Question about shipped eggs - when to call it over?

[UThobbyfarmer]

Adding a fan will help with the cool spots.
I have a concern about using the tilted egg carton method of turning in a still air incubator. There will be over a degree difference in the upper tier of eggs and the bottom tier due to thermal stratification.

In my still air there's a full 4° difference between the bottom of the egg that touches the rack and the top of the eggs. This averages out to 99.5.

When I've hatched in cartons I've never made special accomodations for the upright eggs and temperature. I don't tilt the whole carton (in fact the carton never moves). I just gently twist or tip the eggs in their carton wells 1/4 turn. There are so many nuances to hatching. I'm just sharing what I've done in the past that worked for me.

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

duh, this is right, not sure how I confused these

though I was under the impression that detached air cells are obvious on candling?

I would say so. But it's definitely subjective. It would depend on what you're candling with, egg color, angle you're candling at and experience of the candler.

 

[suburbanfarm]

If humidity was too high air cells will be SMALL with fluid in eggs.

If humidity was too low you'd have LARGE air cells.

The air cells sound like they were damaged and saddled. That causes malposition and trouble hatching (late quitters).
Shipped eggs are known for late quitters. Consider incubating and hatching shipped eggs upright next round. I've had slightly better hatch rates like this is with shipped eggs. Like an extra 1/12 will hatch. It's not much but it is a trend for me. Some hatches are just rougher than others. I'm so sorry you're experiencing this for your first one. Consider trying local eggs first. Just a normal hatch go dial in what humidity you need for your area. Than try shipped eggs. Best of luck with the next round.

Here are some links that help with troubleshooting a bad hatch:

http://extension.msstate.edu/content/trouble-shooting-failures-egg-incubation

https://web.extension.illinois.edu/eggs/res24-00.html

It's possible that the air cells were about the right size. I thought they were a bit big, but I'm still learning. They were about a third of the egg. Most of the air cells were at the end (not saddled).

I was finding it hard to decide whether to hatch upright or lay down. I thought it seemed quite mixed love/hate on hatching upright, so I thought laying them down seemed like a safer option. But I'm happy to try upright. I've got some shipped eggs in now, so I'll need to decide which way to go.

I have done several rounds of local eggs before doing the shipped. But after this batch of shipped eggs that I have on currently I'll stick to local only for quite some time.

It's also summer where I am, so I have recently learnt that it's not a great time for hatching in general, so the odds are somewhat stacked against me! But I'm doing my best and learning what I can

 

[suburbanfarm]

Adding a fan will help with the cool spots.
I have a concern about using the tilted egg carton method of turning in a still air incubator. There will be over a degree difference in the upper tier of eggs and the bottom tier due to thermal stratification.

It is a fan incubator, janoel 24

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

It's possible that the air cells were about the right size. I thought they were a bit big, but I'm still learning. They were about a third of the egg. Most of the air cells were at the end (not saddled).

I was finding it hard to decide whether to hatch upright or lay down. I thought it seemed quite mixed love/hate on hatching upright, so I thought laying them down seemed like a safer option. But I'm happy to try upright. I've got some shipped eggs in now, so I'll need to decide which way to go.

I have done several rounds of local eggs before doing the shipped. But after this batch of shipped eggs that I have on currently I'll stick to local only for quite some time.

It's also summer where I am, so I have recently learnt that it's not a great time for hatching in general, so the odds are somewhat stacked against me! But I'm doing my best and learning what I can

You're good. In the right place. Asking the right questions. DIS is the bane of shipped eggs. It's hard to know which way to error. Even in the best of circumstances it feels like a roll of the dice.

Since you're interested I'll elaborate on what I do with hatching upright. If their air cells are bad (anything other than minor saddling) I will hatch upright BUT if they look good I'll still hatch horizontally. Either way I hand turn. This is based on my experience with good and bad hatches of shipped eggs upright vs horizontal. Whichever orientation I incubate I will hatch those eggs in. Incubating horizontally and hatching upright has never yielded great for me. The difference is slight but I do feel the trend is there enough to warrant sharing my experiences with others.

A "good hatch" for me is 50% on shipped eggs. I've gotten as high as 14/20. I always include every egg that goes into the incubator in my numbers. Even if they're cracked/repaired, saddled, never develop, or whatnot. If they go in for any period of time they count one way or another towards my "hatch rate".