Air Cell Question of Shipped Eggs

[Eagle Flight Farm]

I have received beautiful Ancona eggs that were very lovingly and safely packed for shipment to us. They arrived at our post office yesterday and I have had them setting in their carton on the counter to acclimate to room temp. I have candled them and all the air cells are in the correct position, but they appear to have a large bubble in each air cell that moves as the egg is slowly rotated, although it never goes beyond the boundaries of the air cell. What am I seeing? Will it be best to incubate these eggs upright with just minimal repositioning while still staying upright a few times per 24 hr. period?

The incubator is ready and has been holding its temp perfectly and the humidity is right on target. We have an Incuview incubator which has an automatic egg turner for eggs to be laying horizontally. I can remove the turner and place the eggs upright in the incubator if needed. I want to do what is the very best for these pretty eggs.

 

[Miss Lydia]

@WVduckchick

 

[WVduckchick]

What you are seeing is a small area where the air cell itself has caused the inner membrane to pull away from the inside of the shell. It should firm back up in a few days, and reattach to the inner wall.
Personally, if they aren't too bad, I'd stand them up, air cell up, and tilt manually for a few days. Once the membrane reattaches to the wall inside, you can lay them down if you want.
If an air cell is saddled, meaning the bubble floats further down 2 sides, then try to do the tilt perpendicular to the lowest points.
(hope that makes sense. )

Good luck!

 

[Eagle Flight Farm]

Thank you so very much! I will remove the turner in my incubator and incubate them in a trimmed egg carton for the first few days and then see how the air cells are doing. I hope they repair themselves, but if not, I will just keep manually adjusting them frequently in their trimmed carton.

I did also find this thread just now and I found it very helpful too. https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/incubating-duck-eggs.686982/#post-9300541

Thank you for your help and to everyone that has posted! This site is a wealth of information!

 

[Eagle Flight Farm]

Our 8 Ancona duck eggs have been in our incubator since last evening. I just got through tilting them a bit. I removed our egg turner and sat them all upright as suggested. I initially thought to use a modified egg carton filled with holes and trimmed to a size small enough just to keep the eggs upright, but found them very difficult to try to tilt. Instead, I cut 2 toilet paper rolls into 4 rings each and used those rings as individual egg holders in our incubator. Now it is easy to tilt them just a bit every few hours while still maintaining them upright due to their slightly damaged air cells. Our incubator (Incuview) is doing a wonderful job of holding a steady temp (verified with other thermometers of different types) and of keeping the humidity at the suggested range. I have marked each of the air cells with pencil. I have weighed the eggs, but I do not think my scales are accurate. I will order the egg scales from the Incubator Warehouse website, I think. Has anyone had a good experience with those scales?

 

[Eagle Flight Farm]

Here’s a quick picture of our incubator with the 8 beautiful Ancona eggs. We will complete the first day of incubation this evening. I’m just tilting the eggs a bit in the holders “rings” made from toilet paper tubes since they have mildly damaged air cells. If they repair by keeping them upright for a few days, I may then put our incubator’s turning tray back in and lay them on their sides. We’ll see how it goes.

 

[Eagle Flight Farm]

I waited 3 full days with the eggs upright and just gently tilted several times per 24 hr. period. I tilted perpendicular to the slightly saddle shaped air cells on the few with those affected air cells. All the air cells did become stable by the end of the 3rd day and no longer any appearance of movable "bubbles" within the air cells that were where the membrane had pulled away from the egg at the site of the air cell. At the end of 3 days, I placed the egg turner back in our incubator and placed the 8 Ancona duck eggs on their sides in the turner. I candled them this morning ... and look! I'm attaching a few pictures, but all 8 eggs are fertile and developing! We hope it continues.

We only ordered 4 eggs, but this generous breeder sent us 8 Ancona duck eggs!

 

[Miss Lydia]