Eggtopsy: What happened to my egg? {Graphic Pictures}

[wabbit1964]

GRAPHIC IMAGE

so this batch of quitters show quitting at different stages.. the earliest to quit was an EE egg that I could not see through the shell when candling... I'm having a hard time figuring the stages out as am not experienced in what developing chicks look like before hatching.... anyone have input on estimating the stages of quitting??

obviously being my first eggtopsy I was not experienced in taking pics of each stage or as careful as I should have been when doing the topsy being uneducated first timer.

 

[lonnyandrinda]

OK I don't quite follow. Is each picture a different egg, 7 eggs total?

I will assume so. The first picture appears to be about a day 3 or 4 quitter. The oldest appears to be middle row far right, I would guess day 17 or 18. The other two on the top I would guess around day 10, and the other three in the middle and bottom I would guess day 15. How many eggs were in from the beginning? Did any hatch? Were temps and humidity steady during hatching? The answers to these may help us figure out what went wrong.

Given that they all seemed to die at different stages points to fluctuations in temperatures throughout incubation. I had somebody call who bought 18 hatching eggs locally and only got 5 to hatch. They weren't complaining just trying to figure out what went wrong. I finally figured out they heat their home solely with firewood- so obviously they were getting temperature fluctuations- especially at night- that a small incubator just cannot deal with.

 

[wabbit1964]

7 different eggs sorry, I just put them all in one pic to make it easier and to compare... These were leftovers from ones with a EDD of 4/27 in which 5 did hatch and are healthy.... It was my 3rd set of eggs to hatch. Thanks for the info!!

 

[cowgirl4]

We r on our second hatching and not good hatching only 1/24 so far.Our 1st hatch we lost 10 which most looked fully developed but never hatched.We dont have a gage to check humity just keeping water channels full through hole incubation.I WILL get a humitity gage b4 next hatch.This makes me so sad to know it could be my fault they died.It's 1 day after due date,I'm gonna leave the other eggs in several more days and pray more hatch.

 

[lonnyandrinda]

Sorry to hear that. More important than humidity is a steady temperature. Make sure it is in a room with even temps, and away from exterior walls and drafts. You can gauge if the humidity is too high by looking at the size of the air cell, a humidity gauge is nice but not necessary. At the end of incubation the air cell should take up roughly 1/3 of the space inside the egg. This is easily seen during candling. If the air cell is smaller than that, you are running too high humidity and drowning the chicks before they can hatch. I live in Oklahoma which can have REALLY high humidity at certain times of year. In the winter I need to keep the water trays full. In the summer I only fill them partway about once or twice a week and let the wells sit dry for a day before I refill. You just have to keep playing with everything until you hit on the right combination for your climate. If you can find someone in your area that hatches a lot ask them how they run their humidity setup and that will give you a better idea. You could even look on Craigslist for people selling chicks and call and ask them how they do their hatching.

 

[wabbit1964]

cowgirl they may get too much humidity in the early stages if you keep the water wells full the whole incubation. I know several on here use dry incubation method and don't add water until the end when you need higher humidity. Sorry you are having a bad hatch.

 

[chellebells]

can anyone shed light on why this chick died, 6 of them all the same. thanks

 

[nettifer]

this one pipped last night day 22 but this morning was dead looks like intestines

 

[silkiechicken]

If these guys were cracked open after day 23/24, I'd venture to guess temperature was too low, about a degree or two, leading to them running out of energy before full term development.

can anyone shed light on why this chick died, 6 of them all the same. thanks

 

[axolotl]

This thread is very informative and thanks to everyone who has contributed to it. I am adding my own image of a Cayuga duck that stopped moving and that I opened. A few eggs had not externally pipped following internal pip more than 24 hours ago, so I made holes in them. One of them had already stopped moving, and was dead but internally pipped and otherwise normal when I opened it. This evening one of the others I had pipped had also stopped moving so I opened it. The duckling's bowels seem to have prolapsed into the yolk sac, unfortunately.