Is this a saddled egg? Day 8 of Incubation

[Lauralou2]

Morning lovely people hoping someone can give me some advice pretty please

I am hatching my first eggs, these were posted and I wasn't aware of the air sac issue that can occur until after I had ordered them.

So I candled the eggs yesterday on Day 8 of Incubation. One egg appears to have a saddled air sac down the side of the egg. However, on the opposite end of the egg there is a normal looking air sac? The white on the side also does not move when I move the egg. As these were shipped I rested them for 24 hours before incubation.

Is there a way to help the air sac go back to a normal position at this stage? If not, what would be the best course of action for lockdown? They are currently rotated on their side if this makes any difference to the advice.

I was trying the dry hatch method, however in my house the humidity is at a constant 40%?

Thank you for any help!

 

[Ocho 8 Farm]

Yes it looks saddled. I buy shipped eggs frequently and when I receive them I let them rest 24 hours (even though I don’t think that makes a difference it’s just advice I got so I do it) and then I incubate upright for the first 7 days. I don’t start turning them until day 4. You have to turn by hand for 3 days. Then I will put them on their sides and let the automatic turnner do it’s job. I do 30-35% humidity and then at lockdown I do 45-50%
No matter what though shipped eggs never have a HUGE success rate. I automatically assume I will lose 50% of the eggs. Shipping is just so hard on them. I usually get more than a 50% hatch but better to keep my expectations low and be surprised if it’s better than I thought. Saddled eggs can and do hatch but it’s also a gamble. Don’t give up on it but don’t put too much hope on it either.
Good luck! Hopefully it makes it out and is a thriving little chick!

 

[Lauralou2]

Yes it looks saddled. I buy shipped eggs frequently and when I receive them I let them rest 24 hours (even though I don’t think that makes a difference it’s just advice I got so I do it) and then I incubate upright for the first 7 days. I don’t start turning them until day 4. You have to turn by hand for 3 days. Then I will put them on their sides and let the automatic turnner do it’s job. I do 30-35% humidity and then at lockdown I do 45-50%
No matter what though shipped eggs never have a HUGE success rate. I automatically assume I will lose 50% of the eggs. Shipping is just so hard on them. I usually get more than a 50% hatch but better to keep my expectations low and be surprised if it’s better than I thought. Saddled eggs can and do hatch but it’s also a gamble. Don’t give up on it but don’t put too much hope on it either.
Good luck! Hopefully it makes it out and is a thriving little chick!

Thank you!! First time doing it so it's been a learning curve. Thank you for the advice, I'll follow these steps if there's no luck this time and we do another incubation. We're left at 2 eggs now, with 7 days left to go, fingers crossed these two chicks make it!

 

[Dr Evy]

In my opinion from your picture that doesn’t look like the air cell. Looking inside an egg by candling you will be able to see the yolk and the egg white. As you can see from your picture, the darker part of the egg is the yolk, that’s where the embryo starts developing, and the lighter part just looks like egg white to me. Your air cell looks normal as far as I can tell. If you could get better pictures in a darker room that would be helpful, but I know that’s a hard task lol. Here, I snapped a quick picture for you of an egg that I’m incubating. It’s a goose egg and early incubation so the air cell is hard to see, but I labeled it for you.

I can understand your confusion about the air cell! It will definitely take a while before you’re able to identify what’s going on inside an egg!

 

[Lauralou2]

In my opinion from your picture that doesn’t look like the air cell. Looking inside an egg by candling you will be able to see the yolk and the egg white. As you can see from your picture, the darker part of the egg is the yolk, that’s where the embryo starts developing, and the lighter part just looks like egg white to me. Your air cell looks normal as far as I can tell. If you could get better pictures in a darker room that would be helpful, but I know that’s a hard task lol. Here, I snapped a quick picture for you of an egg that I’m incubating. It’s a goose egg and early incubation so the air cell is hard to see, but I labeled it for you. View attachment 3806074
I can understand your confusion about the air cell! It will definitely take a while before you’re able to identify what’s going on inside an egg!

