Shipped eggs with detached air cell lockdown ??

[Shanna-stephens]

Hi everyone! I ordered some b/b/s orpington eggs and some b/b/s marans eggs from papas poultry. I have 3 orpington, and 5 marans (out of 23 eggs!) that have made it to this point. (Day 14) my automatic turner is the type that the eggs lay on their side in, so I decided to hand turn and keep them in an egg carton pointed end down Instesd of using it because the air cells were a mess. Some of the air cells are still detached. My questions are.

Should I leave them upright to hatch, as opposed to lying them on their side? Do I need to cut the bottom out of the carton if so? Will they be able to hatch that way?? Right now they are in a paper carton and I have been tilting them 4x a day with something propped underneath it. Anyways. Any advise is welcome. First experience with shipped eggs! Also... I read mixed opinions on when to stop turning... should I stop on 16 or go with the usual 18?

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Right now they are in a paper carton

If you decide to hatch upright, you will want to switch to a styrofoam carton is my understanding as they can get stuck to the paper more easily. I don't believe the bottoms should be cut out.

Some chicks might pip below where you can see and so some people have had to check and adjust the hatching egg position accordingly.

You CAN safely stop tuning eggs as early as day 14 if needed. I do not know if that will or won't help your air cells.

@WVduckchick your experience is always appreciated!

Happy hatching!

 

[WVduckchick]

I've incubated shipped eggs quite a few times, but never left any upright in cartons to hatch. All my bad air cells either reattached or quit developing.

I've read that hatching upright does help when the air cells are bad, but no personal experience. Sorry. (hatching upright always scared me, so I never tried it.)

@Shanna-stephens I am curious what type of incubator you are using?

 

[Shanna-stephens]

I've incubated shipped eggs quite a few times, but never left any upright in cartons to hatch. All my bad air cells either reattached or quit developing.

I've read that hatching upright does help when the air cells are bad, but no personal experience. Sorry. (hatching upright always scared me, so I never tried it.)

@Shanna-stephens I am curious what type of incubator you are using?

Maybe I am using the incorrect term?... when I candle, if I move the eggs slightly I can see "liquid" in the air cell area.. it isnt on the marans eggs, just the orpingtons that I am noticing it. I candled this morning and i can see active movement I wonder what the chances are of them actually hatching?

I have a hovabator genesis 1588

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Maybe I am using the incorrect term?... when I candle, if I move the eggs slightly I can see "liquid" in the air cell area.. it isnt on the marans eggs, just the orpingtons that I am noticing it. I candled this morning and i can see active movement I wonder what the chances are of them actually hatching?

I have a hovabator genesis 1588

I hatched eggs with detached air cells that never re attached as you describe... on their sides with lowest dip in the cell facing upwards at lock down after upright incubation in a standard turner... Several did hatch fine, though I had to cull some for splay leg or bent toes because I don't "fix" those type of issues ... and the 3 that remained were all cockerels. I think you are using the correct term. And it sounds like you have a good chance of some hatching successfully!

@Pyxis have you done this or any suggestions? @ChickenCanoe I know you have lots of experience but not sure if hatching is one. Thank you.

tilting them 4x a day with something propped underneath it.

Any manual turning should be an ODD amount of times per day, preferably. But I have messed this up dozens of times when I lost count or simply forgot when I was turning manually, with no negative outcome. Still best to aim for odd in your future practice.

Out of curiosity... are your air cells the same size on the Orp and Marans eggs? And where did you keep your humidity so far?

Active movement is awesome!

 

[Shanna-stephens]

I hatched eggs with detached air cells that never re attached as you describe... on their sides with lowest dip in the cell facing upwards at lock down after upright incubation in a standard turner... Several did hatch fine, though I had to cull some for splay leg or bent toes because I don't "fix" those type of issues ... and the 3 that remained were all cockerels. I think you are using the correct term. And it sounds like you have a good chance of some hatching successfully!

@Pyxis have you done this or any suggestions? @ChickenCanoe I know you have lots of experience but not sure if hatching is one. Thank you.


Any manual turning should be an ODD amount of times per day, preferably. But I have messed this up dozens of times when I lost count or simply forgot when I was turning manually, with no negative outcome. Still best to aim for odd in your future practice.

Out of curiosity... are your air cells the same size on the Orp and Marans eggs? And where did you keep your humidity so far?

Active movement is awesome!

I am going to look at the aircell sizes when I get home. I hadn't thought to compare the two...

So, why is it better for an odd number? Just out of curiosity...? I guess ive never heard that before. I've never tried to do that. Though I guess I did turn one batch just 3 times a day but that wasnt intentional. Anyways. I was just curious. i run my humidity around 45-50% the first 17 days.

 

[Shanna-stephens]

I am going to look at the aircell sizes when I get home. I hadn't thought to compare the two...

So, why is it better for an odd number? Just out of curiosity...? I guess ive never heard that before. I've never tried to do that. Though I guess I did turn one batch just 3 times a day but that wasnt intentional. Anyways. I was just curious. i run my humidity around 45-50% the first 17 days.

Edit... it's because of the egg sitting in the same side too long??? I gotcha. I had heard that. I just set an alarm and do it every 6 hours so it's all the same but I completely understand what you're saying if that's the reason.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I like to run a bit lower than that for dark eggs, since shipped they may be a tad older anyways... that sounds pretty good though.

Yes not sitting in one place too long ensures the embryo's get access to new nutrients regularly as well as not sticking to the shell. An odd number of times per day ensure it isn't left on the same side several times over night every night, when most people spend their longest time away.

It's not all the same, Curiosity is great!

 

[Shanna-stephens]

I like to run a bit lower than that for dark eggs, since shipped they may be a tad older anyways... that sounds pretty good though.

Yes not sitting in one place too long ensures the embryo's get access to new nutrients regularly as well as not sticking to the shell. An odd number of times per day ensure it isn't left on the same side several times over night every night, when most people spend their longest time away.

It's not all the same, Curiosity is great!

Okay. Makes perfect sense... I did look at the air cells and they all look very similar. One orp egg did appear to have a slightly larger one but all the rest were similar in size.. on another note, my husband and I are going to be gone for the day tomorrow. I was planning to ask my father in law to turn these babies but I saw you mentioned that they could go without being turned after day 14. Tomorrow is day 15. Would it be unwise to just turn them when we leave at 5:30 a.m and let them sit (upright) until we return late tomorrow night? If so, should I resume turning when I get home or sinceit's so close to lockdown just quit turning??

 

[WVduckchick]

Terms are a bit confusing and used kinda interchangeably. But to me, ‘detached’ is when the air cell floats all around the egg, totally loose, no matter which end of the egg is up or down, the air cell floats to the top. If it’s just stretched from the original small circle, I call that ‘saddled’. Like the egg sat on its side in the box, and it caused the two membranes to slightly separate around the original area. Usually it’s down two sides, like a saddle.

Anyway, another way to hatch with messed up air cells is to cut short (1” maybe?) pieces of a paper towel/toilet paper roll, and place the eggs upright in them. You can actually tilt the egg a little, depending on the position of the chick. Usually the darkest area, up closest to the air cell is the back of the chicks neck and the chick should pip on the opposite side from that. So I would slightly slant the egg with the expected pip side highest.

As far as turning while you were gone, I wouldn’t worry about having someone come to do it. They should be fine.