Eggs damaged in transit - patched up and fingers crossed! *Photos p5*

[Gypsy07]

Right, here's the 12 day update:

Three of the wax patched eggs started developing, with veins and a tiny embryo very obvious at day 6. However, (a bit predictably) by the second candling and weighing they had all collapsed into blood rings. Another four of the good eggs didn't develop at all. So after the disappointing clear out I have just five Daisy eggs left in there now. On the bright side, both of the Buff Daisy eggs are still looking good. And both of my 'control group' eggs are also looking fine.

All of the Daisy eggs are on track for a 13% weight loss by lockdown, but I obviously made a mess of weighing my own two eggs, as I had a 55g starting weight marked on my chart for one of them, and then on day 6 it weighed in at a whopping 63g! I have no idea how I managed to stuff up weighing an egg, but it just goes to show that even the simplest of tasks can be totally stuffed up. D'oh!

I'm sure my own two will be fine though, and it's just the Daisies I'll be worrying about...

 

[pete55]

Hi Gypsy

Sorry as I hadnt seen your thread before now. It was a good idea to try and repair the damaged eggs as I have had some sucess in the past though like you they tend to develop for a few days then disintegrate. The last time I left the egg in the incubator and sure enough it developed signs of a bacterial infection in the following days. So the problem seems to be the physical dmage to the shell and the introduction of bacteria. Now I wipe all damaged with an alcohol impregnated wipe then seal with a systhetic skin liquid for minor cuts and grazes.

Good to hear the Buffs are over the early development stage and looking promising with their weight loss

Best of luck with them

Pete

 

[Gypsy07]

Thanks for the info Pete. If I ever have to work with damaged eggs again I think I shall try the liquid skin. Candle wax is rather messy! As for bacterial infection, I wash all of my hatching eggs in a dilute bleach solution and I did the same with these damaged ones. I had to be extremely gentle with them and of course I didn't submerge them completely for a quick soak like I normally would do, but as the membranes were intact I thought I might as well give it a shot.

I think the blood rings were just early death due to the eggs being roughed about and not a sign of bacterial contamination. The other three broken and repaired eggs that didn't develop just looked like normal infertile eggs when I cracked them open to see what had been going on in there. The yolks fell apart very easily, which I think was evidence of the rough treatment they received, but there were no visible signs (or smells!) of bacterial growth.

Now I'm thinking I should have left them in there for the full three weeks to see if any of them went rotten!

And yes, I'm now quite hopeful for these precious Buffs. But still expecting a couple of losses yet from the remaining 5 shipped eggs. Last hatch I did with shipped Daisy eggs, only 6 out of 18 started developing (rough handling in transit again!) and of those 6, only 3 hatched. I had two that died at approximately 10-12 days and one that made it to about day 17 or 18 before quitting. The three that did hatch were perfectly healthy though, and the four of my own eggs that I put in as a control group all hatched, so I really think the early deaths were also due to the rough handling the eggs got in transit. When you think about what they go through, sometimes I think it's a wonder ANY of them ever hatch out at all!

 

[pete55]

Well best of luck with the others but I have to agree about the rough handling. I remember getting two batches of Toulouse eggs and they were hopeless, not one intact air cell and the majority were early deaths. I've not done it since but did buy some from a breeder and transported them myself in the car and no problems. I think the boxes are thrown all over and in a time of low wages etc it doesnt inspire handlers to be commited to safe transport.

Really hope your Buffs make it though and sounds exciting. Sounds like they're hard to obtain and a little like the Buff Toulouse. I know next year I'll be sweating with their eggs to breed our first Buffs

Pete

 

[Gypsy07]

Do you sell hatching eggs Pete, or just live birds? Just wondering if you have any super-duper packaging methods of your own...

And Lisa - I forgot to reply to your comment about packaging. Yes, your photos show exactly what I was meaning. Nice job! Lots and lots of bubblewrap on each individual egg. It really does make all the difference. If we were in the same country I'd be buying my eggs from you!

P.S. Lockdown today! I'll be doing the final candling in a few hours. I know it doesn't make too much difference, but I set them at around 9pm so I'm going to wait till later in the day to stop turning and bump the humidity up. it's a bit early yet - 6.30am and I'm only up cause my darling Other Half

stuck his alarm on snooze about a dozen times before he could summon the energy to get up and go to work. And of course I'm now wide awake!

 

[pete55]

Hi

No I dont sell hatching eggs as the Dewlaps tend to be so tricky to hatch and I like to run the goslings on a bit.

Best of luck with Lockdown and keeping my fingers crossed for your two Buff eggs especially

Pete

 

[Gypsy07]

I suspected you probably wouldn't ship eggs Pete - with the rarer breeds and also with breeds who don't have a long laying season I suppose it's a bit of a waste to send eggs through the post, knowing in advance that it's almost certain to be detrimental to their chance of hatching out.

So...

Having done my final weighing and candling I'm now a bit puzzled. I had my humidity set at 45% as that's what has produced the most ideal weight loss for me with this breed in the past. On days 6 and 12 they were all on track for a perfect 13% loss, but on weighing them now, none of the Daisies have lost enough. They've all lost between 10.5% and 12%, which is probably enough that they could still hatch okay, but I've only ever experienced weight loss rates slowing down like that when the embryo/chick has died. I don't have a good candling light, so I couldn't see enough to decide if that's what's happened. One of the Buffs does still look quite good, and ditto for one of the Browns. The other three I'm really not too hopeful about any more...

Of the two eggs of my own that I put in (Daisy X Leghorn crosses), the one that I have the correct starting weight for has lost 15%, which is even odder. The other one looks like it might have died, as the air cell is small and kind of liquidy looking. I know two eggs isn't much of a control group and not enough to draw any proper conclusions from, but if one of these ones HAS died I'll be extremely surprised - with my own eggs I've been getting 100% hatch rates for the last year or so.

Oh well... I guess I'll know by Thursday or Friday...

 

[MuckyPuppy]

Good luck for lockdown!

 

[pete55]

Hi. A quick reply as its late. Usually when its a sickly yellow fluid just below the air cell line and absence of vessels then I'm afraid it often indicates death but do keep them going to be certain. Often for eggs that Wont lose enough weight then try daily cooling for 20 mins. Its also helps with gas exchange to invigorate the chick. I do find chicks from late eggs lack the vigour of those eggs laid earlier in the season. Hope that helps and good luck Pete

 

[Gypsy07]

Thanks Pete, I'll keep the advice in mind for future hatches. I'd have tried the cooling thing if I'd known earlier there was a problem, but I only weigh 3 times, on days 6, 12 and 18. As the problem developed between days 12 and 18, I wasn't aware of it. yes, I've seen the runny looking air cell before and it's usually an indication of death, but like you say there's nothing to lose now so they're all staying in. I stopped turning yesterday but haven't increased my humidity yet. Think I'll wait till late on today (day 19) or early tomorrow (day 20) to do that. I know my temps have been spot on so I don't expect anyone to pip before day 21. They're usually bang on schedule, which is nice.

I'm working a lot the next couple of days, so I won't be doing any gazing into the bator for hours on end. I usually prefer to just leave them to get on with it anyway. It removes any 'to help or not to help' quandaries I might otherwise suffer if I saw any were having problems hatching. I won't help unless I know they're having problems caused by poor incubating conditions. And as my Brinsea has been rock solid with temps and humidity, any healthy ones shouldn't need assistance.

I shall post my final result in a couple of days...