Egg color pattern right before Incubator lockdown.

[Lil Biddie]

So cute! I also tried to 'help' one of my eggs a little by enlarging the pip hole. It hatched before the yolk was fully absorbed, so I put it in a coffee cup on a damp paper towel for another day or so. It was in a very narrow green egg that was difficult to candle.
I didn't do 'postmortem' on the eggs that didn't hatch, because so many things went wrong during that incubation it would be hard to pin it on any cause other than inconsistent temperature and high humidity.
I ended up with 3 chicks and 3 ducklings, all barnyard mix. The duck eggs were an impulse hatch, so I had to wait 7 days before setting the chicken eggs.
Here's a pic of the 2 little chicks waiting for the 3rd 'cup chick' to join them.
And, the most recent pic of the ducklings....1st swim! My brother that gave me the eggs tells me that they're Blue Swede and Crested Pekins.
I had seriously considered just throwing in the towel with that hatch... I'm glad that I didn't. The incubator And weather has stabilized(for now!) and I have 4 viable duck eggs incubating.

 

[ssferret]

So cute! I also tried to 'help' one of my eggs a little by enlarging the pip hole. It hatched before the yolk was fully absorbed, so I put it in a coffee cup on a damp paper towel for another day or so. It was in a very narrow green egg that was difficult to candle.
I didn't do 'postmortem' on the eggs that didn't hatch, because so many things went wrong during that incubation it would be hard to pin it on any cause other than inconsistent temperature and high humidity.
I ended up with 3 chicks and 3 ducklings, all barnyard mix. The duck eggs were an impulse hatch, so I had to wait 7 days before setting the chicken eggs.
Here's a pic of the 2 little chicks waiting for the 3rd 'cup chick' to join them.
And, the most recent pic of the ducklings....1st swim! My brother that gave me the eggs tells me that they're Blue Swede and Crested Pekins.
I had seriously considered just throwing in the towel with that hatch... I'm glad that I didn't. The incubator And weather has stabilized(for now!) and I have 4 viable duck eggs incubating.
View attachment 2714279View attachment 2714280

I was looking for a way to save the chick and I'm pretty sure this is the post I found. I tried to follow what you did as fast I could but it wasn't quick enough. When I opened the incubator again she was gone.

I'm so glad yours made it! I also want to tell you how much your post meant to me even though there wasn't a happy ending. There's always a possibility that in the future one of mine will hatch with the yoke attached. (It won't be my doing though. I've learned my lesson.) This time I could be prepared. If a chick dies anyway I'll at least know I did my best to give it a chance.

 

[Lil Biddie]

I was looking for a way to save the chick and I'm pretty sure this is the post I found. I tried to follow what you did as fast I could but it wasn't quick enough. When I opened the incubator again she was gone.

I'm so glad yours made it! I also want to tell you how much your post meant to me even though there wasn't a happy ending. There's always a possibility that in the future one of mine will hatch with the yoke attached. (It won't be my doing though. I've learned my lesson.) This time I could be prepared. If a chick dies anyway I'll at least know I did my best to give it a chance.

That's all we can do. We have to have the dark to appreciate the light.
I know that several live eggs failed to hatch and it made me very sad. I think the length of this incubation was just too much for them and they weren't strong enough to pip out. It was definitely a Hail Mary play sticking the chick in the cup and I'm glad it worked.
This go around I took all of my brothers duck eggs, many of which were bad or unfertilized. I'm down to 4 that are alive and hopefully will hatch on the 28th. I'm pretty sure 1 is about a week ahead of the others in development, so I'll have to guesstimate when to stop turning it. I'm thinking around the 21st.
Do you plan to start another hatch anytime soon? It really does get easier with experience. Although, I think my last experience was worse than when I had to finish incubating eggs in a styofoam cooler on a heating pad during hurricane Harvey! That time only 1 thing went wrong! And, all of those eggs hatched!