Ah! Help - I Thought this egg had died.....

[gardenmama888]

Hello!

So this is my first time incubating eggs. I had 3 eggs that were to hatch Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. The Monday and Tuesday eggs (small americana eggs) hatched yesterday and today but the Sunday egg (Maran) had shown zero progress. After reading about Marans and how hatch rates aren't great because of the thick shell I started to think I lost this one. I candled today (day 25) and saw no movement, no internal pip, no cheeping, so I decided to be happy 2 out of 3 hatched and move on. I opened the whole part of the shell where the airsac was to just make sure I wasn't throwing away a good egg (I had hardly any hope it was alive) and then I freaked out when I hit a small part of the membrane and it started to bleed. It stopped after about 10 seconds (I applied a tiny bit of pressure) and then I saw the chick wiggling around. I brushed it with a bit of oil so the membrane wouldn't shrink wrap her and then saw a ton of blood vessels still. Is this crazy that at a full 25 days she is alive and still hasn't absorbed the blood or pipped??

What should I do?? I have the egg in the incubator sort of at a 45 degree angle with the hole I made facing up-ish....I can't tell where it's beak is because of how squished it is....

Sorry the picture isn't great - I don't want to take it out of the incubator again so it is hard to get a picture.

 

[MGG]

It was probably in a cool spot. What type of incubator do you have? Was the auto turner (if you have one) on? Pretty much all you can do is keep it moist and wait.
Fingers crossed for the little one. It's always best to candle eggs before doing anything.

Hello!

So this is my first time incubating eggs. I had 3 eggs that were to hatch Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. The Monday and Tuesday eggs (small americana eggs) hatched yesterday and today but the Sunday egg (Maran) had shown zero progress. After reading about Marans and how hatch rates aren't great because of the thick shell I started to think I lost this one. I candled today (day 25) and saw no movement, no internal pip, no cheeping, so I decided to be happy 2 out of 3 hatched and move on. I opened the whole part of the shell where the airsac was to just make sure I wasn't throwing away a good egg (I had hardly any hope it was alive) and then I freaked out when I hit a small part of the membrane and it started to bleed. It stopped after about 10 seconds (I applied a tiny bit of pressure) and then I saw the chick wiggling around. I brushed it with a bit of oil so the membrane wouldn't shrink wrap her and then saw a ton of blood vessels still. Is this crazy that at a full 25 days she is alive and still hasn't absorbed the blood or pipped??

What should I do?? I have the egg in the incubator sort of at a 45 degree angle with the hole I made facing up-ish....I can't tell where it's beak is because of how squished it is....

Sorry the picture isn't great - I don't want to take it out of the incubator again so it is hard to get a picture.

 

[gardenmama888]

Thanks for your reply!

My original incubator did not have an automatic egg turner but I turned them 3 times a day. Then I ended up buying a 36 egg capacity automatic egg turning incubator from Stromburg's so I transitioned it over there (along with all of the other eggs at day 15). It's so weird because it was right next to the other 2 that hatched already.

I am bummed because when I candled it today I didn't see any movement

Once the blood vessels are gone (if it is still alive) should I expect it to start breaking the air sac? How much longer do you think that would take?

Thank you again!

 

[MGG]

Thanks for your reply!

My original incubator did not have an automatic egg turner but I turned them 3 times a day. Then I ended up buying a 36 egg capacity automatic egg turning incubator from Stromburg's so I transitioned it over there (along with all of the other eggs at day 15). It's so weird because it was right next to the other 2 that hatched already.

I am bummed because when I candled it today I didn't see any movement

Once the blood vessels are gone (if it is still alive) should I expect it to start breaking the air sac? How much longer do you think that would take?

Thank you again!

Hm, I'm not sure then. Did you test the temp of the new incubator with a calibrated thermometer? It may have been too low. If you opened the air cell already I don't think it will internally pip. Just give it lots of time. Once the veins recede some more it might externally pip on its own. You'll probably have to help it. Give it several days though, don't rush it. Keep humidity nice and high, about 75%. It might not make it, so be prepared. Hopefully it will though. Fingers crossed. Keep me posted.

 

[gardenmama888]

Thank you so much - I really appreciate it. In general do you have advice on Maran eggs? Do you find that you need to do anything to help them out with the thickness of the shell? It is just crazy to me how much thicker it is than my other eggs.