Eggs Weight Loss

[hayoungyun]

Hi! Today's day 15 for my egg and yesterday I weighed my egg and it was 35g. The original weight of the egg was 42g. I calculated and got about 16% weight loss. Is this all right? I'm a newbie with eggs, chicks, and chickens so don't really know that much. But I do know that an eggs supposed to lose 11%~14% weight so is it all right? Thanks in advance!

 

[WalnutHill]

That is a bit too much weight loss for this stage of development. You still have a few days to help make it up. Is this the only egg in your incubator? If so, raise your humidity in the incubator to about 60-65%. If you can't measure the humidity, add more water to the water channels and add small trays or bowls of water around the inside of the incubator. If you start seeing condensation in the window corners, remove some of the added water containers, one at a time, until the condensation no longer forms.

If you have other eggs in your incubator, candle them or weigh them to see if they have also lost too much water. If not, that one egg may just have a shell that is more porous. There aren't any really good solutions for this problem.

 

[hayoungyun]

but why is weight loss so important? Wht problem can happen if the egg loses too much weight?

 

[WalnutHill]

If the egg has too little moisture, the chick's blood may be too thick, the albumen may be too thick to swallow, and the membranes inside the egg may be tough and leathery. The chick can't just step over to the water bowl and take a drink...all moisture is contained within the shell and can't be replenished, only conserved.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

but why is weight loss so important? Wht problem can happen if the egg loses too much weight?

Another importance (the big one in my book) is weight loss is parrellel with loss of moisture and air cell growth which is very important at hatch time. I do not weigh my eggs, I use the air cell monitoring method instead (I find easier and more pointed to the goal.) I use this method: http://letsraisechickens.weebly.com...anuals-understanding-and-controlling-humidity

 

[hayoungyun]

Thanks for telling me!

 

[hayoungyun]

by the way, is a porous egg bad?

 

[AmyLynn2374]

by the way, is a porous egg bad?

I wouldn't say "bad". I've had a few that were rather porous that were just fine. Alot of more particular hatchers won't set a really porous egg.

 

[WalnutHill]

by the way, is a porous egg bad?

Just consider a porous egg to have a slightly increased risk factor. If incubator conditions are perfect, a porous egg should perform just fine. For high temp or low humidity situations, a porous egg has a greater chance for failure, or an earlier chance of failure. If the shell is also fragile, as some porous eggs are, that is another risk factor.

 

[hayoungyun]

but what is a porous egg?