Eggtopsy : chick started breathing!

[Faverolles98]

Ok, I hope you don’t judge me too hard This was my third hatch, and one egg didn’t pip or hatch (out of 7). By the end of day 22, I took the egg out and candled it thoroughly. I could see the chick was small, and not moving at all. I decided to do an eggtopsy, and a while after getting it out it started moving!!! I put it in the incubator and it started breathing nicely for several hours, before he died peacefully. The yolk sac were completely absorbed and mostly the blood veins. It never opened its eyes, and it looked pretty small.

What do you think happened? And did I **** it up with my eggtopsy? I feel so bad

 

[Debbie292d]

Hi!

Nobody judges anyone. We're all humans and can make a mistake, even if you could call that one. You checked and knew it was small and not moving, so any of us could have done the exact same thing. Nobody knows if that chick would have made it in the end anyway. Sorry it died though.

Many times those that are slower to hatch by a day or two have issues as well. This one probably needed another day yet to incubate, and then who knows if it would have hatched even then or thrived as well as your others.

It's all a good learning experience!

 

[Unhingedchookmum]

Hi!

Nobody judges anyone. We're all humans and can make a mistake, even if you could call that one. You checked and knew it was small and not moving, so any of us could have done the exact same thing. Nobody knows if that chick would have made it in the end anyway. Sorry it died though.

Many times those that are slower to hatch by a day or two have issues as well. This one probably needed another day yet to incubate, and then who knows if it would have hatched even then or thrived as well as your others.

It's all a good learning experience!

Lovely reply here.

I would have done the same thing. I’ve learned to intervene earlier rather than later as I’ve had so many dead chicks in shell, I always wonder “what if?!” Since we’re already artificially incubating, we have to be prepared to artificially hatch some of the time. Some of the time, too, it won’t work out.

 

[Altairsky]

You did the right thing. The chick was probably underdeveloped, it would never be able to pip on its own and it would have died anyway. You gave it a chance by helping, so you did the best thing.
I guarantee that it is worse when a perfectly formed chick dies because it was malpositioned and you didn't help.