I had some eggs mailed to me yesterday, and one egg was slightly cracked. The crack is spiderweb like about 1/4" diameter. I heard somewhere before to place a light wax over it to help seal out the "bad stuff". Has anyone had success in saving a cracked egg from Day 1? Is it likely to hatch or not likely?
I have heard you should just throw them out, but miracles DO Happen as I have heard some "horror stories" about hatching eggs that should never have hatched according to conventional wisdom~~and they do in the end.~~ Just my very humble opinion though.......
I got one recently, and tried the wax. It just didn't develop and is getting tossed tonight (day14) but I figured nothing ventured nothing gained. I just kept a close eye (and nose) on it. As long as you keep an eye on it, I say go for it Krista
Same here...had one lightly cracked and sealed it with wax. Today is day 7 with no veins seen. Will be tossed tonight. Also, I had one that I dropped the thermometer on about day 15. Just cracked the outer shell so I waxed it. It did continue to develop but yesterday on day 21 when all the others were pipping, zipping and hatching this egg felt very cold. We made the decision to scrape off the wax in case it needed to pip in that area (yes, it cracked in the aircell area). While scraping off the wax, the shell fell away and revealed a mostly developed chick but it was very cold and only breathed for about 30 minutes before it died.
I forgot to mention these eggs are my first BBS Orpingtons. I'll watch these eggs closely. Unfortunately, the theme seems to be "poor egg". I'll provide more feedback later.
Sorry, I'm late posting this. Out of the 8 eggs that were incubated, three hatched. I think the humidity got to high when I was at work. It got up to 75. I checked the other eggs after day 25. Three were full developed but didn't hatch. All were fertile. Believe it or not though, the crack egg sealed with wax was the first chick to hatch. I guess it had a will to survive, lol. Sorry, I have no photo's ( no camera). One is a light smoky color, one is dark grey'ish with yellow, and the last is black with yellow. Any ideas as to black, blue, splash?
I have one!! the egg cracked on day 1, I covered the cracks with candle wax, and the baby is developing normally, goes into the hatcher tomorrow! wish us luck! It's a Brabanter