Incubating Shipped Eggs for the First Time

[aart]

that air cell grows in a clear egg just like the others.

Yep, they do.
I tried weighing, found tracing air cells easier(visuals).
Have had Marans eggs (and even some blues, green, olives) to be almost impossible to see embryo growth, some times you can't even see the air cell to trace it.

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

I just finished an article I wrote on hatching shipped eggs, if its any interest to you.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/hatching-shipped-eggs.75470/

 

[BluebirdHomestead]

I just finished an article I wrote on hatching shipped eggs, if its any interest to you.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/hatching-shipped-eggs.75470/

This is great thanks!

 

[aliciaplus3]

I always suggest erring on the lower side, but for sure weighing to k ow where you should be for your specific location. Either way, giving a number to another person is a guess at best.

What I know for myself is I’ve hatched lots of eggs this year with 20-25% or more loss in weight by lockdown. I’ve hatched hardly 0 that lost less than 10%. It seems there’s a drastically higher chance at hatching with too much weight loss than too little. I think that’s why so many people see success with “dry” incubation.

Very nicely put!
I always hate when the incubator comes with instructions to run at 50% and folks that have never included follow the instructions, they are always wanting to know why it didn't hatch every single egg.
I have a local friend that is incubating marans eggs, the eggs are from here so no major issues but I was able to convince her not to run 50% humidity so hopefully she will be able to hatch some.