"Loose" Air Cells? What Does It Mean??

[Chickie Mamma]

Hello, I was just wondering, if the air cell is "loose" or "jiggly", does that mean infertile or damaged while shipping? The last 2 batches I had shipped, I noticed this. Thanks...

 

[Chicken Woman]

Hope someone answers as I have seen the same in my non shipped eggs.

 

[marytoast]

Same question. Loose cells. are they damaged? Dead?

 

[hinkjc]

Typically it is from shipping. Even though the egg didn't get damaged externally (i.e. broken shell), they take a lot of abuse internally (i.e. shaken up). Sometimes they hatch, sometimes they don't. I would monitor closely.

For eggs not shipped, I would guess it is due to age of the egg or handling. Could also be improper storage humidity.

 

[skeeter9]

The loose air cells are damaged, but that doesn't mean the eggs won't hatch. There's no way to tell by candling just how bad it is, so you just have to let them incubate for a while, then check for development. If the cell is floating around in the egg, you may as well toss it.

Hope this helps. Hopefully some of your loosey-gooseys will hatch!!

 

[Chickie Mamma]

Quote:
Thank you so much! Out of 12 eggs shipped, only 2 are developing and the rest have "loose" air cells. One egg was broken so I am sure the PO was playing catch. So, I guess at day 8 I can dump the "loose" ones huh?

I have had horrible luck! Last year I had many eggs shipped and had great hatches. This year

It happens!

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

It has been my experience that only a very very low percentage will hatch. This is caused by the ruff handleing they sometimes encounter dureing shipping, i.e., shaking, dropping, airplanes, trucks, hands, conveior belts etc...

If the cell is simply loose, moves from side to side as you candle and roll the egg, it has a 50% chance, though the chick , if it hatches may not survive.

Now there is also a more extreme, to the point of where the cell actually ruptured, these are toast!

You can quickly identify these when precandleing (which I highly recommend on shipped eggs)

The air from the cell will be floating all threw the egg, either in a big ball or in tiny bubbles. You can try these if you like, but they are not going to develop.

I am so glad you brought this topic up.
So often buyers will accuse their sellers of shipping infertile eggs, when actually, shipping damage is to blame! If everyone would check(candle) their shipped in egg on arrival, then a lot of the false accusations would stop. As mentioned above, cracked or broken is not the only type of damage eggs can get. Infact, that rarely ever happens, what you have is the #1 type of shipping damage.

Hate to hear you got some shook up ones though!
Aubrey

 

[sewincircle]

That is a good point. Just because the shell is not broken does not mean they were not exposed to extreme temps and that as well. Its tough when you have to rely on the mail. I hope your hatches get better!!!

 

[Chickie Mamma]

Thanks everyone! There were tiny bubbles in some also. I thought the "bubbles" were from a small crack that I couldn't see. But after candling, there were no cracks. They were probably bounced around. I wish the PO would understand what "FRAGILE" means. The one Silkie that hatched out last week out of 13 eggs, will be named "Lucky" because it was! Probably has some brain damage