What do you do with a no-air-cell egg?

[Chotii]

I have some shipped eggs, due to hatch the 29th. They are developing well, and the air cell breakage I saw or thought I saw early on, turned out either not true, or self-healing in most. I have these in egg cartons to give them the best chance possible.

But there is one, which sustained a tiny crack at the small end (sealed with candle wax) in which I can see no air cell at the big end, though there is a crack-related "air pocket" at the small end. The peep seems to be alive and growing, but....

What do you do if the egg has no obvious air cell? The shell is fairly porous and hard to see through compared to the others and I suppose it's possible I'm just missing seeing the air cell....but it honestly looks to me like the peep is simply sitting up against the "roof" of the shell.

I had hoped that by keeping the humidity on the low end of 'dry' (35%) there would develop faux air cells at the top of the eggs, even if they had lost their normal ones. But evidently peeps float! I've now bumped humidity to 50% and am holding it there, not wanting them to dehydrate too much.

Suggestions on this one?

 

[Akane]

Leave them and see what happens. There's not really anything you can do. No you can't "create" an air cell. Whatever air space is there will just get bigger while the chick pushes the membrane to fill the rest of the egg. Keeping the large end upright to try to direct current air pockets to the top is the best you can do. I've had plenty of chicks hatch without going through the air cell. They tend to pip early probably because they can't breathe and then sit longer than the others but most do hatch.