air cell was on the "more skewed" side and not all around the oval.

Yup, totally normal, not to worry. The lower part of that dip is most likely where your chicks will pip assuming all is well with them, so look for that when the time comes. Good luck with your hatch, please keep us posted on your progress.

 

[fightingbunny]

Okay, one more dumb question. When is lock down exactly? I set the eggs around 2pm on 4/8. Is it 2pm on the 26th? I can't get home to take the egg turner out until evening. Would it be better to take out the turner the morning of the 26th or let them turn until the night of the 26th?

 

[ellie62706]

Looks fine! Good luck!

 

[oregonkat]

It's not an exact science. Lockdown happens to remind us to keep off the eggs until hatched. Day 18 is ideal because the hatchlings begin their final journey inside the egg to position to pip and they do this best when left alone, IMHO. Anyway, all that being said, the time on day 18 does not matter. Most folks stop turning now, place the eggs on the incubator floor low side of the air cell facing up, and go about their business. I like to wait till I have my first external pip to raise the humidity, some folks do it on day 18 and keep it up till the last hatchling is out. Experience is your best friend here.
If your day count started on 4/8, which is when you set the eggs, your hatch day would actually be the 30th. Usually you dont count the day you set the eggs, your count would start 24 hours later. So your day 18 could be on the 27th.
Do a final candle if you feel like it, mark your cells, take out your turner, put your babies back in and wait..... and don't forget to post

 

[PSLink12]

I can’t figure out how to post a new thread, so my apologies for piggy backing on this one. I’m currently on day 14 of my first incubation. I marked air cells at day 7 and checked again today. Only one of my 6 eggs that have made it this far show any significant air cell growth from day 7 to 14. I’m thinking that the cells were on the big side on day 7, but worried they’re too small now. They were shipped eggs, so some of them are shaped pretty wonky.

Should I adjust my humidity? It’s been pretty constant at 30-45%.

 

[oregonkat]

Your air cells are a little large but not badly so. Yes you have some saddles (wonky) cells and these will need watching through the hatch. I would keep your humidity close to the 45% end so that the wonky ones dont lose too much more moisture. You did not say where your temp. is and whether or not you are using independent instruments to measure hum. and temp. It is possible that your incubator is lying to you if that is all you are relying on so be aware of that unless you are using a Brinsea, as I have heard that they are more reliable than others.
Anyway, lockdown in 4 days and wait for your first external pip and goose the humidity to 65 -70 %. Try not to mess with them once they start to hatch, you only have six eggs in there (right?) so wait for them all to hatch (hopefully) before opening the bator. This is barring any trouble which you may run into with the saddled eggs but hopefully not.

Keep posting anyway and let us know how you are doing, if you do run into trouble there are lots of folks here who can help. It's fine to keep using this thread but if you want to start a new one, just go to the forum for 'incubating and hatching eggs' and click on the blue bar at the top that says 'post new thread'.

 

[fightingbunny]

Here are the eggs marked on day 18