1st hatch lockdown- Did I mess up?!

[amunk01]

I officially understand what "shrink wrapped means! That baby was stuck! And his beak was stuffed under it's wing. I thought they were supposed to be looking up? Well. It's out! I broke off enough shell and slowly peeled back the dried membrane to release his head and then he kicked himself free after a few minutes! Wow, talk about a crash course Lol Oddly enough, now that it's out it's basically dry? It also has a big piece of that membrane stuck on its back but I assumed it'll dry up and fall off eventually right? I'm done peeling for tonight! Ha I'm so glad it's fully absorbed and not hurt from me helping! Now to transfer the dry chicks and ffloat the remaining 3 eggs..

 

[amunk01]

Ahh sorry you lost one recently, and have a hurt boy. I'm treating a huge black Orpington hen for what I think is egg peritinitis? At least that's all I've come up with without going to a vet. The symptoms line up and the antibiotics have made a huge difference but if its a chronic condition ill have to cull her which I'm loath to do. I really love this girl..
Ok, so how did I get a shrink wrapped chick if my humidity has been over 70% since lockdown, and I've never lifted the lid, had an outage, temp spike, etc.?

 

[WVduckchick]

glad you got her out ok!

Pics when you get a chance. Oh, and candle the remaining ones first. I don't care much for the float test, but you can try it, just be sure to watch for independent movement by the egg itself. But if it doesn't move, that still won't necessarily mean its dead. I think candling will tell you.

That one got stuck because it sat partially zipped for so long. Not your fault it was lazy lol

 

[WVduckchick]

Try this symptom checker for your hen. I hope its not peritonitis. I don't think there's anything you can do for that.

http://www.poultrydvm.com/symptoms

 

[amunk01]

Ok! I think we are all done! I'm officially calling my first hatch over! 36 eggs went in. 22 were infertile and pulled day 7 (Not surprising, these were a free gamble). Leaving me with 14 developing. 1 quitter pulled day 14.
So 13 live eggs went into lockdown. 10 beautiful fluffy butts hatched right on time with the exception of miss last to the party that required an escort. So 10/13 for my first try isn't too bad! All the cuties have been transferred to the brooder box, and have settled in quite nicely! They are enjoying the mama hen heating pad cave and exploring their new digs. I overheard one of them say it is a lot bigger than their last place..

As for the last three eggs, I candled them and only one is definitely dead. The other two I couldn't tell so I stuck them back in the bator for the night. I doubt they will hatch but I have to be sure before I open them up! So I want to do an eggtopsy to learn if I could prevent deaths in the future. Is there a thread (picture heavy preferably) that outlines what I should be looking for? Any guidance is appreciated.
Again I want to say a huge thank you to everyone that commented, helped, and even cheered us on from the "sidelines." I couldn't have done this without losing my mind if I hadn't had all the help offered. Thank you so much! I really enjoyed it and will definitely be hatching again soon!

 

[WVduckchick]

Ok! I think we are all done! I'm officially calling my first hatch over! 36 eggs went in. 22 were infertile and pulled day 7 (Not surprising, these were a free gamble). Leaving me with 14 developing. 1 quitter pulled day 14.
So 13 live eggs went into lockdown. 10 beautiful fluffy butts hatched right on time with the exception of miss last to the party that required an escort. So 10/13 for my first try isn't too bad! All the cuties have been transferred to the brooder box, and have settled in quite nicely! They are enjoying the mama hen heating pad cave and exploring their new digs. I overheard one of them say it is a lot bigger than their last place..
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As for the last three eggs, I candled them and only one is definitely dead. The other two I couldn't tell so I stuck them back in the bator for the night. I doubt they will hatch but I have to be sure before I open them up! So I want to do an eggtopsy to learn if I could prevent deaths in the future. Is there a thread (picture heavy preferably) that outlines what I should be looking for? Any guidance is appreciated.
Again I want to say a huge thank you to everyone that commented, helped, and even cheered us on from the "sidelines." I couldn't have done this without losing my mind if I hadn't had all the help offered. Thank you so much! I really enjoyed it and will definitely be hatching again soon!

That seriously is an excellent first hatch!! Congrats !!

There is an eggtopsy thread I follow, you can search, or ill try to find a link when i get on the big computer. That may also be a good subject for a new Article for the learning center. Not sure if there is one or not.

How's little late-to-the-party doing??

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don’t know why that membrane would dry out like. Maybe the shell was so porous that that specific egg lost more moisture during incubation than it should have. Quite possibly it being slow to zip contributed. Maybe a combination of those or something else. One thing it shows is that each egg is different and about anything can possibly happen.

