Day 25 Chicken hatching issues

[Lilmi88]

Hello everyone- I’ve been following this site and it’s thread throughout my first incubation and you all give wonderful and very information advice, so here it goes... After buying and receiving shipped eggs it has not been very successful so far. I have a Brinsea minineco incubator of which I have attentively followed the instructions through the incubation. However having removed some eggs which did not develop early on and a couple more which seems to have formed blood lines just before incubation I am down to just one egg. After waiting patiently for day 23 to arrive without any indication of an imanant hatching like popping tweeting or tapping I decided to candle the egg to see if it was still alive. To my delight I could still see the embryo moving but no beak and hadn’t internally pipped. Back into the incubator it went. It’s now day 25 and after caning again I could see that it is still alive but quite clearly not anywhere near the air sac. No pipping no noises. After following all the advice on these threads I decided that it was unlikely at day 25 it would hatch alone. I have successfully taken away part of the shell over the air cell and moistened the membrane underneath. I can quite clearly see the chick is alive but there is absolutely no sign of it’s head. I now wonder if this is a misposition chick. It is filling the egg well. No visible feet wings beak or eye and I cannot see a yolk either. However it still has a very heavily veined membrane. It is in the incubator membrane in tact. Is there anything else I can do? Thank you in advance !

 

[CindyinSD]

At this point, you will either need to let nature take its course or assist the chick in hatching. To be honest I would do the former, but my goals may not be your goals and I respect that. Here's an article on assisted hatching that should be of some help to you: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/guide-to-assisted-hatching-for-all-poultry.72886/ It will be much more helpful than I possibly could and is not too long, while still providing a wealth of excellent information. Best of luck in your endeavor.

 

[Lilmi88]

Thank you Cindyinsnd, sadly I had read up on that article just in case I came across something like this but for some reason hadn’t been able to see the photos! I’ve just taken a second look and my egg looks very much like the picture So stopping and putting it back the incubator is the right thing. It’s clearly not ready to hatch. I will continue to monitor and see if the blood vessels are absorbed. My gut feeling is that at 25 days and still not absorbing the blood there maybe something wrong and it perhaps wasn’t meant to be so sad for my first hatching experience. I’m not feeling very hopeful.

 

[Lilmi88]

UPDATE: After some sleepless hours keeping an eye on the little fella in the incubator I noticed that his movement slowed and eventually stopped. I took it out and it had quite clearly given up. I decided to continue to open the egg and membrane to find out what went wrong. This is my first time at hatching and after so much excitement and 6 quite expensive polish eggs later I’m really sad that my first experience has not been a good one. But I am determined to learn from it. The chick it seems was in the right direction for hatching but had its head deep between the thighs and so would have been right in the center of the egg. After looking more closely I realised it had a head deformity- almost like an external brain/bubble and no eyes! The poor little thing was never going to make it. It’s certainly been a very steep learning curve for my first hatch. What are the chances? Thoughts lovely people?

 

[CindyinSD]

@Pyxis would be better able to advise you than I. Hopefully she can pop in here, as I've tagged her.

Meanwhile, let me invite you to participate in one or more of our hatch-a-long threads. There are usually new ones for each month. There will always be knowledgeable people available on these threads to answer questions, encourage, and share in one-another's joys and sorrows. When you post a single thread, you may or may not be noticed, so, while we'll always try, we may not even see your message before your thread becomes inundated by many other new threads.

 

[Offshoreorca]

First you have to figure out whether it was what you have done or the eggs themselves. Brinsea incubators are normally quite good, but as with everything, they can be fallible. That's why it's important to have an independent small hygrometer and thermometer inside - this will help you make sure the incubator is on track. Shipped eggs are also very hard to hatch sometimes, even if they appear in good condition when they arrive. Many folks consider 50% to be good for shipped eggs, though it is possible to do much better, but also far worse. This might also be the root of your problem. A third thing to consider is that the adults who these eggs came from might not have proper nutrition or great health.

I would try again, but with a small thermometer (and hygrometer if you can, though I often use my Brinsea without as it holds humidity well) to monitor temperature and with local eggs. This way you can begin figure out whether it's incubation or the eggs themselves that are the problem.

 

[Tonyroo]

How old is your incubator? Did you have a secondary temp/humidity reader as back up reader?

 

[Lilmi88]

@Pyxis would be better able to advise you than I. Hopefully she can pop in here, as I've tagged her.

Meanwhile, let me invite you to participate in one or more of our hatch-a-long threads. There are usually new ones for each month. There will always be knowledgeable people available on these threads to answer questions, encourage, and share in one-another's joys and sorrows. When you post a single thread, you may or may not be noticed, so, while we'll always try, we may not even see your message before your thread becomes inundated by many other new threads.

Thank you I will take a look at that perhaps when I purchase some more eggs for an incubation

 

[Lilmi88]

First you have to figure out whether it was what you have done or the eggs themselves. Brinsea incubators are normally quite good, but as with everything, they can be fallible. That's why it's important to have an independent small hygrometer and thermometer inside - this will help you make sure the incubator is on track. Shipped eggs are also very hard to hatch sometimes, even if they appear in good condition when they arrive. Many folks consider 50% to be good for shipped eggs, though it is possible to do much better, but also far worse. This might also be the root of your problem. A third thing to consider is that the adults who these eggs came from might not have proper nutrition or great health.

I would try again, but with a small thermometer (and hygrometer if you can, though I often use my Brinsea without as it holds humidity well) to monitor temperature and with local eggs. This way you can begin figure out whether it's incubation or the eggs themselves that are the problem.

Thanks that’s really helpful, I followed all the instructions pretty rigidly however I guess to start with I only had half a dozen eggs. Looking back I also think that I should have turned them more often and only allowed then to rest overnight before setting. I do have a thermometer so I checked a couple of tunes against the Brinsea but perhaps for my next hatch it would be a good idea to invest in a hydrometer too. The incubator was brand new. I agree about what you say about their origins. As shipped eggs bought online there is a certain éliment of not knowing what condition their flock was in too. Thanks for the advice

 

[Lilmi88]

How old is your incubator? Did you have a secondary temp/humidity reader as back up reader?

It was brand new for my first hatch. I did use a thermometer to compare and it seemed pretty stable. I feel like a hydrometer would be a good investment to for next time. Thank you for the suggestion