Progress of eggs with bad air cells, so far...

[dancingbear]

On 4/25, I set some shipped eggs with damaged air cells. I have them in a carton bottom, with extra slits cut in the cups for good air circulation. I didn't start turning them until day 6. I'm not using the auto turner, I don't want them in constant motion, and I don't want them tipped as far as the turner tips them. I'm just lifting and propping one end of the 'bator, then the other, several times a day, with some sitting upright time in between, to try and keep the air cells in the big end.

Day 10, I removed the clears, and the ones that looked like they died early. Out of 21 shipped eggs, I have 11 left, 2 of which are pretty iffy, but I left in for now. So 8 that look pretty good, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that these make it to the finish line.

I have 4 more eggs from my own hens in there too, they look good. I put them in, so that if I only get one or two chicks from the shipped eggs, they'll have company. I had to raise a single chick from a poor hatch last year, she was so sad all alone.

 

[jacyjones]

Good luck with the ones you have left.

 

[walkswithdog]

Luck Jenny I got five with damaged air cells to hatch that way, though they did have a lot of water loss over the hatch - the last candling they had HUGE air celss, and I had to boost humidity past my normal hatch level.

Three also needed a bit of help but of the five, four are strong healthy MOUTHY SPOILED and gorgeous. Oddly it wasn't one of the ones I helped zip that died. That one hatched itself then didn't go. Go figure.

Best of luck.

 

[dancingbear]

Thanks, both of you. Some of these are Salmon Faverolle, and some Buckeye. The Buckeye's are down to 3. with 2 being the iffy ones. It looks like I'll get some SF's, though,

and with luck, at least one Buckeye. If I only get one of those, I hope it's a girl!

These are from Gatekeeper, he did a good job packing, and even sent me some replacements after the PO beat the heck out of them, but I think the route between our locations must be a rough one. My postmistress said there's be a a plane trip involved in that distance, maybe that's why they got so messed up.

 

[jacyjones]

Wow! I bought eggs off Ebay here in the UK and it is a simple trip by train and post van - no planes involved over here thank goodness!! I forget when I read posts on here the distances involved in teh US - another world!!

 

[dancingbear]

Eggs were due to hatch Friday, 5/15. So far, only one of my own home-grown eggs has hatched. After day 18, I was down to 3 homegrown eggs, and 10 shipped. All the rest were either clears, or quitters. Waiting a couple more days. Some of the eggs feel cooler than the others, I'm pretty sure those are dead. But this late in the game, I may as well wait and make sure.

 

[chickenlittle32]

Sorry to hijack but I was curious as to what a quitter looks like.

 

[dancingbear]

Depends on how far along it was when it quit. An early quitter may look just like a clear (infertile) except for a faint ring of blood. One later may be a dark smear, no veining visible. The further along it was, the larger the dark area. If it's nearly hatch day when it quits, you may see nothing but dark. Some pip, but then die.

 

[RuffTuffCreampuff]

Subscribing. I plan on experimenting too, with the next batch I get with damaged aircells....so I'm curious how your project goes. Good luck.

Pam

 

[dancingbear]

Well, this one's over. The only egg that hatched was one of my own, not a single one of the shipped eggs hatched. I also lost 3 of my own eggs, which surprised me. So, for the next batch, going in as soon as I get the temp/humidity stable, will be a little different.

It seem like I got much better hatches when I first started and didn't know so much. I put water in the spaces provided in the LG, didn't have a hygrometer at all, and only had the crappy therm that came with it. I had good hatches.

Now I have a hygrometer, two more therms, supposedly better ones, a turner and a fan. I've had good hatches with the fan and turner, but since I started watching humidity, and keeping it "where it's supposed to be" I'm getting poor hatches. So I'm reverting back to what I did, way back when.

I have 15 Dorking eggs and a dozen guinea eggs to set. I know they have different incubation times, but not having a broody handy to take these guinea eggs before they get too old, I need to start them now. Maybe another hen will go broody any old time now, and I'll be able to transfer the guinea eggs to her, before time to hatch the Dorking eggs. Or maybe I'll finish a homemade hatcher before then.

Guinea eggs are pretty hardy, I think they'll be ok anyway.

The Dorking eggs were shipped, but look pretty good. Several air cells have the "amoeba effect", but only one "floating bubble" air cell, and a few are even normal, or very nearly normal. Much less damage than this last bunch. So we'll see what happens.