Thank you so much for explaining that to me! That does make sense now, I was confused once I saw the air sac ring at the other end lol that's given me some relief now! I have had one egg that appears it has died, as the liquid is moving inside and the dark parts of it is so much smaller than the other eggs. First time hatch really is full of anxiety haha

 

[Dr Evy]

Thank you so much for explaining that to me! That does make sense now, I was confused once I saw the air sac ring at the other end lol that's given me some relief now! I have had one egg that appears it has died, as the liquid is moving inside and the dark parts of it is so much smaller than the other eggs. First time hatch really is full of anxiety haha

Of course!
That’s totally normal for a few to quit. If you send a pic I can help you determine, but otherwise you’re probably ok to leave it in until hatching time. I know the feeling! You’re doing great!

 

[CrazyALChickenLady]

Yes it looks saddled. I buy shipped eggs frequently and when I receive them I let them rest 24 hours (even though I don’t think that makes a difference it’s just advice I got so I do it) and then I incubate upright for the first 7 days. I don’t start turning them until day 4. You have to turn by hand for 3 days. Then I will put them on their sides and let the automatic turnner do it’s job. I do 30-35% humidity and then at lockdown I do 45-50%
No matter what though shipped eggs never have a HUGE success rate. I automatically assume I will lose 50% of the eggs. Shipping is just so hard on them. I usually get more than a 50% hatch but better to keep my expectations low and be surprised if it’s better than I thought. Saddled eggs can and do hatch but it’s also a gamble. Don’t give up on it but don’t put too much hope on it either.
Good luck! Hopefully it makes it out and is a thriving little chick!

Can you explain your turning method? I’ve bought 3 dozen shipped eggs and I’ve only had 5 hatch from 2 of them and only 2 from another. When they arrive I let them set for 24hrs then place them pointy side down in the incubator. I leave them like that for the first 7 days with the egg turner unplugged. After a week I plug in the egg turner. We dry hatch, but we live in south AL so the humidity is rarely below 30%. On lockdown I up humid to 50ish%. I know shipped eggs are a gamble but I plan on buying more of the breeds that we’ve already done and if I can do something to better my chances, I’d like to

 

[Lortiz]

Can you explain your turning method? I’ve bought 3 dozen shipped eggs and I’ve only had 5 hatch from 2 of them and only 2 from another. When they arrive I let them set for 24hrs then place them pointy side down in the incubator. I leave them like that for the first 7 days with the egg turner unplugged. After a week I plug in the egg turner. We dry hatch, but we live in south AL so the humidity is rarely below 30%. On lockdown I up humid to 50ish%. I know shipped eggs are a gamble but I plan on buying more of the breeds that we’ve already done and if I can do something to better my chances, I’d like to

I think Ocho 8 Farm has an incubator that rolls the eggs on their sides to turn them. Initially, the eggs are put in the incubator vertically, pointy end down, maybe using an egg carton or a rack. The eggs are left undisturbed for the first until day 4 when manual turning starts with the eggs still vertical. Then on day 7 they are removed from whatever is keeping them vertical and laid down horizontally, and the automatic egg turner is allowed to turn them.

It sounds like you have an incubator with a turner that hold them upright. If this is the case, you can just set the eggs in the turning rack with it unplugged and the eggs sitting vertically, as you did. Let them sit until day 4 (or 5), then plug in the turner. It's much easier if you have a turner that can hold them upright without turning.

It seems like you are doing everything right, but you don't need to wait a week to start turning. I am wondering what kind of shipping I'd being used, and how they are packed. Shipped eggs are a gamble, but those numbers are pretty low to have on multiple shipments. Are they coming from the same breeder? Is it possible there is a fertility problem? If you candle them and they never start developing, than can be a fertility problem or due to shipping or incubation issues. I hope you figure it out. It's very disappointing when you don't get any chicks.

 

[CrazyALChickenLady]

I think Ocho 8 Farm has an incubator that rolls the eggs on their sides to turn them. Initially, the eggs are put in the incubator vertically, pointy end down, maybe using an egg carton or a rack. The eggs are left undisturbed for the first until day 4 when manual turning starts with the eggs still vertical. Then on day 7 they are removed from whatever is keeping them vertical and laid down horizontally, and the automatic egg turner is allowed to turn them.

