Eggs at 14 days - would appreciate input

I opened the incubator and looked at the eggs. One had a place with tiny cracks in it!!!! I took a pair of very sharp tweezers and carefully removed a teeny piece of cracked shell and made a tiny tear in the membrane so oxygen could get in. It cheeped! IT'S ALIVE! Then I found one more that had actually broken a bit of the shell and the membrane too. I am so thrilled!!! At least 2 of them are alive and have begun to pip out of the shell!
 
This is extremely nerve-wracking! After no more sign of shell pippage in the 2 eggs that show signs of life, and reading lots of articles here, I opened just a bit more of the 2 eggs. The membrane is indeed white, and looks tough, so I used a tiny paint brush to lubricate it just a bit with coconut oil. On the first one, I can see a blood vein off to the side, very slender, so I stopped. On the other, the membrane was also very dry, so I used coconut oil. On that one, there were more obvious veins with blood, so I stopped at that point and put both eggs back into the incubator. The humidity is 75%. The first chick is making 'chewing' motions, which I have read is an indicator that she is still absorbing yolk.
My hands are still shaking. None of the others are pipping at this point but if I could get at least these 2 to hatch I'd be very happy, though I will also candle the rest when it gets dark to see if anyone else has survived.
 

Attachments

  • Resized_20200423_181446.jpeg
    Resized_20200423_181446.jpeg
    372.9 KB · Views: 2
  • Resized_20200423_181158.jpeg
    Resized_20200423_181158.jpeg
    279.7 KB · Views: 2
They should be able to do the rest on their own. Once they pip it can take 24 hours for them to zip. If they are still working on it in 24 hours you could try helping a little bit more, then letting them sit for a bit again.
Even if the membranes are dry? I don't want to do too much and hurt them, but I also do not want to let them die at this point. ( And thank you so much for your help!)
 
A dry membrane is brown. In your pictures membrane looks white/transparent which is good and tears easily with the egg tooth of the chick. Your coconut oil seems to have done the trick for now. I’d just let them have time to finish absorbing their yolk. That’s why I suggested the 24 hour time frame.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom