Odd Shaped Egg Development on day 7

[apollora]

Hi everyone! This is my second time hatching out eggs and the first time I have weighed and marked the air cells. I have two questions if someone could help me out.

1. When I candled my eggs today at day 7 I came across one egg that looked odd (see below). There is a ton of movement in the egg but the surrounding area is much darker and the embryo seems larger than the others. I'm wondering if the odd shape will have any negative impact on the developing chick?

2. I weighed all the my eggs again and it looks like they have lost about 8.4% of their weight. I know they need to lose approximately 13% by day 18 and it seems like they're losing too much too fast to me but the air cells seem to correspond with diagrams I've seen for day 7. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Thank you in advance

 

[RubyNala97]

I hope I can help!

For question #1, was this egg shipped?

And question #2, can you post some pics so I can see how big the aircells are? You might want to increase your humidity a bit to slow down growth. The numbers don't lie BUT weighing only works if they are your own eggs and you weighed them when they were laid/collected. If they were shipped or bought there is no way to know how much weight was lost from the time they were laid until the time you received them and weighed them.

 

[apollora]

Yes the eggs were shipped. I will post more picture later tonight when I get home from work . Thank you!

 

[RubyNala97]

Yes the eggs were shipped. I will post more picture later tonight when I get home from work . Thank you!

Ok, that's what I thought. That's a pretty common shape for shipped eggs. It's kinda like a saddled shaped air cell. It should be ok. When hatch times comes the air cells grow considerably right before internal pip, it's called "draw down". When I've had shipped eggs that look like that they evened out when draw down happened. You just want to make sure that the chicks are able to internally pip into the aircells. Definitely post pics later and I'll take a look at the size of the air cells on the others. (Just make sure you handle them extra gently because they're shipped).

 

[RubyNala97]

And I just took another look at your pic. Is the air cell in that pic in the pointy end of the egg? I saw what looks like a traced air cell on the opposite end??

 

[apollora]

The pointy end is in my hand, the air cell is traced at the top. I took another pic and one of each of the other eggs in the bator. There were originally twelve, six were clear with the yolk at the bottom and the seventh had a blood ring.

#1: Here's the same egg in a darker room with the pointy end down.


Same egg, still pointy end down but I shone the light through the top.


Other eggs in the bator:

 

[RubyNala97]

Ok, I understand. So with the first egg the air cell was most likely detached or really loose when it arrived and partially detached when you started turning them. Are these in an auto-turner? That air cell is a crazy shape because it was loose and reattached in that shape. I had an egg like that but it quit during hatch time. I would recommend that you trace that aircell on day 18/19. What breed are these? If that egg makes it to lockdown you're going to have to keep an eye on it to see if the chick can pip into the air cell. There's a high chance that chick can be malpositioned due to the shape of the air cell. I would say that the air cells look a little big for day 7 on the others. They look big at the first trace. Which means they might not have been super fresh when they shipped out or shipping loosed up the air cells and made them appear bigger. What humidity are you running? And what incubator are you using. Increase by like 10% and recheck them at day 10 or 12.

 

[apollora]

Yes they are on an auto turner, with a Brinses Octagon 20 Eco, my hygrometer says it's running at 40% but I will add a little more water and see what it does. They are bantam Easter Egger eggs.

Thank you for the help, I will update this post along the way and make sure to keep an eye on it for hatching.

 

[RubyNala97]

Yes they are on an auto turner, with a Brinses Octagon 20 Eco, my hygrometer says it's running at 40% but I will add a little more water and see what it does. They are bantam Easter Egger eggs.

Thank you for the help, I will update this post along the way and make sure to keep an eye on it for hatching.

Bantam eggs tend to loose moisture faster/need a little higher humidity. That's the same incubator I have. I fill both wells and sit around 40% also, so I add a little cup (the small measuring cups that come with cough medicine) of water right into the black, plastic tray. But I prefer not to use the cradle and hand turn, so I don't know if that would work with the cradle. Maybe add a sponge to the tray. You gotta get creative with the octagon Eco. Lol.

 

[apollora]

That's a great idea, I've just been filling one well so far, I'll add fill the other one and see how they look in a few days.