Air sac of eggs too big!! SOS please help me!

[nicoschill]

I m new in breeding ducks. My eggs are in the incubator for 9 days. I m very sad because I think I've messed up the process. My incubator is a forced air incubator. At first I thought it was a still air incubator and I've set the temperature a little bit higher than normal because when I put a thermometer inside it was a bit low. So I set my incubation at 110.5F instead of 99.5F. I'm now in panic because after candling my eggs at the 9th day I found that the air sac had grown rapidly, though the loss of weight for the 9 days is around normal (5%). Why did the air sac grew so much? Was it because of the high temperature? What should I expect? Do you think that I've messed all my 15 eggs? By the way I've now reduced the temperature to 99.5F. Is it anything else I can do to save them? I will much appreciate your help.

 

[chickens really]

Do you clearly have movement in the eggs when candling?

 

[nicoschill]

Yes I do. I can see the dark heart moving a little bit, and around it there are lot of blood veins. Everyday I see the veins growing and the centre of the heart becomes more dark red. I check all my eggs daily and I've already thrown away the dead ones. (i.e. ones with blood rings etc). What do you think I should do? The air sac has grown rapidly in a matter of two days, but the loss of weight is normal. I try to weight my eggs daily to allow the appropriate humidity. Is their a possibility to hatch earlier since the temperature was kept a little bit higher than normal? What shall I do?

 

[chickens really]

First off don't panic........Set your Humidity to 50%......At lock down set it to 60 to 65%.....

No need to candle daily.......Are these eggs laying on their sides ? I turn 3 times a day......

 

[nicoschill]

I set humidity to 50% and about an hour ago I reduced temperature to 99.5F (instead of 100.5 that I had it before). Eggs are turned automatically every two hours. I'm 100% that embryo is alive since it moves a lot inside the egg. Do you think they will hatch earlier because of early development due to higher temperature? What do you mean lock down set? Sorry that I'm asking you all these questions. I really don't want to mess up. I much appreciate your help.

 

[ChcknNurse]

Did you mean 101.5, you said 110.5? What temps did your backup thermometer read?

 

[nicoschill]

Hey Shannon, I m really sorry.... that was a typing mistake. I only had it 100.5F (and not 110.5) before. Only a little bit higher than normal. So I guess I should not be panic. Still the air sac worries me a little bit that it grew so much. From what I know air sac grows rapidly after the 21st day according to diagrams shown on internet

 

[nicoschill]

Sorry I meant Annjee not Shannon

 

[ChcknNurse]

Hey Shannon, I m really sorry.... that was a typing mistake.  I only had it 100.5F (and not 110.5) before.  Only a little bit higher than normal.  So I guess I should not be panic. Still the air sac worries me a little bit that it grew so much.  From what I know air sac grows rapidly after the 21st day according to diagrams shown on internet

No sweat on the name.
Okay phew-- 110.5 is far different from 100.5. First of all, I have no idea what you are seeing as too big. I wish I could see it. But no, the air cells should have growth throughout the incubation. The aircells would grow whether or not there was a live chick, as it has to do with loss of moisture and evaporation. I would recommend a thread on here that has great pics, it's amazing. I couldn't figure out how to link it here. But it is under incubation and it starts with "*Chicks are here!!!*: Egg Candling Pics progression through incubation" Search for it. In addition Sally Subshine has an incubation thread that I love.-- Found it: It's in the Learning Center-- Hatching 101 by Sally Sunshine. It is a wealth of information

What incubator do you have? Hygrometer tested for accuracy? Extra thermometers?

 

[nicoschill]

Thank you for all your information dear Annjee, I send you a photo of my incubator to have a look at it. It is a forced air incubator (there is a fan inside it). I have checked the inside temperature by placing two digital thermometers (after I reset them) and I found out that the air temperature was a 98.8 so that's why I ve increased the temperature to 100.5F before, to balance the difference. But now I've re-set it to 99.5 because people say that usually forced air incubators are more accurate than still air, since the fun keeps the temperature the same through out the incubator. I really don't know what to conclude. Should I bring it to 100.5F again since the thermometer that I've put was showing 98.8F to bridge the difference?