AltonaAcres
Crowing
- Jan 13, 2019
- 3,304
- 5,774
- 456
Ok. Here goes. On June 3rd in the late evening I set 5 eggs from my flock. Some had been refrigerated (I have always had good luck with this, but I know, not ideal) and some were collected straight from the coop. At the time I had a broody periodically sitting, but I'd collect eggs as often as possible so they wouldn't develop. Two of the eggs candled clear and were culled. The other 3 were developing nicely all at the same rate (as far as I could tell). On Tuesday (the 23rd) I noticed a pip. The chick hatched the next morning, almost 2 days early, but is very healthy. I've concluded that egg must have been under the broody for awhile, so began developing slightly before the others did. The other two still haven't pipped! I candled on the 23rd and noticed one egg (I'll call it #1) had not internally pipped, and there was a little space in the egg still so I thought the embryo must have died a couple of days before. I could see veins receded, not sure if that's because it was preparing to hatch or had passed away. The air cell looked normal. The other egg (#2) had almost what looked like a layer/ shadow of the air cell (which had become saddled) that was darker and was moving up and down in a breathing motion. Egg #1 has been slightly wiggling much to my surprise, but #2 has yet to move at all. I put two safety holes over the air cells of both eggs yesterday morning because I'm getting concerned about them. I candled again today, and #1 looks the same. #2, instead of having the 'layer' or shadowing in the air cell just has a patch at the lower end of the saddle shaped air cell that I can tell is moving and breathing. It's my bad, I counted my eggs before they hatched and have a buyer all lined up to take 3 chicks, but with these two not hatching I've been putting off the day she picks them up. Thankfully I have a friend hatching out some of my eggs right now so I could just get some chicks from her to sell. But why is this taking so long? Are these babies needing help or just not ready? Did the safety holes do more harm then good? Sorry for the long post. I drew a diagram that may help you visualize it if you're having trouble understanding.
