August Hatch-A-Long

[ScottyGill]

Did you have shipped eggs this time? We've had numerous discussions on and off through the hatch-a-longs about how the shipped eggs seem to retain more fluid causing sticky chicks. Fingers crossed for your chicks!

Oh goodness, I had enough stress with my malpositioned side pip yesterday. My husband was seriously worried about me last night. You have so much going on here. I hope all is well

 

[CluckNDoodle]

WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGE/DETAILS

Hi all. I am attempting to hatch eggs in the incubator for the first time. I know this is not a good time of year to order eggs through the mail, but I wanted to try anyways, so I ordered some from Florida which had to ship across the country to Ohio in 90 degree temps. The eggs arrived pretty dirty, but i read they shouldn't be washed, so I put the eggs in the incubator, candled on day 5, and 2 looked black inside so I opened them and they were rotten. Candled on day 11 and 2 eggs were weeping and smelled awful. Performed eggtopsies and there was only what resembled a black prune inside each egg - what I presume was a decomposed embryo. Candled on day 13, one egg had a little crusted yellow residue on the bottom, which smelled rotten and I assumed had been weeping which meant it was bad. I didn't realize the batteries in my flashlight were dying since I had been looking at brown and blue eggs which are very hard to see inside anyways. So when i candled this particular egg with the yellow crusty residue I only could see a saddle shaped air cell, no veining or anything else. So I assumed it was bad and cracked it open to find a beautiful chick with vibrant yolk and red veining. It looked like a perfectly viable chick to me and did not smell at all. So I am afraid i killed a perfectly healthy chick! The more i think about it, i am wondering if i accidently placed the egg in the same spot in the turner where i had removed a bad weeping egg the prior time i candled, so maybe the residue was from the other bad egg? I feel horrible. So my questions for you...

1. Could an egg weep, have some crusty residue on the outside but the chick still be healthy and survive and hatch?

2. At day 13 should the chick have been moving when i cracked it open?

3. How long would it live upon opening the egg? Is it instant death?

4. Could it have already been dead and still have such a vibrant intact circulatory system? It seems like it wouldn't still look so perfect if it was already dead.

Thank you for your help!

You'll only see weeping if the bacterial load was enough to cause it to excrete from inside the shell so the gunk on the shell may have been from another egg, explaining why it didn't stink. The embryo does look kind of small for day 13, it may have quit on day 10 or 11 and that's why the development was halted but you see very little breakdown yet. Regardless, there is no need to beat yourself up over it! These things happen and we learn from it. So sorry for your difficult experience!

 

[dougieee]

WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGE/DETAILS

Hi all. I am attempting to hatch eggs in the incubator for the first time. I know this is not a good time of year to order eggs through the mail, but I wanted to try anyways, so I ordered some from Florida which had to ship across the country to Ohio in 90 degree temps. The eggs arrived pretty dirty, but i read they shouldn't be washed, so I put the eggs in the incubator, candled on day 5, and 2 looked black inside so I opened them and they were rotten. Candled on day 11 and 2 eggs were weeping and smelled awful. Performed eggtopsies and there was only what resembled a black prune inside each egg - what I presume was a decomposed embryo. Candled on day 13, one egg had a little crusted yellow residue on the bottom, which smelled rotten and I assumed had been weeping which meant it was bad. I didn't realize the batteries in my flashlight were dying since I had been looking at brown and blue eggs which are very hard to see inside anyways. So when i candled this particular egg with the yellow crusty residue I only could see a saddle shaped air cell, no veining or anything else. So I assumed it was bad and cracked it open to find a beautiful chick with vibrant yolk and red veining. It looked like a perfectly viable chick to me and did not smell at all. So I am afraid i killed a perfectly healthy chick! The more i think about it, i am wondering if i accidently placed the egg in the same spot in the turner where i had removed a bad weeping egg the prior time i candled, so maybe the residue was from the other bad egg? I feel horrible. So my questions for you...

1. Could an egg weep, have some crusty residue on the outside but the chick still be healthy and survive and hatch?

2. At day 13 should the chick have been moving when i cracked it open?

3. How long would it live upon opening the egg? Is it instant death?

4. Could it have already been dead and still have such a vibrant intact circulatory system? It seems like it wouldn't still look so perfect if it was already dead.

Thank you for your help!

If this was your first experience with an incubator then shipped eggs was probably not the best place to start, they come with their own myriad of problems as you have unfortunately found out.
Dont be hard on yourself, when you first start incubating the hardest thing to do is resist the urge to constantly intervene.
I candle frequently but only throw out on day 10 to 14 and ONLY the ones i know for sure are either yolkers or quitters and thats also where experience comes in, after a few hatches you will be able to tell with near 100% confidence which are which.
If possible try and source some eggs locally, i personally will drive up to 150km to collect thus avoiding shipping.
At best with shipped eggs your looking at nearly 100% air cell detachment and saddling and at worst, scrambled rotten and broken eggs

 

[CluckNDoodle]

It never gets old!!! Coolest thing ever to watch the developing embryo! This time I've been documenting the same egg. Buff Laced Polish from my first batch of shipped eggs. I went ahead and tossed the clears because they were either infertile or too scrambled to even start developing but I do officially have development in 8 eggs! At least 2 of the eggs have weaker looking development than I like to see but I'm not too upset so far considering almost all of the eggs looked rough inside on arrival.

 

[Kris5902]

Well, I had a huge humidity spike last night and came down to many chicks, a lot with unhealed navels and 89% humidity in my incubator... I opened it, pulled the fluffy and not soft bellied chicks then had to go to work the market. I bathed the sticky chick from last night in 100ish degree water (digital thermometers are wonderful things!) and returned it to the incubator before I left. She was actually stuck to the shelf liner, but is now doing fine, the one with the weird protrusion is still a little soft but looks more or less normal. The last pip in that incubator was zipping when I left. When I finally got a hold of my mother to go check on them while we were at the market she said they were all out peeping and doing fine... she didn’t see the bloody yolk sac . That one is now in the cup, but it was out and dragging the sac around for a good 1-2 hrs. I’m hoping it will be ok.

Most of the soft navels from the incubator with the high humidity were closed up when we got back, and I’m now setting up a third brooder tote and heat plate. I lost two fairly large chicks that pipped in the pointy end and were rolled over while we were at market. Seriously considering trying to hatch in a cut down carton next time?

 

[Rockporters]

That’s my hatch done I think. I’ve got one Black French copper maran and 2 blue.

I’m happy to hear the little one is doing well. Congrats on the new babies!

 

[Rockporters]

I was supposed to be done hatching, but... I set 22 more eggs today! Labor Day weekend hatches. Will keep checking in here to see how everyone’s August hatches are going. We have acquired 4 new to us coops over the last couple of weeks. Haven’t had much time online between the chicks and rehabbing the coops. Hope to have more time soon!!!

 

[BlueBaby]

I was supposed to be done hatching, but... I set 22 more eggs today! Labor Day weekend hatches. Will keep checking in here to see how everyone’s August hatches are going. We have acquired 4 new to us coops over the last couple of weeks. Haven’t had much time online between the chicks and rehabbing the coops. Hope to have more time soon!!!

You are a regular hatch-a-holic, aren't you? Why only 22 egg's?

 

[Compost King]

a couple chicks out from under the brooder heating plate

 

[BlueBaby]

@Compost King Congrats on the hatch! They must have had to come out and cool off those naked neck's of their's, huh?