Here goes . . . The final update. The result.
I just
had to crack one of them open last night, the one that I was worried about since day 12. . . And it ended up being a simple, small fetus. Didn't even have feathers or anything. I'm glad it was that, and not a chick dying to emerge.
Then, I slept through the night, checked on it once at about 4:30 AM (nothing. . . ) And by 7AM, I decided it was time to crack the last egg. Like the first, I took a sharp ended screw and butterknife and tapped the screw into the airsac-end of the egg. Once I got a little hole, I peeled away the shell from there. Inside the egg was black and liquidy (so I knew someting was wrong. . . ) Once I was all done and let it spill out into a bowl, I found a fully developed chick, but with its yolk and veins still sitting up against its stomach. Yep - Pretty sure it died during that temp spike, and never got to suck in its yolk. Poor thing, I could even tell by its down that it would have grown up to be a partially golden laced bird with what seemed to be a walnut comb.
Ohwell, at least none of them were alive. And at least I now have a Hovabator 1588 for future hatches, right where I can always check on it 24/7.
I'll post pics later, but have a warning that they are kind of graphic, in the sense of there being dead fetuses and for the second one - The liquid around the yolk and body was kind of brick colored - Pretty sure it was old blood or something
Sooo in the end, I got a 0% hatch rate. And poo on the rest of you, I got mine from
non shipped eggs! That's right, they were straight from my backyard.
