Day 18 and air cells are small

[AmyLynn2374]

Haha thank you, you've helped me a lot, btw only 2 pips on last eggs and I've just put those two under my broody hen, so fingers crossed it's all good! I've steriliser my incubator and just watching the humidity and temperature before I place eggs in, I'm going to keep you as a contact haha I'm still learning

I hope this one goes much better for you!!

 

[CocoPopz]

I've had a horrible emergency tonight, I'm crying like a baby, my broody has killed her babies for no reason, luckily I saved one in time and had to put 3 that may be alive in the incubator and hope they finish unzipping.

she pecked their skull, first time momma though?

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I've had a horrible emergency tonight, I'm crying like a baby, my broody has killed her babies for no reason, luckily I saved one in time and had to put 3 that may be alive in the incubator and hope they finish unzipping.

she pecked their skull, first time momma though?

Awww, that's sad. I sure wouldn't let her brood with anymore eggs. Hope the other's make it. You hear that mommas will kill babies that are unhealthy, or there's something wrong with them, I don't know if there's any truth to that though.

 

[aatx]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't those ones that you hatched in an incubator and then moved under the broody? They aren't the eggs she had been sitting on all along, right?

 

[CocoPopz]

She's been sat on her own clutch of eggs, I had seperate ones in the incubator, I had a feeling she wasn't going to be good, she started really pecking the eggs. Help me, the one I have every so often does like a gasp, not very often, was is it doing?

 

[MJessy]

Hi! I have the same problem.. air cells are really small and I'm at day 19 now.. tried the last 3 days since day 16 to decrease humidity to 25 but yesterday something happened and it went up to 35 now it's still 30.. I stopped turning yesterday mornig at day 18.. and went into "dry lockdown".. but I think today I have to increase it for hatching.. or should I wait till tomorrow day 20? I've heard no cirping.. think there is no pip
How high should I go with humidity 65? and when??? Please help me!!! I don't want the babies to drown
Your Jessy

That are pics of my two eggs on day 16
Your Jessy

 

[n3kms]

Even though I thought my air cells were small my chicks hatched just fine. I did keep it with no extra water until early day 20 though, then added water and upped humidity considerably. With my incubator I was not really able to keep it at a certain % consistently but I kept it high. They all hatched.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Hi! I have the same problem..

air cells are really small and I'm at day 19 now.. tried the last 3 days since day 16 to decrease humidity to 25 but yesterday something happened and it went up to 35 now it's still 30.. I stopped turning yesterday mornig at day 18.. and went into "dry lockdown".. but I think today I have to increase it for hatching.. or should I wait till tomorrow day 20? I've heard no cirping.. think there is no pip
How high should I go with humidity 65? and when??? Please help me!!! I don't want the babies to drown

Your Jessy

That are pics of my two eggs on day 16
Your Jessy

If you are going to be home to monitor them so that if one pips you can get the humidity up, and you are comfortable running dry then do it. You can also hatch them upright in cut down cartons to improve the chances of keeping excess moisture from finding it's way into the air cell at pip time. The graphs we use are a guidline to optimal hatching, but if your aircells don't match up doesn't mean they won't hatch. Good luck!

 

[MJessy]

Thank you very very much!!! You know so much about chicks, it'so impressive!!! I'm less nervous now.. wanted to ask.. how do I know that they did pip?

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Thank you very very much!!!

You know so much about chicks, it'so impressive!!!

I'm less nervous now..

wanted to ask.. how do I know that they did pip?

The internal pip you won't see, (unless you are candling during lockdown.) But if you hear them chirping from inside the shell, you know they have internally pipped. (If you hear them pipping inside you want to start getting the humidity up.) The external pip, and this is when you want to make sure you get your humidity highered, is when you see the beak has pushed a bump in the shell out, or made a crack or a hole. A lot of us mark our air cells at days 7/14/18 and they generally pip on the side that the air cell dips the most. So we try to make sure that side of the egg is facing up so we can see when they pip.