Air sac determines sex.

[bantamsrmyfav]

What? Color of the egg doesn't have anything to do with how stressed a bird is

I meant white egg layers tend to be more flighty, especially my campine. She and the 2 polish are also lowest on pecking order

 

[bantamsrmyfav]

Although OEGB a lot of the hens are calm. I did have one OEGB broody hen that scared off my chihuahua who killed a Delaware hen.

 

[NatJ]

What? Color of the egg doesn't have anything to do with how stressed a bird is

When I think of flighty breeds, the ones that come to mind do lay white eggs.
And when I think of calm breeds, they mostly are brown egg breeds.

I expect it's like the connection between earlobe color and egg color: caused by what traits people selected in what breeds, not actually required by anything about the traits themselves.

 

[bantamsrmyfav]

Just candled the 6 eggs and there is development in each but I’m not sure how I thought the 2 polish eggs had side air cells. One does and I wrote it on the egg as well as in my notes. That one is from my golden polish. The other does not say side air cell and in fact looks centered. I think I put it in there because it has a high SI of 72. So that one may also be a cockerel. I got 2 more eggs with side air cells on this very cold day.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Just candled the 6 eggs and there is development in each but I’m not sure how I thought the 2 polish eggs had side air cells. One does and I wrote it on the egg as well as in my notes. That one is from my golden polish. The other does not say side air cell and in fact looks centered. I think I put it in there because it has a high SI of 72. So that one may also be a cockerel. I got 2 more eggs with side air cells on this very cold day.

The double aircell one has development. It's day 3.

 

[bantamsrmyfav]

It’s -8C this morning. The hens finish laying late afternoon. The day before yesterday I collected 2 eggs at 2:05 pm then found 2 more at 5 pm. It was 1 C. 3 eggs with centered air cells and the serama egg the air cell was not very distinguishable. On the 30th it was -3C and 4 eggs, all had side air cells.

It’s a high of 2 C. I was thinking they might not lay because of how cold it is at -8C at this time of 1:45 am but considering it’ll be 2C at 2PM there will probably be eggs. Considering it takes 24 hours for an egg to form and they do need to come out.

And I just realized something. There was an EE egg yesterday. So she isn’t broody like I thought. The day I thought she was broody she acted like it and stayed in the nest without laying an egg. At night the rabbits kicked her out of the nest and she went back to roosting.

They bit the foot of Pickles the golden polish on March 25 and she was limping that day with a bloodied toe. The cockerel Bradley must’ve either defended her or went after the rabbit that attacked his hen and was killed. Rabbits are so territorial. I wanted to rehome them but DH wants to keep them. I’ll be moving them to the Omlet even though that means they get less space. They can have it back in the winter when the hens aren’t laying.

I’ve found that the eggs with side air cells tend to be more dirty. They also have been laid on colder days. The rabbits are more likely to want those nest boxes due to the cold so they kick the hens off them mid lay or the hens will just lay them on the floor. One of the eggs in the incubator I was going to toss but she had two things going for her a side air cell and a high shape index of 72. So I took a paper towel with warm water and wiped off that protective bloom. That egg is developing but looks weird. I’m not too hopeful but going to try to be positive. Her sibling eggs have ranged from SI’s of 65-73 and those all have centered air cells (except for the egg laid yesterday with SI 73) which makes me want to ignore shape index if it weren’t for that 2023 study. But like someone said the chicks were only a week old when sexed so I’m going to go with air cells to hope for hens but I’ll still record SI numbers just in case it means anything.

If the EE egg with SI 72 with side air cell doesn’t make it maybe it’s sibling with SI 73 but centered air cell does. That egg was collected with another SI 73 egg that had a clearly centered air cell. This one that is in the incubator was a bit more off centered, just not off centered enough for me to consider the air cell a side air cell. To be a side air cell the air cell needs to be not viewable at all on one side of the egg. I’ll recandle again tonight to see if I see that and check on the weird egg to discard or not so it doesn’t infect the others.

 

[bantamsrmyfav]

The double aircell one has development. It's day 3.

Mine was on day 3 yesterday too. Maybe you’ll get twins? One time I set 8 eggs and 9 hatched. One of the chicks had a crooked neck and remained that way her whole life but she had no trouble eating and was a big bird. I didn’t see her hatch and am not sure how I missed two embryos during candling.

 

[NatJ]

I’ve found that the eggs with side air cells tend to be more dirty. They also have been laid on colder days. The rabbits are more likely to want those nest boxes due to the cold so they kick the hens off them mid lay or the hens will just lay them on the floor. One of the eggs in the incubator I was going to toss but she had two things going for her a side air cell and a high shape index of 72. So I took a paper towel with warm water and wiped off that protective bloom. That egg is developing but looks weird. I’m not too hopeful but going to try to be positive. Her sibling eggs have ranged from SI’s of 65-73 and those all have centered air cells (except for the egg laid yesterday with SI 73) which makes me want to ignore shape index if it weren’t for that 2023 study. But like someone said the chicks were only a week old when sexed so I’m going to go with air cells to hope for hens but I’ll still record SI numbers just in case it means anything.

Interesting observations about air cells, temperature when they were laid, and shapes.

I'm watching with interest to see what results you get

 

[MedicineMom]

Is it hogwash? I have no idea, BUT, I would love to know what your results are! It is always awesome to collect data and be able to either prove or disprove the amazing amount of information available on chickens. I will take tidbits of fact and fiction and amazing discoveries any day of the week. Inquiring minds want to KNOW

 

[bantamsrmyfav]

It was 0 C/32 F when I collected the eggs today at 5:30 PM. Despite me wondering if we wouldn't get any eggs today because of how cold it was around midnight, today was the most eggs we have ever gotten because all 7 hens laid:

2 centered air cells, 5 side.

• Elsie the EE's egg has a shape index of 67, side air cell. Her eggs have ranged from 65-73.
• Luz the Columbian Rock's is SI 69, side air cell. Her eggs had ranged 61-68 so this is her roundest egg.
• Betsy the Blue laced red Wyandotte's SI 76, centered air cell. Her egg was broken and the air cell larger than normal, possibly broken as well.
• Dustbunny the Serama's SI 80 (the roundest egg this season), side air cell.
• Pickles the Golden laced polish's SI 76, side air cell.

The remaining two white eggs I don't know which belongs to either Linh the Buff laced Polish or Belle the golden Campine. One of them is broken with a side air cell. The other a centered air cell.

The only three eggs I am sure of identity wise are the EE, serama and the gold polish's eggs. The EE because hers are the only green eggs, the serama because hers are the only tiny eggs, and the gold polish because out of the 3 food gel colors I have left yellow, blue and green it seems the blue and green have expired and no longer work. I thought maybe I should have put another drop in the BLRW and Campine's vents but these colors did not work on the button quail I had earlier this year either. I might mix the yellow with the green and blue gels separately tomorrow and add to their vents again. Maybe in a sandwich bag then draw it up in a syringe.

I didn't calculate the SI's for the two unidentified white eggs.

I candled the 6 incubator eggs again, all seem to be doing well. It's looking like when I originally checked their air cells and the roundest egg with SI 77 is the only one with a centered air cell. The other two that I thought may have actually had centered air cells yesterday today I slowly turned each side and did see a side where the air cell was not really visible. The air cells are larger now and I am not sure if it makes it easier to tell if they are side or centered. I would think not because eventually a side air cell may grow large enough to where I can actually see at least a bit of it on the side that hadn't shown it before.