Hatch emergency - EE eggs - never mind, dead.

[ChooksinIowa]

Please help - I have 2 EE eggs that are pipped. Both pipped on the wrong end - well sort of in the middle and towards the small end. Both were pipped when i got home from work today. Supposed to hatch tomorrow (well that would be 21 days). Both have blood at pip site. Not used to seeing that. I think it's not normal. They are peeping and I can see movement when candling the air cell. I know you're not supposed to candle during hatch but was worried about blood. No pipping near air cell.

Please any advice appreciated.

Should I intervene?

 

[ChooksinIowa]

Close up

 

[justusnak]

I have seen this happen a few times....always with my EE's as well. Hmmmm....I would leave them be...I can see the beak..so they are getting air. Thats good. I think they should be fine...just back away...LOL
Good luck...keep us posted!

 

[ChooksinIowa]

I'm not sure - the tapping on the shell sounded like it was coming from the air cell, likewise the candling seemed to indicate that was the beak in the air cell, so not near the pips. I guess I could be wrong, but I could not see any sign of the beak near the pips. I can see a "heartbeat" type of movement at the pips, like a body type of movement.

 

[ChooksinIowa]

One egg stopped peeping or having the heartbeat motion. I opened it. It was dead already. Not sure what happened. Yolk wasn't fully absorbed. It's as if it pipped early. Nothing I could do. Will hope the other one will be OK, or maybe the ones that haven't pipped yet.

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

Are those eggs standing on end to hatch? If so, why do you keep them standing up and not on their side?

 

[ChooksinIowa]

Um...well...that is the way the egg rack in the 'bator is designed to work. It keeps the eggs with the large end up and the small end down. I think most egg racks work that way. Don't they? My other hatch a couple of weeks ago was that way and everything was normal. This is only my second hatch. Was I supposed to take all the eggs out of the turner rack? I shut the turner off but I didn't take the eggs out.

I thought a lot of people used the carton method for hatching to keep their bators cleaner, which is when you set the eggs that are going to hatch in egg carton bottoms, all with large end up.

Now I'm all bewildered...

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

I dont know how others do it, but I take them completely out of the turner and out of the trays and lay them on their sides. By keeping them in the turner, you might be preventing the movement inside. The chick starts with a pip, and then rotates around cracking the shell all the way around. By keeping them standing up, it may inhibit that movement.

And if that isn't a scientific enough reason, think about it this way.... when hatching in a natural setting, under a broody hen, the eggs are laying on their side.

 

[mangled]

I've used the egg carton method with no troubles. Lots of people do. The commercial hatcheries use the little end down - big end up egg trays, so I don't think that's the issue here.

FWIW - of the 7 EE eggs I've incubated, 3 have pipped way down low and died in the shell. Wonder if it's an EE thing?

Sorry about your babies.

Em

 

[ChooksinIowa]

Thank you....the second one that had the low pip is now tapping on the inside of the normal air cell area. This is a bit weird! Like it's going to pip twice! Well, as long as it is still alive, that is what counts. In the middle of the night sometime, I also had a millie hatch, and I have named it "Nilla" (change to Niles if it's a roo). There is a silkie egg pipped too, so high hopes there.

At least the whole hatch wasn't a bust.

I'm comforted to hear I'm not the only one who had EE eggs with a problem. I live and learn....

Thanks again!