How to proceed with this 'funky', saddled air cell?

[romea]

Not counting the first day, I am on day 10 of my incubation of shipped bantam eggs. They spent the first 6 days in an upright egg turner. Then I laid them on their sides. Today I candled them again and realized that one had developed a huge saddled air cell. Yikes!

After discovering this egg, they are now back in the upright egg turner, which rocks them very gently from side to side (with a 'revolution' every 4 hours). However, I am not sure what to do with regards to this 'funky' egg...
Am I making matters worse by now setting it back upright for the remainder of the hatch?

 

[Debbie292d]

I'm actually surprised you only have one as they are very common with shipped eggs.

You don't have to do anything different, but just mark it so at hatch time, if it's not hatching you may have to help. Mine always hatched but for one time it pipped in the middle so I didn't think he'd ever manage to get out. I gave it 24 hours and the little bugger made it out!

 

[Susan Skylark]

Eggs need some pretty severe trauma to develop funky saddled air cells. My last batch of shipped eggs was about 50% saddled. Half the eggs that made it to lockdown died in shell, half saddled, half normal so it isn’t very predictive of prognosis for individual eggs but gives you a hint that your eggs might have been through something and your hatch rates might suffer. Hopefully it is just one funky egg, but also be mentally ready for a higher than normal failure to hatch rate. Incubating upright, gentle turning, and upping the humidity might help. Helping chicks hatch didn’t do my chicks any good, I helped three, all were deformed or under developed and just faded away. I had a bunch that didn’t even have the strength to pip. Very sad, but a risk of shipped eggs. Hopefully it is just one egg, I had 50% saddled, so hopefully your eggs had less trauma and therefore a better hatch!

 

[romea]

I'm actually surprised you only have one as they are very common with shipped eggs.

You don't have to do anything different, but just mark it so at hatch time, if it's not hatching you may have to help. Mine always hatched but for one time it pipped in the middle so I didn't think he'd ever manage to get out. I gave it 24 hours and the little bugger made it out!

I do have others but this is the most severe case of saddle-cell.. Yes, I will certainly keep an eye on all of them. In fact, I ordered an incubator with a plexiglass dome (much like a cheese dome ) and this is where they will spend lockdown - with me watching like a hawk... -mother.
I also found this thread quite helpful:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/hatching-saddled-air-sacs-upright-vs-on-side.1225671/ (There are a few very sensible suggestions.)

 

[romea]

Eggs need some pretty severe trauma to develop funky saddled air cells. My last batch of shipped eggs was about 50% saddled. Half the eggs that made it to lockdown died in shell, half saddled, half normal so it isn’t very predictive of prognosis for individual eggs but gives you a hint that your eggs might have been through something and your hatch rates might suffer. Hopefully it is just one funky egg, but also be mentally ready for a higher than normal failure to hatch rate. Incubating upright, gentle turning, and upping the humidity might help. Helping chicks hatch didn’t do my chicks any good, I helped three, all were deformed or under developed and just faded away. I had a bunch that didn’t even have the strength to pip. Very sad, but a risk of shipped eggs. Hopefully it is just one egg, I had 50% saddled, so hopefully your eggs had less trauma and therefore a better hatch!

I suspect they had quite the roller-coaster-ride during their 3500+ mile journey...
*sigh* I knew I was taking my chances.
As for humidity - what do you suggest? After finding this, I increased it from around 50% (and slightly below) to now 55-60% - at least for a few days.
They are on day 11 and I am keeping track of their weight-loss.

 

[Debbie292d]

I suspect they had quite the roller-coaster-ride during their 3500+ mile journey...
*sigh* I knew I was taking my chances.
As for humidity - what do you suggest? After finding this, I increased it from around 50% (and slightly below) to now 55-60% - at least for a few days.
They are on day 11 and I am keeping track of their weight-loss.

I set 45% then 65% for lockdown.

I've never measured air cells nor weighed them, but guess that could be of some help with those. I just don't know as they hatched the way I had it set.

 

[romea]

I set 45% then 65% for lockdown.

I've never measured air cells nor weighed them, but guess that could be of some help with those. I just don't know as they hatched the way I had it set.

Alright... back to 50% it is.
What can I say? This has become a science project for me.

 

[SweetieChicken234]

I just had one hatch very similar to this. I actually have a thread about it. This is how it went for me.
Thread 'Any advice for helping this one hatch?' https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/any-advice-for-helping-this-one-hatch.1660462/

 

[romea]

I just had one hatch very similar to this. I actually have a thread about it. This is how it went for me.
Thread 'Any advice for helping this one hatch?' https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/any-advice-for-helping-this-one-hatch.1660462/

Well... thank you for that! Wyorp Rock also provided some excellent links.
While I've "been there, done that", it is a great refresher+... ('+' as in: and then some ).

​

 

[SweetieChicken234]

Well... thank you for that! Wyorp Rock also provided some excellent links.
While I've "been there, done that", it is a great refresher+... ('+' as in: and then some ).

​

Yeah I've had some incidents myself. Here's another one of mine.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/is-it-possible-to-save-this-egg.1629480/

Glad I've already been through assisting and kind of knew what to do with this crazy air cell business.