Dropped egg

[JessicaFierro]

I have an 8 day old egg I was candling and dropped. I was sitting on a carpeted floor, and it fell maybe a foot and rolled a few inches. ( I immediately picked it up and candled it. It looked fine. I decided to check on it again an hour later, and it looked very different. I could still see veins, but it looked murky inside. Im absolutely heartbroken. Do you think I killed my lil chick?

 

[sourland]

Maybe and maybe not. Candle again in two or three days and you will be able to tell. Accidents happen, and the very same thing has happened to anyone who has incubated eggs.

 

[JessicaFierro]

Thanks. I hope it will be ok.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

I have an 8 day old egg I was candling and dropped. I was sitting on a carpeted floor, and it fell maybe a foot and rolled a few inches. ( I immediately picked it up and candled it. It looked fine. I decided to check on it again an hour later, and it looked very different. I could still see veins, but it looked murky inside. Im absolutely heartbroken. Do you think I killed my lil chick?

sorry to hear that. unfortunately it sounds like the yolk broke, but only time will tell. I keep telling myself I am going to buy rubber hospital gloves when I candle and turn or else those finger cot things, help hold on to them...I have put cracks in few doing that. dont get too down, alot of stuff happens while we incubate.

 

[LukensFarms]

I have only had cracked eggs survive on day 20. Bummer but there is always sunshine above the clouds.

 

[FenDruadin]

Bummer. It has happened to ALL of us.

It could still survive, but the murkiness has me worried. Let it sit a couple days and candle again. If you see veins, then you're all good. If the egg has died, the veins will have disintegrated.

We had a cracked quail egg at about three days once, that made it all the way to hatch out a beautiful little chick, so a cracked egg is NOT an automatic death sentence. I also once dropped a glass measuring cup on an egg at lockdown (I was pouring water and slipped). It dented the egg in a big way. Thought sure I'd killed it. Darned if that wasn't the first and fastest-hatching egg of the lot.

Anyway, whatever happens, don't beat yourself up. Stuff happens, and it happens to all of us.

 

[JessicaFierro]

First of all, thank you so very much for the support and encouraging words. I seriously cannot believe I dropped it. It made me feel better that it does happen... However, my lil guy died.

I candled it today and it had that "red ring of death" floating and the rest of the egg almost clear when light shined through. It hit me so hard, because this is our first attempt to incubate eggs. And out of the 2 we have, I dropped one. It didnt' even crack... The impact must of been enough. I removed it. I read on here it could have bacteria that could contaminate our other egg. Thanks again everyone.

 

[FenDruadin]

Awww. Sorry to hear of your loss. This kind of thing ABSOLUTELY happens to everyone who incubates regularly. And it honestly happens more often when we're beginners (most of my accidents happened in the first five to ten attempts at incubating). It's especially hard emotionally when you have such a small number of eggs.

I know this won't help with this batch, but I generally recommend incubating at least six eggs at a time, even if you only want a couple babies. 100% hatch rates are the exception rather than the rule, even under optimal hatching conditions, so you want to hedge your bets a bit. And you can always sell extra babies on craigslist or here.

On the silver lining side... that remaining baby will be undoubtedly a super friendly bird, because it's going to get SO much human attention, and rely on you so much. I never recommend raising a bird alone on purpose, but it happens by accident from time to time (happened to us with a quail baby--we didn't even think the eggs were fertile and my son put them in the bator when it was running to get it ready for another batch of eggs, and I ignored them because I thought they were infertile... and they weren't. Oops! lol That "baby" is still with us two years later and is the friendliest quail you will ever meet), and it usually turns out just fine. You'll just have a little extra work on your hands to make sure your baby isn't too lonely.

Get a small stuffed toy or a clean feather duster you don't mind giving to the chick (it will get pooped on--just so you know), and a small mirror. These things will help A LOT with a singleton baby.

Good luck!

 

[JessicaFierro]

Thank you so much! I did not consider the chick being lonely! The feather duster idea is brilliant & mirror is brilliant. I realize my chick is going very friendly. My girls are considering this more of a pet, anyways. Thank you again for the support and advice. This site is amazing!

 

[FenDruadin]

Wish I could claim that brilliance as my own, but I'm just passing on the brilliance I've gathered from this very community.

Chickens are highly social creatures, and desperately need companionship. In the wild, numbers=safety, and companionship is 24/7. They will often pine to death without it, and certainly suffer without it. This is why I never recommend raising them alone on purpose. When it happens by accident, it's manageable, but you have to give them extra attention and make sure they have "lovies" (i.e., duster, mirror, stuffies, etc.) in their cage for when you're not there.

Have fun. Can't wait to see those new hatchling pics when she gets out of the egg.