No air cell?

[forgetful]

I have 11 eggs in my incubator that are on day 4. When I candled them before putting them in only one egg, a Marans egg that is very dark, had a visible air cell. I checked all angles, and out of the 6 Marans and 5 wyandotte eggs, that is the only egg with an air cell. They are all from my personal flocks, and were only a day or two old when collected. I went ahead and started incubating, thinking I just made a mistake, and checked them again today. Still the same. I'm using a genesis, and have the humidity at 55% like recommended. They are in a room with a dehumidifier. Should I try lowering humidity and seeing if air cells show up? I could use some advice. Thanks!

Also, most of the wyandotte eggs were very porous, but I wanted to try a few so I only used the ones with smaller pores.












The only air cell I can see, and it is the darkest egg in there.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

You can not see the air cell because you are candling from the side/bottom. Shine your light down into the egg from the air cell end and you will find what you are looking for. Candle from the top-always the top if you want a clear picture.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

But... I wouldn't incubate at that high of humidity either. IMO anything over 45% especially in the styro bators is too high. I myself prefer 30%. Low humidity incubation or "dry" incubation in my opinion is the way to go. If you'd like to learn more you can read on it here: http://letsraisechickens.weebly.com...anuals-understanding-and-controlling-humidity

 

[forgetful]

Mrs. Amy, they look the same whether I position the light from the top or the bottom. I took photos that way since I couldn't hold the light on top and egg in one hand and the phone with another.

The one egg I mentioned does have an air cell, but I'm just not seeing it for the others. Thank you for the link to the dry hatching. I'm seriously considering it based on how these are going. Would changing to dry now be okay?

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Mrs. Amy, they look the same whether I position the light from the top or the bottom. I took photos that way since I couldn't hold the light on top and egg in one hand and the phone with another.

The one egg I mentioned does have an air cell, but I'm just not seeing it for the others. Thank you for the link to the dry hatching. I'm seriously considering it based on how these are going. Would changing to dry now be okay?

You can start dry incubation at anytime. No matter how far along you are in the hatch.

 

[forgetful]

So I went ahead and emptied all water from the incubator last night just to see what it would hold at on its own. Today I checked and it was at 20%, so I added a small amount of water and checked air cells. Progress has been made! They now all have small air cells. Thank you for the advice. I'm going to monitor them carefully and see what humidity is needed to get constant air cell growth

 

[AmyLynn2374]

So I went ahead and emptied all water from the incubator last night just to see what it would hold at on its own. Today I checked and it was at 20%, so I added a small amount of water and checked air cells. Progress has been made! They now all have small air cells. Thank you for the advice. I'm going to monitor them carefully and see what humidity is needed to get constant air cell growth

I have found that when running dry but it's a little low that adding a wet sponge instead of trying to figure out how much to put in the wells works great.