Eggtopsy: What happened to my egg? {Graphic Pictures}

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No bad smell (that I remember). I'm certain it would have made an impression if it had a strong odor.

I had thought about that material being part of the egg, but hadn't considered waste.

Love that you work in a lab... I'm finishing up a PhD, but even if I begged to have someone look at this stuff under the SEM we still might not be able to ID it... bunch of geologists.
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I just finished my first hatch on Tuesday. Out of a dozen eggs, eight hatched. The four that didn't make it must have died during, or close to, lockdown. None of them had pipped the shells.

Three of the four deaths were probably related to issues with my (homemade) incubator. It had held temperatures pretty steady throughout the first 18 days. Before lockdown, I added a hardware cloth barrier to separate the eggs from the lightbulb, thermostat, and fan. I also made a foil "shield" to place in front of the light, but ended up removing it because the reduced air circulation was causing major temperature swings, and I was worried I'd lose the entire batch. (Before lockdown, I would rotate the eggs' position in the incubator, in addition to turning them, so no eggs would sit directly in front of the light for too long.) It seems like no small coincidence that the three eggs in the row closest to the bulb didn't hatch.

The first chick was malpositioned in the shell, with its beak kind of wedged down between its thighs, and its feet over its head. The inner membrane seemed gummy to me, though I don't really have a point of reference for what it's supposed to feel like.

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The second egg was wetter. The spots of orange make me wonder if the yolk sac may have ruptured while the chick was trying to position itself.

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The third egg seemed similar to the first, so I did not photograph it.

The fourth egg, which was farther back in the incubator, looked a little different. It, too, was rather wet, with a very strange yolk sac with dark, black-ish coloring. Can anyone tell me what this is about? Are these organs?

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From the other side:
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Uhm... I'd say probably. I have yet to experience innards on the outards in birds so far (kittens, puppies, rats and mice, but not birds), but that is what I would imagine they would look like coming from a self contained unit like an egg. It's possible the chick was straining to get out of the egg and since that 'belly button' area is not sealed until the yolk is absorbed or dries and shrivels off, it's possible they went plop if it was unable to pip.

I will get a few of those up to the first post when I am conscious tomorrow, thank you for sharing them. Perhaps you can build a little lockdown structure for the closest eggs to the light for next time, something to give them some shade.
 
I had one hatch with its organs on the outside, I did not think it would live but could not watch it slowly die either so I culled after an hour or so.

I did not even think to take any photos of it, I was too upset. Maybe if it did not live on its own I would have been able too, sorry.
 
It was suggested to me to post this here, I've been trying to incubate a couple of robin eggs that ended up in my lap. One died, here's the eggtopsy:




Well I now have only one viable robin egg. I was expecting this, and if the last one makes it I'll be thrilled but surprised... anywho, I thought some of you might be curious as I was to see this...



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There was plenty of yolk still there and the cause of death was clearly a bleed of some sort, right around the chick's chest/stomach (so small) Anyone have an opinion on how many days this had til hatch?

*E* Just an FYI, Robins take 12-16 days to hatch.
 
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Ok, I'm actually going to make a new thread for this, but I cracked open the last 4 eggs in my incubator today.... 3 were fully formed, should have hatched.... one of them was this:


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I have NO IDEA what this is or what is going on here. It smelled, but it didn't reek like an egg bomb (I have smelled those, and that is something I will never forget). I have an extremely strong stomach, an amazingly, extremely strong stomach... but once I had this thing out of the egg into a bowl, even I couldn't bring myself to get a better look at what had happened. This thing literally looked like it had just started growing meat with no particular pattern or order in mind
sickbyc.gif
There was part of a duckling in there, from what I could see, but not much of one or it hadn't gotten very far before... this.

I got some video of all that I could stand of looking at this thing if you want to see this meat monstrosity in motion.


The only thing I did check before tossing this sucker into the woods for the coons was that the liquid flowing out at the end was not like.... liquified yolk coming from what there was of the chick's belly. Indeed it was not, it was just a hole in the meat oozing the most disgusting liquid known to mankind
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Ok, I have to go take a break from thinking about this. I'll post it on the first post first.
 
I just had the strangest experience the other day. I was processing a 14 week old cornish cross hen and I think there was a similar mass inside of her. I thought it was in the lower Intestinal tract but now, after seeing that last egg, I think it was a botched or partially finished egg. How freaky. At the time I didn't think much of it other than, "Gross." But now I wish I had a picture to compare. It was strikingly similar though. There was no shell however.

Dan
 

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