Do I Manually Turn Shipped Serama Eggs With Possible Detached Air Cells?!

[Ponies4me]

Shipped Serama Eggs arrived and immediately put in Brinsea Incubator at 99.5 degrees/45% Humidity .
(Ground ship. Got to me in less than a day).
Immediately put in Brinesa Incubator. Forgot to let sit. (Too excited to hatch them out)

Day 2 after reading all the BAD things about not letting the eggs rest I candled eggs and found some had detached air cells

So put eggs in cartons straight upright with no turning in incubator. Read to keep them like that for 7 days with no turning?!?

Then Read Day 7 can hand turn until Day 17 (3 days before lockdown) Bump up Humidity to 60-65%

My Question: opening/closing incubator to hand turn 3x a day to move eggs won’t that be disruptive?! I saw one person say only hand turn 2x a day. So hand turn OR automatic turner?

Also, difference in how to turn. Some say roll them, some say rotate half way or some say swap out back and forth with other eggs. What is best in your experience?!? Again is too much touching the eggs bad?!

After spending money on these Serama eggs just want them to hatch!

This coming Monday 11/18 will be Day 7 for these eggs being in upright/no turn position. So hoping to make an informed decision on what to do with eggs after Day7. Hand turn or automatic turner on?!?

Any help would be great!!

 

[Squawkers]

I can already say that taking them out of the incubator at day two was probably a bad idea.

 

[Squawkers]

Oh, my bad, you said you put them in the carton in the incubator?

 

[Squawkers]

I think not turning them at all is a bad idea. Maybe lean them from side to side in the carton so they are still upright but kind of turning? Put something under one side of the carton moving it from one end of the carton to the other. Hopefully I’m explaining that well

 

[Ridgerunner]

It is possible when you ship eggs that they can have detached air cells. You said some of yours do, some don't. A general suggestion with shipped eggs is to let them settle for one day before you start to incubate them. I don't know where you read that seven days, but you can read anything on the internet.

I've only incubated mailed eggs twice. One time I got a 100% hatch rate, the other time a 20% hatch rate. I did not let them settle for a day but put them straight into the incubator with an automatic turner immediately. I did not look for detached air cells so I don't know what I started with.

One of the purposes of turning them is to keep the yolk and embryo from settling out to where they touch the inside of the shell and get stuck. By the 14th day of incubation a membrane has formed around the embryo to protect it from sticking to the inside of the shell so that is not an issue any more.

Another purpose is to help the body parts form in the right spots. They probably will form correctly anyway but the rate of malformed chicks goes up if they are not turned. These body parts form fairly early so again you can stop turning after 14 days.

It sounds like you have not been turning them for 6 days. Does that mean you have done irreparable harm to them? Maybe to some, probably not to all of them if you have any. These guidelines are intended to improve your odds of a successful hatch. Following them does not guarantee a perfect hatch every time. Not following them does not guarantee a horrible hatch. They simply improve your odds.

In your current situation I'd start turning them immediately. There are different ways to turn them. You can roll them. Some incubator automatic turners roll them. If you turn them by hand I suggest putting a black "x" on one side and a red "o" on the opposite side. Roll them until all black x's are up. The next time roll them so all red o's are up.

Another way to turn is with them upright with the pointy end down. The air cell should be in the fat side so you want the fat side up. Mark them the same way and lean the eggs 45 degrees to one side. When you turn them rotate them 90 degrees so they are leaning at a 45 degree angle the other way. Pointy side is still down. Some automatic turners do this. If you are turning them by hand put them in an egg carton pointy side down. Then put something like a block of wood under one end of the carton so they are at a 45 degree angle. When you turn them move that block of wood to the other end of the egg carton.

You can stop turning them after 14 days of incubation if you want. Most people wait until lockdown, after 18 days of incubation. It's convenient to stop turning them at the same time you raise the humidity for hatch.

How often should you turn them? The automatic turners do that for you. If you are hand turning the general recommendation is an odd number of times a day. And turn them about the same time each day. If you turn them an odd number of times each day (3 or 5 are popular) then the eggs will spend half of the incubation with one side up and the other half with the other side up. If you turn them an even number of times a day one side typically spends a lot more time up than the other.

As long as your hands are clean it is not a problem to open the incubator and turn them. The center of that egg where the embryo is located is not going to cool down that much unless you stop halfway through to eat supper or watch a movie. Don't get in such a hurry that you drop an egg and break it, taking enough time to do it safely is not a problem. Just don't be ridiculous about it.

The reason you want your hands clean is that you do not want to disturb the bloom on the egg (the bloom is a coating the hen puts on them to help keep bacteria out). If your hands are dirty or oily they can transmit bacteria to the egg. Don't get carried away with using sanitizer or anything like that, just use soap and water and dry your hands before turning them.

You mentioned swapping eggs. If you have a forced air incubator (with a fan) the temperature should be the same everywhere inside it. If you have a still air (no fan) the temperature will change with the elevation but as long as the eggs are level the temperature should be the same on all of them. Sometimes with homemade incubators you can have different temperatures at different locations inside. If you have this problem (very few people do) then moving the eggs around to different parts can maybe help them to hatch at the same time. This is one I really really would not worry about unless I had some reason to suspect it. Something like experiences with previous hatches in that incubator.

Good luck going forward. And let us know how it turns out.

 

[Squawkers]

It is possible when you ship eggs that they can have detached air cells. You said some of yours do, some don't. A general suggestion with shipped eggs is to let them settle for one day before you start to incubate them. I don't know where you read that seven days, but you can read anything on the internet.

