Emergency 'e-section' for 24 day egg?

[Jess N Jeff]

Its so hard to decide what to do in these situations. Honestly the late hatch could have been from a million different reasons(heat, humidity, deformities, etc). But if you where at day 25 and you had clear fluid coming out of the membrane, more then likely it wouldn't have survived regardless of when you intervened.

I'm sorry your egg didn't hatch. Just so you know, I have hatched dozens and dozens of eggs, and even I have situations where the chick had the perfect conditions but didn't make it. I try to look at it as if there is a "health" reason they didn't hatch or survive.

 

[adkchickmama]

TAKAFOOMI, Sorry to hear about your chick.

I just had the same experience. I set a hatch back in March and after day 25 nothing. When I opened the eggs all were well formed but none pipped and hatched! Set some more and at day 24 once again no pipping nothing. So I opened the one surviving egg. It was alive! Yay! I opened the airsac so it could breath, it stuck its beak out , Yay"! I put it back in the incubator with a wet washcloth on it and left it to try zipping on its own. Nada! I came back to check after an hour. It was dead!

I am so discouraged from this hatching process. I cannot try again right now it's too heartbreaking. I hope your second try goes well. Good Luck! Keep us posted. Adkchickmama.

 

[fordmommy]

Sorry to hear the little guy didn't make it. Sometimes that is jsut nature. I hate to say that, but it is true. Next hatch should be better. It always sucks when things go wrong. I have seen that LARGE air sac before myself. I have noticed that it usually comes with shipped eggs. It may be that the egg was just jossled around too much. Maybe by the hen or others. You just don't know. Better luck next time.

 

[babsbag]

I only turned my eggs 2x a day on weekdays and 3 or 4 on weekends and my hatch was 90%. I am sorry your little one didn't make it.

I don't think it was the turning that made it happen. How low was your humidity? Next time I am going to do it by weight. They say they should lose about 12% of their wieght so I am going to try that.

Do try again. You will get it.

 

[TAKAFOOMI]

Thanks everyone for sharing your perspectives and understanding. I really appreciate it. I'll eventually swing back to another attempt at incubation, but for now I'll focus on the chicks we bought and our existing flock. BTW, BYC is a great site, I've been reading it for over a year but these were the first circumstances where I had some questions that I didn't see answered elsewhere.

 

[Three Cedars Silkies]

Sometimes the chicks don't turn as they should and therefore can't pip and hatch correctly. Whether this is from lack of vigor, humidity issues or temp issues during incubation is the million dollar question.

If you hatch enough, you will become more accustomed to these situations, unfortunately. Silkies seem to have a bit of a harder time turning starting at day 17 and I believe there is more pre-hatch chick mortality with them. This could possibly be related to vaulted skulls, but that is another million dollar question.

I always "dry hatched" until I started hatching silkies. Now I incubate at 100 degrees and 42-45% humidity, then increase to 65%. Toward the end of the hatch, if I have eggs that have pipped but not hatched for greater than 24 hours, I increase the humidity to 75% and just wait. Last hatch I had 2 babies hatch late on day 22 like that. Once they pip the shell, they lose moisture more rapidly and will need increase humidity to keep from being shrink wrapped.

This is just my opinion based on my hatches!!