I have some Araucana eggs that all came in the mail with completely detached air cells. I'm incubating them upright in cartons in my incubator. I am very excited! Our town allows us to have chickens. I really hope these hatch
One of the eggs has a blue stripe across the middle of the egg too! I've not seen anything like it before. What do you think?
Welcome to BYC and best of luck with your hatch! The blue ring around the egg could be because of a hiccup in the egg formation process. I would keep an eye on it though and see how it develops.
I rest them for a day or two then incubate upright without turning for 2-3 days then do the rest as normal. Has worked well for me so far. Good luck!
Thanks! If these hatched I would be surprised :0 Have you ever seen an egg with a blue stripe? Sumi, you mentioned it could be from a hiccup during the formation. Could you expand on that some? I find it intriguing.
I think you may enjoy this article I put together on egg "hiccups" and their causes. Uneven pigmentation and related egg shell colour is covered under #7: https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/common-egg-quality-problems
Thank you! Yes, I did enjoy the article and it was a joy to read. You referred me to your part of the article that explained pigment irregularities to better explain the blue band on the egg. I'm curious though, would that apply to araucana eggs? I was getting the impression that the pigment irregularities in your article was a hiccup in the 'painting' process of egg laying. Araucanas blue pigment is in the shell, not formed as a 'paint' on the top layer. So I'm thinking it may be apart of an irregular she'll development. Though the shell isn't thicker across the banded part as far as I can tell. Hmm. Thank your for the article!
I would suspect the egg to perhaps be thinner at the darker areas, meaning less calcium to dilute the color in those areas.