Wonky Donky Air Cells - But Not Wobbly

[Quispherer]

Hey fellow egg hatching peoples. I've seen a lot about detached air cells and wobbly air cells and the general advice I've seen is to put them in a good position, barely move them, and pray for the best.

Would that have made this not happen?

Is that what people mean when they say saddled? I haven't seen any diagrams or anything that felt helpful in understanding what people mean by that. It is like a peanut/saddle shape.

I didnt candle before putting them in, totally forgot, and so a few from this brood had wobbly cells that just did not develop ever. Again Im unsure if setting them in place longer than the 3 days I already do would have changed this?

As it is I have two of these.

Great veins, development is on time and on par with the other eggs with normal healthy cells.

What does this mean for the chick inside? Is that whole air cell hollow or does the chick extend part way into it? They seem huge but if they're shallow then I guess they're normal size?

I've been experimenting with stopping my turner early, and wonder if that would help these at all? Would the continuous turning actually help them at this point?

So far I haven't done anything different, still my normal humidity and turning, we're on Day 9 out of 17 so they may not even make it to lockdown but I want to try. I'm down to half my eggs after candling so I really want these babies to work out.

Would also love to see pics of similar air cells other people have dealt with? Whether they hatched successfully or not. Thanks everyone

 

[Debbie292d]

Yes, that's saddled. I see that alot on shipped eggs as I've received about 8 shipments of hatching eggs this year. I did also have one hen that was laying those for some odd reason, but she stopped. She's three now.

Most of the time, those hatch fine themselves. I just mark those and watch in the incubator as the rest are hatching to see if those are pipping. Many times they'll pip in the middle of the shell instead of toward the wide end, but they still finagle their way out. It's ones that don't pip, or if they do, 24 hours has gone by, when I will intercede.

You might want to read this ahead of time, but it's an excellent article about assisting any poultry to hatch.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/guide-to-assisted-hatching-for-all-poultry.72886/

 

[Susan Skylark]

On shipped eggs saddled air cells is a sign of trauma, but the cause of the hatching issues associated with them is actually the shipping trauma which damages the genetic material and makes developmental issues and low hatch rates way more likely. I got a 25% hatch rate (90% on home raised) on a batch of shipped quail eggs with saddled air cells, curiously I got about the same hatch or no hatch rate on eggs that were saddled or normal, so air cell shape doesn’t appear to predict hatchability on individual traumatized eggs but is a bad sign for the entire batch. On home raised eggs, unless you’re playing ping pong or something, air cell anomalies are likely a fluke or genetic issue and probably don’t have a major impact on hatchability (maybe a slight drop in success like a backwards chick). I hatched one a couple months back with no air cell, the chick was runty but it hatched. Always something new!

 

[Quispherer]

Yes, that's saddled. I see that alot on shipped eggs as I've received about 8 shipments of hatching eggs this year. I did also have one hen that was laying those for some odd reason, but she stopped. She's three now.

Most of the time, those hatch fine themselves. I just mark those and watch in the incubator as the rest are hatching to see if those are pipping. Many times they'll pip in the middle of the shell instead of toward the wide end, but they still finagle their way out. It's ones that don't pip, or if they do, 24 hours has gone by, when I will intercede.

You might want to read this ahead of time, but it's an excellent article about assisting any poultry to hatch.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/guide-to-assisted-hatching-for-all-poultry.72886/

Thanks a ton, I'll mark them when I do lockdown so I can a close eye on them! Thanks for the link, I had to assist one on my very first hatch and it was a set from the same seller, but I keep losing the link to this one and the other assisted hatch guide haha.

 

[Quispherer]

On shipped eggs saddled air cells is a sign of trauma, but the cause of the hatching issues associated with them is actually the shipping trauma which damages the genetic material and makes developmental issues and low hatch rates way more likely. I got a 25% hatch rate (90% on home raised) on a batch of shipped quail eggs with saddled air cells, curiously I got about the same hatch or no hatch rate on eggs that were saddled or normal, so air cell shape doesn’t appear to predict hatchability on individual traumatized eggs but is a bad sign for the entire batch. On home raised eggs, unless you’re playing ping pong or something, air cell anomalies are likely a fluke or genetic issue and probably don’t have a major impact on hatchability (maybe a slight drop in success like a backwards chick). I hatched one a couple months back with no air cell, the chick was runty but it hatched. Always something new!

No air cell is crazy! I didn't think they could fully develop without one.

But that makes a ton of sense! Most of my eggs I have held at the post office, they've had great hatch rates, but these weren't and last time I only hatched 3/15. Same breeder, also not held at the post office, and I just candled and removed 50% of the eggs, majority with zero development. I got them knowing they were more fragile because of the breeding project they're part of but I have to figure the shipping had a big hand in it as well.

So shipping trauma is basically one of those things you want to prevent as much as possible because there isn't a whole lot you can do to fix it once its been done? It really seems like all you can do is set the wobbly air cells without turning and pray lol, but so far none of my wobbly cells made it anywhere in development. My incubator has them on their sides so that may be part of it as well? I certainly feel like I'm learning every day lol

 

[Debbie292d]

No air cell is crazy! I didn't think they could fully develop without one.

But that makes a ton of sense! Most of my eggs I have held at the post office, they've had great hatch rates, but these weren't and last time I only hatched 3/15. Same breeder, also not held at the post office, and I just candled and removed 50% of the eggs, majority with zero development. I got them knowing they were more fragile because of the breeding project they're part of but I have to figure the shipping had a big hand in it as well.

So shipping trauma is basically one of those things you want to prevent as much as possible because there isn't a whole lot you can do to fix it once its been done? It really seems like all you can do is set the wobbly air cells without turning and pray lol, but so far none of my wobbly cells made it anywhere in development. My incubator has them on their sides so that may be part of it as well? I certainly feel like I'm learning every day lol

Trauma is a strong word for saddled eggs, especially considering I had a hen that would lay those regularly. She doesn't anymore and no clue why she did that in the first place.

I used to get a 70% hatch rate on shipped eggs, and this past year, I'm tickled to get 25%. I've been ordering twice or triple the eggs, just to get a few keepers.

 

[Quispherer]

Trauma is a strong word for saddled eggs, especially considering I had a hen that would lay those regularly. She doesn't anymore and no clue why she did that in the first place.

I used to get a 70% hatch rate on shipped eggs, and this past year, I'm tickled to get 25%. I've been ordering twice or triple the eggs, just to get a few keepers.

I didn't even know they could just lay them that way I thought it was always shipping.

That's quite a difference in hatch rates. You think its the heat or some other reason or just the shipping companies? 20%-25% is basically what I've gotten so far out of 3 hatches, the bobwhites I've got hatching now look close to 60% so I'm pretty happy about that at least.

 

[Debbie292d]

I didn't even know they could just lay them that way I thought it was always shipping.

That's quite a difference in hatch rates. You think its the heat or some other reason or just the shipping companies? 20%-25% is basically what I've gotten so far out of 3 hatches, the bobwhites I've got hatching now look close to 60% so I'm pretty happy about that at least.

Not the weather as I ordered most of the eggs right when the threat of freezing was over, so like in April.