Day 18, small air cells, concerned

[Impatient]

I have 6 chicken eggs, lockdown technically starts tomorrow, but I was candling them today and 4 of the eggs the air cell have not changed since when I marked them day14. All embryos are alive and kicking and 2 are right on track. Humidity has been between 30-50% throughout incubation, with it holding at 30% that last 4 days. I've not added any water, just using the natural relative humidity. I think maybe my incubator isn't moving the air around enough and causes higher humidity pockets, so I've moved all the eggs to new positions in hopes of fixing it in the days leading to hatch, anything else I can do? Should I wait until day 19 or 20 to raise humidity for hatch to help the air cells increase properly?

 

[AlleysChicks]

You can hold off a day to lockdown. I do dry incubation and when I have jumbo eggs I usually have to hold off until late day 19 or day 20 to lockdown.

 

[Impatient]

You can hold off a day to lockdown. I do dry incubation and when I have jumbo eggs I usually have to hold off until late day 19 or day 20 to lockdown.

I've been doing a dry incubation in that I haven't added any water to increase humidity and have been relying on the natural relative humidity of my house. I will wait to "lockdown" until day 20 then...though I think some eggs may hatch early because one half of my incubator is 2 degrees higher than the other half and the eggs that were on that side were far more full than the others and had the proper sized air cells..as I said, I moved all the eggs around in hopes to equalize them, but I still think I will have two early hatchers...

 

[AlleysChicks]

Just keep an eye on them. Humidity is tricky due to location. It's different for everyone. I have to have a low humidity (less than 25%) and others have to have higher.

Temp fluxes are a pain in the behind. Does your incubator have a fan inside?

 

[chantels1]

I have 6 chicken eggs, lockdown technically starts tomorrow, but I was candling them today and 4 of the eggs the air cell have not changed since when I marked them day14. All embryos are alive and kicking and 2 are right on track. Humidity has been between 30-50% throughout incubation, with it holding at 30% that last 4 days. I've not added any water, just using the natural relative humidity. I think maybe my incubator isn't moving the air around enough and causes higher humidity pockets, so I've moved all the eggs to new positions in hopes of fixing it in the days leading to hatch, anything else I can do? Should I wait until day 19 or 20 to raise humidity for hatch to help the air cells increase properly?

I had to do a staggered hatch, so my humidity has been way up and way down. I thought the air cells were small, but then candles a day later, and draw down has been good. Crossing my fingers for a successful hatch for you. I have 4 pipped right now.

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

I have a batch if eggs going into lock down today. In my limited experience there is a huge change in aircells 24-48 hours before hatch. If you feel your humidity is correct and aircells were OK to this point you should be fine.

I'm including a couple pics of my latest hatch. The three on the bottom right have all "drawn down" and one has internal pipping. I traced cells at 7, 14, and day 20. You can see the difference. I don't have an exact start date because they were collected up and given to me when I bought a hen. I candles them and guessed them at D4 development when they went into the incubator.

 

[chantels1]

I have a batch if eggs going into lock down today. In my limited experience there is a huge change in aircells 24-48 hours before hatch. If you feel your humidity is correct and aircells were OK to this point you should be fine.

I'm including a couple pics of my latest hatch. The three on the bottom right have all "drawn down" and one has internal pipping. I traced cells at 7, 14, and day 20. You can see the difference. I don't have an exact start date because they were collected up and given to me when I bought a hen. I candles them and guessed them at D4 development when they went into the incubator. View attachment 1137645 View attachment 1137646

I agree. Draw down made me worry air cells were too big!

 

[Impatient]

Temp fluxes are a pain in the behind. Does your incubator have a fan inside?

I do, it's not the best fan. I got a cheap incubator because I knew I was only going to use it a couple times at most, just to start a little flock. I candled again today and they look batter mostly, some still haven't changed, but the embryo is alive. A couple may start hatching around tomorrow night because the air cells are drawn down and the chick properly oriented from what I can tell, so planning to raise humidity tonight and hope for the best.

 

[AlleysChicks]

For your chicks!

 

[Impatient]

Well, I was right lol. Tonight is supposed to be day 18 if I did my math right...they were set two Tuesday's ago at 11pm so day 1 and 21 would've been Wednesday at 11pm, right? Well I was doing a final candle and aircell marking and two of the eggs start yelling at me! One has pipped internally, other has pipped wrong end. So hastily put them back and put in water for humidity since it was at 25%...