I hope this is the last question for a while I just got my shipped eggs, and have placed them w/ pointy end down to sit. 1) My question is that I have two that are pretty oval. How do I know which end is up? 2) Also, this is probably also a dumb question, but when candling them, I keep them with the pointy end down? 3) AND, I candle today to check air cells, right? Are there any pics anywhere so I know what the air cell should look like??? Thank you so much!
Candle them the pointy ones should have one air cell put that end up. I candle them in while they're horizontal. There should be one solid air cell at the bigger end of each egg. If it looks like lots of little bubbles or the air cell moves all the way around freely while rotating the egg probably not going to hatch. With highly damaged air cells (and even some of completely loose air celled rare or expensive eggs ) I put them in the incubator but don't turn them for the first 5-7 days. I've had damaged air cell eggs (ducks and chickens) hatch but never completely loose ones. Sorry I don't have photos. Aprille
It's very hard to tell if there are loose air cells in your egg if the egg has a lot of pores, What I do is when I candle them I move them side to side to see if the air cell moves with me, then I instantly know it's loose. The dead give away that an egg does not have loose air cell is you can see an imprint, sort of speaking, it will be a dark outline around the air cells. NOT so dark that it looks like mold or anything more like a pencil outline...Those usualy mean they are good for hatching. But even if there are loose air cells put them in the incubator any way, let them set. I have a loose air cell egg right now due for lockdown this friday. When I candled him yesterday he was alive and kicking just fine. Of course, I had 7 others with loose air cells with him and they didn't quite make it.. they just quit but I am lucky to get that one at least... When candling you not only do you want to check for loose air cells but you want to check for hair line cracks as well.. Sometimes you can't see the cracks by looking at the egg but when you candle them, booom it's there, if you end up with one, a great suggestion on this website that I know for a fact works really well is to take a regular candle and cover the crack with the candle wax. IT WORKS WONDERFULLY, I had dropped an egg on day 4 of incubating, it cracked, I put the wax on, needless to say it's going in lockdown on friday as well.... Yes, when I candled him yesterday even though it got cracked at a very early time in it's life, it was alive and kicking....
Oh one more thing, sorry, When I candle I do it horizontally.. sometimes you can't see the loose air cell that way, that's when you want to do it veritcally and move it side to side... Air cells are always on the bigger end if that helps with your 1st question...
