First time in lockdown

Date sort Score sort
Well, its not looking good. Almost to the end of day 22. I candled all 5 and see no movement, all air sacs appear intact (and smaller than I think they should be), so I tried the float test. Only one floats, and its #1 that I saw the most movement in all along, but no movement today. So I took #5 out and pipped through. He was very soupy and I was advised to NOT break the membrane on this one, as it probably died some time ago and would smell pretty bad, and I probably won't gain much information. Here are a few pics. Before and after I wetted the membrane. The other 4 are back in the bator. Suggestions welcomed...





 
As red as those veins are I don't think it died 'a long time ago'. I eggtopsy all that don't hatch. Look up chick development charts- the ones with real pictures are the most helpful and you will be able to tell exactly which day the chick quit. Then look through your notes (always a good idea to write things down;-)) to see if any fluctuations occured around that time. Sometimes genetic or unknown to us are going on. Chicks are like babies, very resilient and hardly ever on 'time'. Yes it is hard but let them be until (I'd say) day 26. I've had a few that for some reason almost a week behind the others in development but hatched. There are many threads about amazing hatches and if need be eggtopsies here on BYC! Keep us posted. ( A stethoscope would be AWESOME to hear if chicks are still alive!)
 
Well thank you. I was about to remove the last eggs this morning, as I have duck eggs waiting and hate to delay them, so now I'm thinking I'll go buy another incubator for the ducks. Maybe my remaining ones will do something after all.
 
Cknldy said:
As red as those veins are I don't think it died 'a long time ago'. I eggtopsy all that don't hatch. Look up chick development charts- the ones with real pictures are the most helpful and you will be able to tell exactly which day the chick quit. Then look through your notes (always a good idea to write things down;-)) to see if any fluctuations occured around that time. Sometimes genetic or unknown to us are going on. Chicks are like babies, very resilient and hardly ever on 'time'. Yes it is hard but let them be until (I'd say) day 26. I've had a few that for some reason almost a week behind the others in development but hatched. There are many threads about amazing hatches and if need be eggtopsies here on BYC! Keep us posted. ( A stethoscope would be AWESOME to hear if chicks are still alive!)
Click to expand...
I was thinking the same thing. Those are some pretty prominent veins. Eggtopsies are so valuable. I never did them for my very first hatch and regreted it later. Now I do them no matter what. If I think it's going to be smelly I just do those outside. You can learn a lot from them, especially with some of the sources on here to compare.
 
Cknldy said:
( A stethoscope would be AWESOME to hear if chicks are still alive!)
Click to expand...



Yes it is! I love being able to hear the heartbeat! I have an egg I can't see anything in its so dark but I can hear the heartbeat! Plus I can do it while I'm turning and can know immediately if an egg didn't make it.
 
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I have a stethoscope that I got when I was pregnant (24 years ago) but its a good one. I'll try that! Great suggestion, first I've heard of trying that.

Sad news though, I retested the eggs and they all appear to be dead so I removed them. I haven't opened them yet, but will. I did open the first 2 this morning though. One was a large egg, which I expected may be a double yolker. Although this was my first eggtopsy, I looked at tons of pics first, to see what to look for. And I swear, I think it was a double yolk, with only one becoming a chick. There was a huge amount of runny yolk, but the yolk sac the chick was attached to was intact and not absorbed. Is that normal, the extra yolk part?

The other one was well developed, but small. My guess was that he never got into position to pip.
In conclusion, I believe my humidity was too high through the first 18 days. But I'll know more when I break into the others. They are in the fridge and I just haven't gotten up the nerve to open them yet.
 

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