No air cell?

[Susan Skylark]

Okay, I’m about to go into lockdown with 10 quail eggs, these are home raised eggs, max 4 days old at incubation, outside temps high of mid sixty when collected, incubator temp stable, a couple infertile but the rest developing fine, these eggs are out of 3 hens so I have multiple eggs from each, this is far from my first time candling or incubating eggs, so with all those caveats why does one egg not have an obvious air cell? Even when my eggs are dark the air cell usually glows brightly, this is almost two weeks on a dry hatch (humidity has been as low as 20%). It may be a loose air cell that floats around but if so I can’t find it. This hen’s other eggs are fine. I even water candled it, it floats and may be alive (I swear it bobbed a bit but this is also me the wishful thinker) so I left it in the incubator and tried candling over the floaty area without changing the angle or inverting the egg but nothing! So either the shell is extremely thick and no light is getting through, the air cell is dislocated and rather shy, or it was made without one. Just curious if anyone has dealt with this in a random home raised egg and if so, did it hatch? It will be interesting to open if it doesn’t hatch.

 

[Debbie292d]

I've had a couple of shipped eggs I couldn't find the aircell until after they were a week or so incubated. Those ended up being on the side and I couldn't find it initially. I'd just wait a week and see what you see then. It's got to have one.

 

[Susan Skylark]

They’ll be hatching in a couple days so we’ll find out then!

 

[BoundlessLove]

Susan, I know absolutely nothing about quail eggs, but I hope you have 100% hatch rate.

 

[Susan Skylark]

Thanks!

 

[farmer90]

I've had a couple of completely dark eggs prior lockdown (my own not shipped). Not sure what causes it. Usually I draw a big ? on the egg that I'm not completely sure of and leave them in just in case. I've gotten healthy chicks out of at least two ? Eggs.

 

[Susan Skylark]

So we’re on day 17, usual hatch day for statistically observant quail, a little late for me (most hatch mid day 16) but I think my incubator is running a little cool. Mr. No Air Sac pipped fine and the crack was expanding, the other eggs were pipping as well. We have 9 hatched and two to go which is odd since I thought I had 10 eggs (sorry no twins just bad counting!). I did treat the No air cell guy like a backwards chick, widening the pip hole a bit and chipping away at the shell if needed, he’s alive and well but still not quite ready to hatch, still a little blood on the membranes. The other egg is pipped and something is tapping away in there. My second chick to hatch was a brunette, all these guys should be blonde! This is proof that bird semen can survive in the hens repro tract for over a week! So assuming these last two birds hatch do I get a 11/10 hatch rate? Isn’t this just another example of chicken math? Definitely no air cell in the base of the egg, either it doesn’t have one or it is elsewhere, but the chick himself is fine!