Chicks with thick mucus in egg?

[AltonaAcres]

Ok. Day 19 two eggs pipped (yesterday morning). Woke up to one chick (not from one of the pipped eggs). One of the pipped eggs (this morning) had died. This thick amber substance has sealed the entrance to his pip and he probably suffocated. It like crystallized and sealed him in. Pipped egg #2 had his beak sticking out of the pip.since last night (usually when this happens I know it's not a good sign, so I was prepared to assist). No progress, peeping stopped, so this morning I broke some shell around his beak, put coconut oil on the membrane to check veining progress. Still some veins so I let him be for a few hours, he was breathing steady and moving his beak. Just went to recheck the veins - they had receded. I started to free him slowly and ran into this mucusy, thick amber colored liquid that literally seeped out of his egg. Unfortunately he stopped breathing shortly after I discovered the liquid, it probably suffocated him. It was on both sides of his head. It's def not yolk. Does anyone have an idea of why this substance is forming? Is it because they're early? We did have a two hour power outage at day 9. These eggs are from a local egg stand. They are in my magicfly incubator from Amazon, which usually doesn't have issues.

 

[MGG]

Ok. Day 19 two eggs pipped (yesterday morning). Woke up to one chick (not from one of the pipped eggs). One of the pipped eggs (this morning) had died. This thick amber substance has sealed the entrance to his pip and he probably suffocated. It like crystallized and sealed him in. Pipped egg #2 had his beak sticking out of the pip.since last night (usually when this happens I know it's not a good sign, so I was prepared to assist). No progress, peeping stopped, so this morning I broke some shell around his beak, put coconut oil on the membrane to check veining progress. Still some veins so I let him be for a few hours, he was breathing steady and moving his beak. Just went to recheck the veins - they had receded. I started to free him slowly and ran into this mucusy, thick amber colored liquid that literally seeped out of his egg. Unfortunately he stopped breathing shortly after I discovered the liquid, it probably suffocated him. It was on both sides of his head. It's def not yolk. Does anyone have an idea of why this substance is forming? Is it because they're early? We did have a two hour power outage at day 9. These eggs are from a local egg stand. They are in my magicfly incubator from Amazon, which usually doesn't have issues.

Do you have a salt tested hygrometer in your incubator? The liquid your seeing is extra moisture that's caused by humidity being too high for a prolonged period during incubation. Sometimes it can be caught early and can be seen by light pockets in the eggs about halfway through incubation. Lowering the humidity drastically can fix it earlier on, but it's too late for that now. I would bet money that too high of humidity is your problem. If there are any not pipped yet you can try emptying all of the water and running it dry until one externally pips. That would be the only way of trying to help the others.

So sorry you're experiencing this.

 

[AltonaAcres]

Here's a picture. Yes, high humidity was my best guess. I don't have a hygrometer just because I always do the same thing and never have had problems like this. Thanks for your insight!

 

[AltonaAcres]

Also thank you for the tip about emptying the water, however two are externally pipped.

 

[MGG]

View attachment 3515880Here's a picture. Yes, high humidity was my best guess. I don't have a hygrometer just because I always do the same thing and never have had problems like this. Thanks for your insight!

Yup, definitely too high of humidity. I always run my incubators with at least two in each just because relative humidity varies from season to season and day to day in a house, which also affects the humidity in an incubator. Sometimes by a lot too. I'd definitely get one and salt test for future use.

 

[MGG]

Also thank you for the tip about emptying the water, however two are externally pipped.

Do you have another incubator you could move the pipped ones too?

 

[AltonaAcres]

Well good news after all! I have 16 chicks hatched and 2 more pipped. That just leaves 3 unhatched at the moment. So I guess the hatch just had a rough start

 

[EggSighted4Life]

View attachment 3515880Here's a picture. Yes, high humidity was my best guess. I don't have a hygrometer just because I always do the same thing and never have had problems like this. Thanks for your insight!

I think it was perhaps because they were day 19 pips.. That's a bit earlier than I care to see.. sometimes I don't even go into lock down until day 19. If it was day 21, then I would also just automatically also say your humidity was too high.

Two hour power outage isn't much, depending on season and such.

My favorite technical hatching resource has causes of embryonic failure and other hatch anomalies starting around page 50-ish of the following link.. (your issue seen is on page 52)

https://www.hubbardbreeders.com/media/incubation_guideen__053407700_1525_26062017.pdf

With one caveat.. if all others hatched on the correct day and without issues.. maybe it was an individual egg condition problem.. a hot/cool spot in the bator (even though it's forced air and so small).

Congrats on your babies!

 

[AltonaAcres]

Thanks for your insight! Yeah when they pipped at day 19 I was a little worried. I turned them less than 12 hours prior for the last time.....