March 2017! Hatch with us!

[MontainBourbons]

Raise the humidity to 65% during lockdown.

I already do that but the eggs just don't pip.

I've done a little reading on this subject and the speculation is that eggs originating in lower elevation may not have porous enough shells to allow a developing chick the oxygen it needs for the final days of incubation.

Do you have any idea how to fix that???

 

[yeye5]

Well, my broody hen situation has good news and bad news. My full size hen, I moved a large dog crate into their coop (plenty of room), put a tarp on it, so nobody can sit on it and poo. I put food and water, hay and wood chips and moved over broody momma. She hated it and got off the nest (thankfully, I hadn't given her any eggs yet).

My silkies - I was told there were 2 silkies brooding...they were wrong. There was 1 silkie all by herself brooding, and in the other laying area there was a pile of 6 or 7 silkies brooding. I was easily able to section off the pile of silkies, so I slipped 6 eggs under the bottom/back hen. If they stay on those eggs, I'll probably give them 6 more tonight.

Has anyone else tried to brood under a PILE of silkies? Do I forcibly take out a few of the hens? Let them brood somewhere else?

Thanks!

Please please get pics and video! I've never heard of anything like that! It has to be quite a sight! Good luck!

 

[yeye5]

A healthy air cell is a small oval shape at the round end of the shell. It doesn't move. Shipped eggs especially have air cells that can be saddled, or ruptured or detached.

A detached air cell just sort of floats along the edge of the shell, but it's not ruptured. Sort of like a bubble. I don't know what a ruptured air cell looks like. A saddled air cell is when instead of being a small oval, it becomes longer and saddles both side of the top of the egg.

Can anyone else explain it better?

This is what the Hatching 101 thread says:

1. AIR CELL INFO for Incubation http://www.squidoo.com/mailed-shipped-fertilised-chickens-eggs-fertilized-hatching-chicken-egg A normal air cell in a freshly laid egg are dime sized up to quarter sized in a week-old or older egg, and fixed at the fat end and just looks like a line when candled.
From rough shipping it is possible to see detached, loose or rolling air sacs as seen in the picture. For those eggs, you need to change your hatch plan. They have to sit 24 hours always pointy end down, to see if the aircells will reattach, about half of them will in my experience. Either way, leave them in the egg carton for all 21 days of the hatch. Stop turning early at Day 16 not 18. It is possible to hatch chicks from eggs with detached air sacs when the cells never stabilized even after 24 hours, but were left upright for hatch. Make sure any turning is gentle, and no flatter than 45 degrees, more vertical is better! Disrupted, shattered or ruptured air sacs are seen when instead of one bubble on the side of the egg, there are more than one. Handling must be very rough in these situations and I believe can be enough to kill the embryo in the first place. These should have the same treatment as the detached air sac eggs, but don't re-candle after 24 hours, these won't reattach. Just having the air bubbles rising to the top of the eggs at the fat end while hatching the eggs vertically in trays gives any chicks that do grow chance to pip into the air cell. Likelihood of a chick hatching is lower than intact displaced air cell eggs, but worth a try if the eggs show no sign of spoilage or leaking.

The more I read and learn, the more clueless I realize I am!
The first time I saw detached air cells was last summer when the broody was killed by a predator just about 1/2 way through setting on the eggs. Since more of them were floating or moving along as a tilted the eggs I thought that's how they were supposed to look. I thought something was wrong with the ones that didn't move. It was a total failed hatch anyway at that point. I borrowed a friend's very cheap beginner incubator (which might have been fine under ideal conditions, who knows). The incubator failed a few days in.I tried to convince a hen to go broody. That was epic failure also. I was trying since the incubator didn't fit all the eggs. So total loss on that one.
Now knowing what I'm supposed to be looking for, I can maybe see it better.
I'm in the process of reading the link to the article (thank you WVduckchick) on the development day by day of the embryo. Had to take a break to walk dogs around day #11.
I also realize that since you kindly quoted me an article posted right here that I seriously need to back track and get into all of the posts I glanced at or overlooked before. Thank you so very much for not only the info on air cells but for making this need so beautifully clear to me!

What is that noise? Oh! It's the sound of my face hitting the inside of something hard...ah, maybe it's a shell...I think I'm pipping!

 

[ARiesb]

I think I'm doing something wrong. I just candled my eggs for the first time and I don't see veins. These are all dark shell. It just looks like half the egg is dark

 

[orrpeople]

I already do that but the eggs just don't pip.
Do you have any idea how to fix that???

A lot of folks try to only purchase local eggs or those originating from higher elevations. There is also a suggestion that a lot of assisting needs to happen because the chicks just don't have the O2 they need to successfully get out. Here's a link to one of the threads here on BYC.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/741091/hatching-shipped-eggs-at-high-elevation

 

[orrpeople]

I think I'm doing something wrong. I just candled my eggs for the first time and I don't see veins. These are all dark shell. It just looks like half the egg is dark

A couple of things to consider: for dark shells, I need to have the room in which I candle very dark, also, candle from the air sack side with the light pointing down and very little light escaping. If you're doing all of that, there's still the chance that the shell will be prohibiting your view. Wait until day 10 or 14 and try again. I found that with a bigger, moving chick, it was much easier to tell which ones were viable.

 

[orrpeople]

The more I read and learn, the more clueless I realize I am!
The first time I saw detached air cells was last summer when the broody was killed by a predator just about 1/2 way through setting on the eggs. Since more of them were floating or moving along as a tilted the eggs I thought that's how they were supposed to look. I thought something was wrong with the ones that didn't move. It was a total failed hatch anyway at that point. I borrowed a friend's very cheap beginner incubator (which might have been fine under ideal conditions, who knows). The incubator failed a few days in.I tried to convince a hen to go broody. That was epic failure also. I was trying since the incubator didn't fit all the eggs. So total loss on that one.
Now knowing what I'm supposed to be looking for, I can maybe see it better.
I'm in the process of reading the link to the article (thank you WVduckchick) on the development day by day of the embryo. Had to take a break to walk dogs around day #11.
I also realize that since you kindly quoted me an article posted right here that I seriously need to back track and get into all of the posts I glanced at or overlooked before. Thank you so very much for not only the info on air cells but for making this need so beautifully clear to me!  

What is that noise? Oh! It's the sound of my face hitting the inside of something hard...ah, maybe it's a shell...I think I'm pipping!

You're awesome! Trust me, we all feel like that at some point durng this process!

 

[Matthew01]

Just put 4 eggs in my homemade incubator wish me luck.

 

[orrpeople]

Just put 4 eggs in my homemade incubator wish me luck.

Wahoo! What kind of eggs?

 

[Matthew01]

2 from my RIR hen and Buff Orpington roo and 2 from my Buff Orpington hen and Buff Orpington roo.