Massing eggs during incubation, variability

[Rethia]

I'm on day twelve of my first incubation. Started with 24 eggs, twelve buff orp (paler brown) of which nine ended up being infertile, and twelve BYM, all of which seem to be developing nicely. I marked the air cell at day 0, day 6, and day 12 (today).

Egg 13:
Masses:
0: 63g
6: 62g
12: 60.5g
Total % mass lost: 4%

Egg 18:
0: 61g
6: 60g
12: 59.5g
Total % mass lost: 2.5%

Egg 19:
0: 69g
6: 63g
12: 59.5g
Total % mass loss: 11.2%

Egg 24:
0: 71g
6: 67g
12: 65g
Total % mass loss: 8.5%

My main question is--does it matter when eggs start off heavier? You still go off of total percentage mass lost, correct? The BYM was all over the place with masses at the start. Everything from 55g to 72g.

Right now, I've been able to kind of monitor the zones in my incubator (IncuView 3.0, forced air) and I've moved eggs 24 and 19 to the most humid area of the incubator and eggs 13 and 18 to the driest corner of the incubator, but I was wondering what I could do to slow down the mass loss in egg 19, in particular? Is it possible to give one egg its own microclimate in an incubator?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

It matters minimally. The percentage loss should be about the same. You have a big disparity. Most of that is likely due to the difference in porosity.
Egg 19 may possibly have a hairline crack not visible to the naked eye. Usually when there is an outlier with significant loss, that is what I discovered.
Given enough space you could create a microclimate as long as airflow isn't restricted too much. I'm thinking about creating a small room of sorts with cardboard plastic sheet walls. A water reservoir with sponge in the space with the egg.

 

[Rethia]

It matters minimally. The percentage loss should be about the same. You have a big disparity. Most of that is likely due to the difference in porosity.
Egg 19 may possibly have a hairline crack not visible to the naked eye. Usually when there is an outlier with significant loss, that is what I discovered.
Given enough space you could create a microclimate as long as airflow isn't restricted too much. I'm thinking about creating a small room of sorts with cardboard plastic sheet walls. A water reservoir with sponge in the space with the egg.

I checked the egg again and I didn't see or feel any cracks anywhere, but I guess that doesn't mean there aren't any. Would using a wax crayon or something similar over the surface of the egg outside the air cell maybe help seal the pores and slow the loss of moisture? Whatever I do, I need to do soon because if it goes the remaining 9ish days, the cell will grow too much and the chick won't be able to hatch due to moisture loss.

The incubator has an auto turner. I was thinking perhaps I could wrap the body off the egg in a damp paper towel? I don't really know. It's my first incubate and I'm kind of improvising, but there's a developing chick in there and I really want to give it a decent chance.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Before you get too worked up, remember, not every egg becomes an adult chicken. On the contrary. Only about half of the eggs that are collected for incubation become viable chickens. Considering all the eggs laid in the world, it is more like 0.00000000007 %.
Not only do the pores allow moisture to be lost, gas exchange (intake of oxygen and exhaust carbon dioxide also transpires across the shell carried by the amnionic, chorionic and allantois membranes to and from the embryo. In light of this, it wouldn't be in the best interest of the entity in question to close off all the pores.
Perhaps a very strong candling light may identify if there is a crack. The possibility of a crack was just a guess on my part. I believe every time I had an egg losing weight at more than double the rate of other eggs, there was always a crack.
Another thing to try is risky. Increasing the temperature temporarily may cause the contents to expand enough to reveal the crack while candling. A temperature above 104 for more than a couple minutes will be deadly for the embryo. However, it may only take about 30 seconds to warm the egg enough for contents to expand.

 

[Rethia]

Before you get too worked up, remember, not every egg becomes an adult chicken. On the contrary. Only about half of the eggs that are collected for incubation become viable chickens. Considering all the eggs laid in the world, it is more like 0.00000000007 %.
Not only do the pores allow moisture to be lost, gas exchange (intake of oxygen and exhaust carbon dioxide also transpires across the shell carried by the amnionic, chorionic and allantois membranes to and from the embryo. In light of this, it wouldn't be in the best interest of the entity in question to close off all the pores.
Perhaps a very strong candling light may identify if there is a crack. The possibility of a crack was just a guess on my part. I believe every time I had an egg losing weight at more than double the rate of other eggs, there was always a crack.
Another thing to try is risky. Increasing the temperature temporarily may cause the contents to expand enough to reveal the crack while candling. A temperature above 104 for more than a couple minutes will be deadly for the embryo. However, it may only take about 30 seconds to warm the egg enough for contents to expand.

I did candle last night and couldn't see anything. I had thought that maybe I would just do a birthday candle and dot the egg with wax, so all the pores aren't closed off, but it may slow the loss of moisture so that it doesn't lose too much before lockdown.