Detached air cell chick - watch him develop and hatch!

[rmattise]

I have a chick with a detached air cell which has, against all odds, made it to day 15 of development! I know he's not completely out of the woods yet, but this is my first one in my several years of hatching that has made it this far. I'll be logging his development here so you guys can follow along!

Sorry for the blurry pictures, my phone just REFUSED to focus in the dark for these. But you can still see that his development is very different than that of a normal egg.

That's him. Below is a chick with a normal, attached cell on the same day of development.

When hatch day comes, if this guy makes it all the way, I'll most likely have to hatch him upright in an egg carton cell - the air cell is definitely still detached. More pictures and updates to come!
Comment if any of you have had experiences with hatching detached chicks!

 

[K0k0shka]

I really hope this works out for you. But detached air cells suck. I recently hatched a bunch of eggs that traveled coast to coast and their air cells were horrible. Detached, saddled, wobbly, etc. I had a 50% overall hatch rate, which is right on target for shipped eggs, but none of the detached and saddled eggs made it. A lot of them got all the way to lockdown and had good development, but for some reason failed to pip and died. So... day 15 is good, but no guarantee at all.

 

[rmattise]

Oh, trust me, I get it! I hatch shipped eggs all the time. I've had pretty good luck with saddle air cells so far, but this is the first totally detached that's even come close to hatch date for me.
It's also pretty cool to see the way he's developing in the egg - you can kind of see it in the picture, but the veins have kind of grown up and around the edges of the air cell. Definitely a fascinating and enlightening experiment!

 

[rmattise]

Day 19: still kicking and developing nicely! It appears that the air cell finally reattached sometime between day 15 and day 19. I was able to lay the egg on its side safely for lockdown!

Day 20: no picture, but detached chick is still alive and kicking in there! He's positioned correctly and has successfully made an internal pip. Hoping to see an external one soon!

 

[sniper_ghoul]

I have a chick with a detached air cell which has, against all odds, made it to day 15 of development! I know he's not completely out of the woods yet, but this is my first one in my several years of hatching that has made it this far. I'll be logging his development here so you guys can follow along!

Sorry for the blurry pictures, my phone just REFUSED to focus in the dark for these. But you can still see that his development is very different than that of a normal egg.

View attachment 2212997
That's him. Below is a chick with a normal, attached cell on the same day of development.
View attachment 2212998

When hatch day comes, if this guy makes it all the way, I'll most likely have to hatch him upright in an egg carton cell - the air cell is definitely still detached. More pictures and updates to come!
Comment if any of you have had experiences with hatching detached chicks!

 

[sniper_ghoul]

I have a chick with a detached air cell which has, against all odds, made it to day 15 of development! I know he's not completely out of the woods yet, but this is my first one in my several years of hatching that has made it this far. I'll be logging his development here so you guys can follow along!

Sorry for the blurry pictures, my phone just REFUSED to focus in the dark for these. But you can still see that his development is very different than that of a normal egg.

View attachment 2212997
That's him. Below is a chick with a normal, attached cell on the same day of development.
View attachment 2212998

When hatch day comes, if this guy makes it all the way, I'll most likely have to hatch him upright in an egg carton cell - the air cell is definitely still detached. More pictures and updates to come!
Comment if any of you have had experiences with hatching detached chicks!

I hope he turns out good and well!

 

[PRchick]

I hope he turns out good and well!

Do you realize this is a posting from 2020?