Accidental Cull of live chick, day 18

[metcarl]

I candled the eggs today, Day 18 in preparation of lockdown. Most the eggs I candled were entirely dark inside with an aircell. Three of the eggs obviously had not developed. Two of the eggs were only about 1/2 dark and 1/2 light - thinking these were chicks that stopped developing, I removed one of the eggs. I left the other because it was a darker egg and it was less clear what was going on.

The three eggs - had not begun development. One of them smelled bad, but there was not any obvious bacteria (pus) when I opened it.

The partially developed egg - I opened it up and there was a live chick! However, it did not live long once the egg was opened. I have never opened an egg at this stage (first time incubating) so don't know what normal development is supposed to look like at this stage. There was some weird looking green fluid which I am curious if that's normal or not. The chick also seemed very small at this stage since it was only taking up about 1/2 of the egg.

I'm hoping that even though chick was alive when I opened the egg, someone will tell me that it wasn't normal and likely would not have survived.

 

[Just Rosie]

To me, that looks like an infected yolk. It sounds as if you may have found contamination in your incubator. It is important to remove any eggs that have a smell (at any stage of incubation), as the bacterial infection can spread egg to egg. If this is an infected yolk, your chick had a very slim chance of surviving, or even hatching. I have now dealt with 3 different "mushy yolk" (infected yolk sac) chicks, and none survived. Unfortunately, there isn't much you can do for a chick with an infected yolk. The infection is drawn into the abdomen with the yolk, exposing your chick's vital organs to bad bacteria.
I'm sorry you are dealing with this, but I do believe your chick wouldn't have survived either way. I do recommend caution when culling, especially without experience, to avoid culling chicks that could survive. It is a delicate balance between protecting the questionable egg and protecting the rest of your clutch. I wish you the best of luck with the rest of your hatch.
Remember, if you end up with a chick with a mushy yolk, you will want to separate it from the rest of your flock, as the infection can still spread, even after hatching. Some choose to cull these chicks, as it is almost certain death. If you are like me, though, you give every kicking baby a chance, at the expense of a lot of time and potential heart ache.

 

[007Sean]

Although this one seems to have alot of green material they do have some in an embryo that age. That's the waste material of the developing embryo. Here's a pic of embryos at different days of incubation/development.

 

[Kiki]

I don't know what is wrong with this egg but I'm pretty sure it is not normal.