I've only incubated mailed eggs twice. One time I got a 100% hatch rate, the other time a 20% hatch rate. I did not let them settle for a day but put them straight into the incubator with an automatic turner immediately. I did not look for detached air cells so I don't know what I started with.

One of the purposes of turning them is to keep the yolk and embryo from settling out to where they touch the inside of the shell and get stuck. By the 14th day of incubation a membrane has formed around the embryo to protect it from sticking to the inside of the shell so that is not an issue any more.

Another purpose is to help the body parts form in the right spots. They probably will form correctly anyway but the rate of malformed chicks goes up if they are not turned. These body parts form fairly early so again you can stop turning after 14 days.

It sounds like you have not been turning them for 6 days. Does that mean you have done irreparable harm to them? Maybe to some, probably not to all of them if you have any. These guidelines are intended to improve your odds of a successful hatch. Following them does not guarantee a perfect hatch every time. Not following them does not guarantee a horrible hatch. They simply improve your odds.

In your current situation I'd start turning them immediately. There are different ways to turn them. You can roll them. Some incubator automatic turners roll them. If you turn them by hand I suggest putting a black "x" on one side and a red "o" on the opposite side. Roll them until all black x's are up. The next time roll them so all red o's are up.

Another way to turn is with them upright with the pointy end down. The air cell should be in the fat side so you want the fat side up. Mark them the same way and lean the eggs 45 degrees to one side. When you turn them rotate them 90 degrees so they are leaning at a 45 degree angle the other way. Pointy side is still down. Some automatic turners do this. If you are turning them by hand put them in an egg carton pointy side down. Then put something like a block of wood under one end of the carton so they are at a 45 degree angle. When you turn them move that block of wood to the other end of the egg carton.

You can stop turning them after 14 days of incubation if you want. Most people wait until lockdown, after 18 days of incubation. It's convenient to stop turning them at the same time you raise the humidity for hatch.

How often should you turn them? The automatic turners do that for you. If you are hand turning the general recommendation is an odd number of times a day. And turn them about the same time each day. If you turn them an odd number of times each day (3 or 5 are popular) then the eggs will spend half of the incubation with one side up and the other half with the other side up. If you turn them an even number of times a day one side typically spends a lot more time up than the other.

As long as your hands are clean it is not a problem to open the incubator and turn them. The center of that egg where the embryo is located is not going to cool down that much unless you stop halfway through to eat supper or watch a movie. Don't get in such a hurry that you drop an egg and break it, taking enough time to do it safely is not a problem. Just don't be ridiculous about it.

The reason you want your hands clean is that you do not want to disturb the bloom on the egg (the bloom is a coating the hen puts on them to help keep bacteria out). If your hands are dirty or oily they can transmit bacteria to the egg. Don't get carried away with using sanitizer or anything like that, just use soap and water and dry your hands before turning them.

You mentioned swapping eggs. If you have a forced air incubator (with a fan) the temperature should be the same everywhere inside it. If you have a still air (no fan) the temperature will change with the elevation but as long as the eggs are level the temperature should be the same on all of them. Sometimes with homemade incubators you can have different temperatures at different locations inside. If you have this problem (very few people do) then moving the eggs around to different parts can maybe help them to hatch at the same time. This is one I really really would not worry about unless I had some reason to suspect it. Something like experiences with previous hatches in that incubator.

Good luck going forward. And let us know how it turns out.

You always write such nice long responses!

 

[Revkimberlysflock]

Shipped Serama Eggs arrived and immediately put in Brinsea Incubator at 99.5 degrees/45% Humidity .
(Ground ship. Got to me in less than a day).
Immediately put in Brinesa Incubator. Forgot to let sit. (Too excited to hatch them out)

Day 2 after reading all the BAD things about not letting the eggs rest I candled eggs and found some had detached air cells

So put eggs in cartons straight upright with no turning in incubator. Read to keep them like that for 7 days with no turning?!?

Then Read Day 7 can hand turn until Day 17 (3 days before lockdown) Bump up Humidity to 60-65%

My Question: opening/closing incubator to hand turn 3x a day to move eggs won’t that be disruptive?! I saw one person say only hand turn 2x a day. So hand turn OR automatic turner?

Also, difference in how to turn. Some say roll them, some say rotate half way or some say swap out back and forth with other eggs. What is best in your experience?!? Again is too much touching the eggs bad?!

After spending money on these Serama eggs just want them to hatch!

This coming Monday 11/18 will be Day 7 for these eggs being in upright/no turn position. So hoping to make an informed decision on what to do with eggs after Day7. Hand turn or automatic turner on?!?

Any help would be great!!

The first thing I would say is do let them rest, after the shipping. That makes a huge difference with the detached not happening. I checked on somewhere between 7 and 8 days, I had a lot with detached air cells.. had more that I was going to have to lose, then I was going to hatch. I took them (thinking what do I have to lose) after my first batch went so horribly, and I stood them upright with the big end up in the little rings that they came wrapped in ...stood them up so that the air pocket was up in the air and every single one of them righted themselves after 4 days and most of them hatched today. Just a thought, I know they're expensive eggs and I'm not sure how far in you are but it worked and I've never read anywhere, any tricks to fix this problem. I let mine go last time even though they were detached and they were forming . . but they never came out. These guys came out and they're strong and healthy and they all look good. I was going to maybe get eight out of 20 on day seven/eight. I had a 75% hatch rate from this particular farm my first time, so I had high hopes and I was able to bring them through and they all righted themselves. All but two out of 20 were good on the 18th day.. should have 9 or 10 by the end of the day today, and the rest of them are due to start hatching tomorrow.

 

[Squawkers]

I forgot about this thread, how did your eggs turn out @Ponies4me?