Is there anything I can do to help chicks with a side air cell hatch?

[Pullety]

Just wondering...

I have two Opal Legbar eggs with side air cells. I have spent a ton since shipping wrecked my first batch from this breeder so I reordered and ended up with three Opal Legbar eggs in lockdown. So since it has been really hard to get to this point and I have spent a lot I want to give them every chance possible.

Thanks!!

 

[JaeG]

There really isn't anything you can do. The vast majority of chicks can hatch on their own even when their air cell ends up in a weird spot. If possible I would lay them on their sides to hatch with the air cell pointing upwards - that way it doesn't matter which way they have decided to orientate themselves (pointing towards the fat end or the narrow end of the egg), if there is any excess liquid in the egg there's less chance of them being affected by that if the egg is laying on its side.

It's possible they may pip straight out rather than pipping internally into the air cell and they may do that at the narrow end of the egg. In that case the time they would have stayed at the internally pipped stage is added onto their externally pipped stage so they can take up to 48 hours to hatch out, but most of the time they can hatch all by themselves just fine. It's just a case of keeping an eye on them and judging if they end up getting stuck as they unzip (my little one that did that needed help right at the end).

This is an excellent source of information I found in the Goose forum. It applies to any incubated bird egg and might be worth a read through:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/goose-incubation-hatching-guide-completed.491013/

One part explains about how to judge whether the chick/duckling etc has fully absorbed the remains of the yolk if you do need to assist.

for your eggs and do let us know how it turns out.

 

[Pullety]

There really isn't anything you can do. The vast majority of chicks can hatch on their own even when their air cell ends up in a weird spot. If possible I would lay them on their sides to hatch with the air cell pointing upwards - that way it doesn't matter which way they have decided to orientate themselves (pointing towards the fat end or the narrow end of the egg), if there is any excess liquid in the egg there's less chance of them being affected by that if the egg is laying on its side.

It's possible they may pip straight out rather than pipping internally into the air cell and they may do that at the narrow end of the egg. In that case the time they would have stayed at the internally pipped stage is added onto their externally pipped stage so they can take up to 48 hours to hatch out, but most of the time they can hatch all by themselves just fine. It's just a case of keeping an eye on them and judging if they end up getting stuck as they unzip (my little one that did that needed help right at the end).

This is an excellent source of information I found in the Goose forum. It applies to any incubated bird egg and might be worth a read through:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/goose-incubation-hatching-guide-completed.491013/

One part explains about how to judge whether the chick/duckling etc has fully absorbed the remains of the yolk if you do need to assist.

for your eggs and do let us know how it turns out.

Thank you so much for replying to me; I really appreciate it! I will check out the link.

 

[Pullety]

There really isn't anything you can do. The vast majority of chicks can hatch on their own even when their air cell ends up in a weird spot. If possible I would lay them on their sides to hatch with the air cell pointing upwards - that way it doesn't matter which way they have decided to orientate themselves (pointing towards the fat end or the narrow end of the egg), if there is any excess liquid in the egg there's less chance of them being affected by that if the egg is laying on its side.

It's possible they may pip straight out rather than pipping internally into the air cell and they may do that at the narrow end of the egg. In that case the time they would have stayed at the internally pipped stage is added onto their externally pipped stage so they can take up to 48 hours to hatch out, but most of the time they can hatch all by themselves just fine. It's just a case of keeping an eye on them and judging if they end up getting stuck as they unzip (my little one that did that needed help right at the end).

This is an excellent source of information I found in the Goose forum. It applies to any incubated bird egg and might be worth a read through:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/goose-incubation-hatching-guide-completed.491013/

One part explains about how to judge whether the chick/duckling etc has fully absorbed the remains of the yolk if you do need to assist.

for your eggs and do let us know how it turns out.

It didn’t work out for them. It might not have been the side air cells though. Everyone else had hatched or pipped so I opened up a bit of shell on the side air cell ones. The membranes were thick and white. I think it had shrink wrapped them. I’m not really sure what it’s supposed to look like but the opal legbar eggs’ weight loss was too much during incubation (I also had marans whose weight loss wasn’t enough so I was trying to keep humidity in the middle of both groups. Lesson learned about incubating dark and light shelled eggs together I guess). One had its head in a position where it could access the air cell but it was already dead. The other, I couldn’t make out where it’s head was but it was still alive. My son woke up just then and I went to him. Fifteen minutes later I went to see if I could help the one that was still alive but it had died. Too bad. One did hatch but he’s a boy. Sigh.

 

[JaeG]

It didn’t work out for them. It might not have been the side air cells though. Everyone else had hatched or pipped so I opened up a bit of shell on the side air cell ones. The membranes were thick and white. I think it had shrink wrapped them. I’m not really sure what it’s supposed to look like but the opal legbar eggs’ weight loss was too much during incubation (I also had marans whose weight loss wasn’t enough so I was trying to keep humidity in the middle of both groups. Lesson learned about incubating dark and light shelled eggs together I guess). One had its head in a position where it could access the air cell but it was already dead. The other, I couldn’t make out where it’s head was but it was still alive. My son woke up just then and I went to him. Fifteen minutes later I went to see if I could help the one that was still alive but it had died. Too bad. One did hatch but he’s a boy. Sigh.

I'm sorry you lost them. Shipped eggs do seem to have a higher incidence of malpositions.

Isn't it always the way - when you really want a boy, they all turn out to be girls. If you want girls, you'll get boys.

 

[Pullety]

I'm sorry you lost them. Shipped eggs do seem to have a higher incidence of malpositions.

Isn't it always the way - when you really want a boy, they all turn out to be girls. If you want girls, you'll get boys.

Thank you. It’s okay. More learning for next time!