Day 20 and weirdly alive under developed egg

[Ruby Rogue]

Sorry for the sad news
Don't beat yourself up over it... you learn a lot from bad experiences. I had a poor hatch this time too (my first time) but I know that my temp was a bit low for some of my eggs and I had a late hatch and some malpositioned chicks because of it. I also think some of my eggs may have been too old. It's okay and I will do better next time, and so will you! I have 5 little cuties from my batch and I just bought 3 more same aged chicks from the same breeder.

 

[jolenesdad]

Update- so I opened the egg up as it wasn’t alive I did float test and candled opened it up and the chick was totally normal, perfect size so I’m so it either did some crazy growing over the last few days or I don’t know why it candled like that. I feel awful but I know even if I intervened sooner it would’ve died at was covered it fluid and not fully absorbed the yolk. I also had 4 others that didn’t make it, so I’m absolutely gutted and don’t know why, one of them was fully ready to go just didn’t make it to external pip, why? Feel like I should’ve helped them sooner. The other 3 eggs, chicks was huge for the eggs so think they just couldn’t get in position, feel crap. So out of 8 eggs I’ve had only 3 hatch feel like a failure, but then got to remember it’s been a good 3 year since I last incubated. I have some others on day 5 in the other incubator and can’t see them working great as they was shipped and every single one has detached air cell or saddle air cells. And be followed all advise with this, not turned them for 3 days and started yesterday with one small turn, but then read another post where they advise not turning them for 7 days so don’t know what to do. They’re in upright position, which I’ve never done before so just going to hope for the best. Any tips anyone for next time round? X

Oh so sorry.

you’re doing fine. Shipped eggs are a gamble and it’s so incredibly hard to know what’s going on. I personally think there’s a LOT to do with how the embryo can absorb the yolk due to potential shipping damage to the yolk and there are many many late stage deaths with shipped eggs. I imagine that’s what happened here, and, a problematic yolk could have been what led to such wonky candling as well.

I think I hatched 150+ shipped eggs last year and tried lots of things. I’m more and more of the opinion that the shipped egg is predetermined to hatch or not before you put it in your incubator. That doesn’t make it any easier, but I assure you it’s not your fault.

I have tried:

turning immediately
No turning three days
No turning 7 days
Side incubating
Vertical incubating
Hand turning
Carton turning and placement
Horizontal and vertical hatching
Probably other things too.

At the end of the day, I personally prefer to rest for 48 hours outside the incubator, incubate vertically, and turn from the get go. Everything is so anecdotal in hatching... but there is a lot of scientific evidence that says the first four days of turning are the most important in the entire hatch. It just has never meshed too well with me to go against that and not turn for a while.

 

[CocoPopz]

Oh so sorry.

you’re doing fine. Shipped eggs are a gamble and it’s so incredibly hard to know what’s going on. I personally think there’s a LOT to do with how the embryo can absorb the yolk due to potential shipping damage to the yolk and there are many many late stage deaths with shipped eggs. I imagine that’s what happened here, and, a problematic yolk could have been what led to such wonky candling as well.

I think I hatched 150+ shipped eggs last year and tried lots of things. I’m more and more of the opinion that the shipped egg is predetermined to hatch or not before you put it in your incubator. That doesn’t make it any easier, but I assure you it’s not your fault.

I have tried:

turning immediately
No turning three days
No turning 7 days
Side incubating
Vertical incubating
Hand turning
Carton turning and placement
Horizontal and vertical hatching
Probably other things too.

At the end of the day, I personally prefer to rest for 48 hours outside the incubator, incubate vertically, and turn from the get go. Everything is so anecdotal in hatching... but there is a lot of scientific evidence that says the first four days of turning are the most important in the entire hatch. It just has never meshed too well with me to go against that and not turn for a while.

Thank you, just feel really upset about it all. Well I’ll continue to turn my new ones, they’re currently in egg cartons upright and when I’ve turned them I’ve just leaned the egg slightly and rotated that way. Do you find that worked best for you? And would I now keep them upright for the entire hatch, even for them to pip and zip etc or do you lay them on their sides close to lockdown? Thank you

 

[CocoPopz]

Sorry for the sad news
Don't beat yourself up over it... you learn a lot from bad experiences. I had a poor hatch this time too (my first time) but I know that my temp was a bit low for some of my eggs and I had a late hatch and some malpositioned chicks because of it. I also think some of my eggs may have been too old. It's okay and I will do better next time, and so will you! I have 5 little cuties from my batch and I just bought 3 more same aged chicks from the same breeder.

Thank you

 

[jolenesdad]

Thank you, just feel really upset about it all. Well I’ll continue to turn my new ones, they’re currently in egg cartons upright and when I’ve turned them I’ve just leaned the egg slightly and rotated that way. Do you find that worked best for you? And would I now keep them upright for the entire hatch, even for them to pip and zip etc or do you lay them on their sides close to lockdown? Thank you

For the wonkier air cells your plan is great. If you have automatic turners that keep the eggs upright you can use those for most.

by about day 15 or so, the air cell should have solidified even if it’s terrible now. At that point it’s completely fine to lockdown and hatch on their side.

 

[CocoPopz]

For the wonkier air cells your plan is great. If you have automatic turners that keep the eggs upright you can use those for most.

by about day 15 or so, the air cell should have solidified even if it’s terrible now. At that point it’s completely fine to lockdown and hatch on their side.

Thank you, I’ve taken the turning rod off so it doesn’t rotate them as they have to be laid on their side in mine unfortunately so just turned the Turner off and manually turning as thought then they’re less likely to be damaged more. Thank you I will try that. Hopefully will work better this time
Thank you for your help x

 

[Justso]

If these were shipped eggs then above a 30% hatch rate is good! You did all right at 37 1/2%

 

[Dottie Ferrell]

Please let us know what you learn from this experience. This is better than reading a novel.

 

[Wendee]

I believe this is a twin, one has died and being absorbed or mummified.

 

[MiniBirdsMi]

What a strange series of events. I'm so sorry that it ended so sadly. Shipped eggs are always a gamble, but the best you can do is to focus on the ones that survived and give them lots of extra love. <3