It sounds like you have an incubator with a turner that hold them upright. If this is the case, you can just set the eggs in the turning rack with it unplugged and the eggs sitting vertically, as you did. Let them sit until day 4 (or 5), then plug in the turner. It's much easier if you have a turner that can hold them upright without turning.

It seems like you are doing everything right, but you don't need to wait a week to start turning. I am wondering what kind of shipping I'd being used, and how they are packed. Shipped eggs are a gamble, but those numbers are pretty low to have on multiple shipments. Are they coming from the same breeder? Is it possible there is a fertility problem? If you candle them and they never start developing, than can be a fertility problem or due to shipping or incubation issues. I hope you figure it out. It's very disappointing when you don't get any chicks.

I think Ocho 8 Farm has an incubator that rolls the eggs on their sides to turn them. Initially, the eggs are put in the incubator vertically, pointy end down, maybe using an egg carton or a rack. The eggs are left undisturbed for the first until day 4 when manual turning starts with the eggs still vertical. Then on day 7 they are removed from whatever is keeping them vertical and laid down horizontally, and the automatic egg turner is allowed to turn them.

It sounds like you have an incubator with a turner that hold them upright. If this is the case, you can just set the eggs in the turning rack with it unplugged and the eggs sitting vertically, as you did. Let them sit until day 4 (or 5), then plug in the turner. It's much easier if you have a turner that can hold them upright without turning.

It seems like you are doing everything right, but you don't need to wait a week to start turning. I am wondering what kind of shipping I'd being used, and how they are packed. Shipped eggs are a gamble, but those numbers are pretty low to have on multiple shipments. Are they coming from the same breeder? Is it possible there is a fertility problem? If you candle them and they never start developing, than can be a fertility problem or due to shipping or incubation issues. I hope you figure it out. It's very disappointing when you don't get any chicks.

Thank you for replying!

The first shipped eggs I had, she sent several extra. Almost all of them had developed but when it came to hatch, only 5 hatched.. the rest were fully developed but didn’t hatch and some hadn’t absorbed the yolk. They were silkies. These were done in our styrofoam incubator from TSC. I hate that incubator

The next batch of shipped eggs were Cream/Opal Legbars from a very popular breeder. More of them didn’t develop at all than I was anticipating but still set 7 on lockdown I think. Only 2 of them hatched. The rest were developed but either died after internally pipping or didn’t pip at all.
In this same hatch I had a dozen polish eggs, all were fertile and I think 8 made it to lockdown. 5 hatched from them. These eggs were the first to be hatched from our Maticoopx.

The next batch were Blue Partridge Brahmas I got from eBay. Only 4 of them were fertilized and all of them hatched. They were hatched in our Kebonnixs.

We usually get close to 100% hatch rate in our Kebonnixs. Our styrofoam incubator worked fine last year but I think I was too rough when cleaning it that the bottom needs replaced. We’ve only had 1 hatch in our new Maticoopx, we will be running it again.

I have more silkie eggs on the way and some more we won on eBay. I was very upset about my Brahmas and Opal legbars. They were my Mother’s Day gift we’ve been hatching eggs for a year now so I feel like I’m pretty knowledgeable at it but shipping eggs are new. I knew shipped eggs were more difficult but I wasn’t planning on it being this rough

 

[Graciepechey]

In my opinion from your picture that doesn’t look like the air cell. Looking inside an egg by candling you will be able to see the yolk and the egg white. As you can see from your picture, the darker part of the egg is the yolk, that’s where the embryo starts developing, and the lighter part just looks like egg white to me. Your air cell looks normal as far as I can tell. If you could get better pictures in a darker room that would be helpful, but I know that’s a hard task lol. Here, I snapped a quick picture for you of an egg that I’m incubating. It’s a goose egg and early incubation so the air cell is hard to see, but I labeled it for you. View attachment 3806074
I can understand your confusion about the air cell! It will definitely take a while before you’re able to identify what’s going on inside an egg!

I’m on day 8 and I don’t see any movement but I have veins in one