Hatching dented eggs... some thoughts & qs

[FenDruadin]

I have on two separate occasions hatched a dented egg--both due to my extreme clumsiness. Both hatched successfully. And both had some things in common:

* They hatched neither early nor late, but well in the middle of things;
* They both were among the last several to pip but...
* They zipped and hatched so quickly after the initial external pip that they ended up hatching long before others that had pipped much earlier.

Was it just a fluke? The difference in time from pip to zip to hatch was so extreme that I was awed by it. The first time I assumed it as just an odd-ball, but when the second dented egg did the same thing I got to wondering...

Anyone else noticed this phenomenon (anyone else have butter fingers like mine???)? Any thoughts on the reason for it?

 

[nittanyxi]

well, I dropped one of my eggs when I was candeling them right before lockdown and it had some cracks in the side but the membrane was not broken. It was one of the ones that I was questionable about after candeling but I thought I would give it a chance anyway. Well, today is day 20 and two chicks have hatched and I have two more pips. I just noticed that the egg I had dropped was moving so there is something in there trying to get out. I'll have to let you know how it all works out. I suspect since the egg is already broken in one area it weakens the whole structure and that makes zipping easier. probably give it more room and leverage to move around and zip once it's ready to start working.

 

[FenDruadin]

Cool--I can't wait to hear how yours does. I was SOOOOO worried about my first dented egg, but this time I figured it would be okay.

The first egg was a duck egg, and it happened close to lockdown. This one was a quail egg, and it happened in the first few days of incubation. I did not repair the first one since it was so close to lockdown, but I did repair this one with nail polish. It still lost more moisture and had a larger air cell than the others, but the chick looks just exactly like the others who hatched with it--honestly can't tell which one it is.

I like your theory about it being easier to zip because of more room to maneuver. It makes me wonder if we shouldn't dent them all right before lockdown. Kidding, of course.

Looking forward to your update--