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

[launius]

I doubt that one little humidity drop killed them.  The two most likely causes of death in the two near term ducklings are bacterial infection or genetic abnormality in my opinion.

Thanks so much. That makes me feel a little better. I had wondered if I might have had bacterial issues all along. Out of 28 eggs that I set, 9 had no development at day 10 and when I cracked them open they all had a milky scrambled look. There was no discernible yolk...the entire inside looked the same. I wasn't sure if this was from shipping or a bacterial issue. I also had one start smelling that I promptly removed from the incubator. Another 5 had blood spots or rings and

 

[launius]

(sorry, hit the wrong button) 2 were very early deaths.

 

[lonnyandrinda]

Thanks so much. That makes me feel a little better. I had wondered if I might have had bacterial issues all along. Out of 28 eggs that I set, 9 had no development at day 10 and when I cracked them open they all had a milky scrambled look. There was no discernible yolk...the entire inside looked the same. I wasn't sure if this was from shipping or a bacterial issue. I also had one start smelling that I promptly removed from the incubator. Another 5 had blood spots or rings and

(sorry, hit the wrong button) 2 were very early deaths.

Then yes I would say bacterial infection is the most likely cause if you had trouble with it in the other eggs. Blood rings are usually caused by bacterial infection. Like I said I don't have ducks myself but have heard that they like to lay in the mud and ick. You might try disinfecting your eggs before setting next time using Oxine solution or something similar.

 

[launius]

Then yes I would say bacterial infection is the most likely cause if you had trouble with it in the other eggs.  Blood rings are usually caused by bacterial infection.  Like I said I don't have ducks myself but have heard that they like to lay in the mud and ick.  You might try disinfecting your eggs before setting next time using Oxine solution or something similar.

Thank you so much for your help!

 

[Fuzzybottom13]

Any ideas on these silkie chicks? Positioned properly, but no internal pip. The eggs were due 5 days ago, just opened them up today.


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[lonnyandrinda]

The eggs look pretty watery, is it possible the humidity was too high? How larger were the air cells?

 

[Fuzzybottom13]

This is my first time hatching, but I think the air cells were quite large. It is possible that the humidity was too high during the last couple days of lockdown as I added water and it spiked up into the 70-80 range for a short time before I could get it back down. Could that be it?

 

[lonnyandrinda]

YES absolutely. The most dangerous time to have a humidity spike is during lockdown. The only hatches I have trouble at the end are when I accidentally let the humidity get up to 70-80%. If I can keep it at 55-60% my hatches go great.

 

[Fuzzybottom13]

Thanks so much for the insight! While disappointing, I'm glad to know what went wrong.

 

[ChickieMomma 02]

Has anyone seen this before?

I had four eggs set to hatch Wednesday, two of which have hatched and had no problems. These eggs were from my own flock and were all collected the same day for incubation. I used a still air homemade incubator. The highest my temps got was 102 and my humidity day 1-19 was between 45%-50%. During lockdown humidity was between 60%-65%. I candled all of my eggs the day lockdown began. I could see movement in all four eggs. Air cells looked to be the appropriate size. I had one chick hatch Tuesday and another Wednesday. Today I did the float test on the last two remaining eggs. One egg immediately sunk to the bottom while the other was floating (didn't see movement, but placed back in the incubator). I decided to open up the egg that sunk (I only used the sharp object to make a crack in the egg). I found a fully formed chick with moist membranes. The chick hadn't moved its head to pip internally. I had to manually unfold the chick to see it properly. What is around the chicks neck?? It wrapped completely around the neck.