About half the chicks I help die anyway, usually within a couple of days. There is often a reason they can’t hatch on their own. There may be something wrong with them that stopped them from hatching on their own. Call it a birth defect, probably internal. They just aren’t meant to make it.

On the other hand about half I help do fine. One specific chick I can remember was stuck after the incubator hatch was over. I gave all the other chicks to a broody hen and then helped that chick out. When it dried it was not fluffy like the others but the down was gunked down like it had been glued. Pieces of shell were stuck to its down. I dipped that chick in a cup of warm (incubator temperature) water to try to rinse that gunk off and picked most of the shell off, but I could not get some shell off without ripping out down so I left it. I put it back in the incubator to dry off, being careful to not chill it. After it was dry it still had some down gunked down and a few pieces of shell stuck to it but it could move fine. I gave it to the broody hen who immediately took it in. The other chicks did not bother it. It took about a week for those final pieces of shell to come off and the down to fluff up but they eventually did.

I took a chance giving that chick to a broody hen with other chicks. I had some concerns that with bits of shell stuck on the hen or the other chicks might peck at it and harm the chick. Or would that gunked down cause the other chicks to peck at it. I gave it a chance and it managed fine.

Don’t be surprised when that chick dries off to see at least some of the down looking like it has been glued down, it has. I’m OK with that as long as the chick can move freely. Others may want you to wash it out, Dawn dishwashing soap is commonly used to wash chickens when they are washed. If you do that the main thing is to not chill them either with cool water or when they are drying off. Here’s hoping that chick proves to be one of those tough scrappy fighters and will do great. Best of luck!

 

[amunk01]

That seriously is an excellent first hatch!! Congrats !!

Thanks WVduckchick! I'm satisfied with my results, but hope to continue to do better! There are so many variables out of our control so a 100% hatch rate consistently is probably unrealistic. But I took extensive notes to work on for next time.
Ridgerunner, thankfully everyone fluffed up nicely. Hopefully everyone will continue to thrive. Honestly, I can't even tell which one the last chick is now since I didn't add bands. I just know it's one of three golden laced Wyandottes. They are all happy campers thus far!
Happy to report all the babies slept great, and are happy and healthy running around this morning. (Even Miss late to the party!) I can hardly stand how cute silkies babies are. I've never had them before so it's extra fun!
As expected my final two eggs in the bator show no change.. I'll be posting my 3 eggtopsy results here once my 2yr old goes down for her nap. I did find the main thread and have read quite a bit, but decided to post them here first so I can refer back to it all on this thread should I need to in the future. I'll add them to the eggtopsy thread to in hopes that it may be helpful. So far the one I already performed was disappointing. The chick was fully formed, and completed an internal pip. I have no idea why it died. There wasn't excessive fluid, the air cell was clearly adequate and the yoke was absorbed although the "bellybutton" appeared open? I don't really know what it's supposed to look like. Pictures to come. Thanks everyone

 

[amunk01]

Ok. Eggtopsy was interesting, sad and mildly traumatic, but interesting.. A little background. Egg #1 (Tolbunt Polish) & #2 (BLRW) were from the same breeder out of Missouri. Not shipped but driven to Oklahoma. Egg #3 (GL Wyandotte) was from a local breeder.
#1. Polish. Fully formed chick. No internal pip although air cell was normal in size. Quite a bit of fluid, blood, and yoke had not been fully absorbed. Seemed in the correct position to pip. No smell.

#2. (BLRW) Fully formed chick with completed internal pip. Adequate air cell? Perfect positioning. Little extra fluid and yoke seemed mostly absorbed? There was some loose yoke in the shell (wondering if this is postmortem leakage?), but mostly clear goo. Maybe someone can tell me if the hole or opening where a bellybutton would be, looks normal? I have no idea why it died. Shell didn't seem overly hard when opened. 1 other egg from the same place/ same breed hatched.

Egg #3. ALIVE when opened! (Candled and float tested but determined dead. Oops) when I cracked the air cell I could immediately see lots of blood under the membrane. I started to peel back both membranes to a lot of blood then I saw the chick move! I just about fainted. Unfortunately, (fortunate for me bc if it was healthy it would've died thanks to me.), this was severely deformed and never would have hatched. Malpositioned with head tucked between it's legs smashed into its yoke which was unabsorbed. Only had a small bottom portion of its beak (by tip of pencil), and no discernable eyes, or mouth. Small underdeveloped head, but very much alive. I culled it, sadly. (Which was awful)

Its very interesting, scientifically, to see such a deformed animal still developing and surviving, even if it was just in an embryonic state. I'll be reading up more of causes of such deformities. Perhaps some are preventable.. Sorry for the graphic photos, but I hope it helps someone else somehow. Any opinions are welcome!

 

[Stayc]

Congrats on the hatches!! cute babies!