Hatching eggs WITHOUT shells

[MelissaRose]

Hi!

I was wondering if anyone on this forum has hatched eggs without shells. I know it was done in Japan and China by students. I have watched the videos, which I will link. I'm pretty sure other people have tried it by I don't know if they succeeded or not.

I want to try it. Since eggs are porous, I would have to make sure they can get enough air through the plastic. I think its possible to do, I would like to do it with quail as well.

I didn't see any other threads like this on the forum so I thought I would start one. If I try it, pretty sure I'm going to, I will post updates here.

Please come share stories and advice!

-MelissaRose

 

[MelissaRose]

Heres another one:

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

What they don't really show in these videos is with how many eggs they have started the incubation process and how many have survived. What i heart is that the survival rate is less than one out of fifty…

 

[MelissaRose]

What they don't really show in these videos is with how many eggs they have started the incubation process and how many have survived. What i heart is that the survival rate is less than one out of fifty…

Yeah, thats true.

 

[cleoandtheflock]

Interesting I have never heard of something like this

 

[MelissaRose]

Interesting I have never heard of something like this

It looks pretty cool.

 

[PoultryAnna]

I've thought about doing it (mostly to make a time lapse video). I'm guessing most of the failures are due to contamination, so definitely learn (or brush up on) aseptic technique if you attempt this. A laminar flowhood would be nice, but a glove box or still air box will also do. Buy pre-sterilized equipment/utensils or wrap it in tin foil and sterilize it in a pressure cooker.

One thing I considered might increase success would be to use a larger, surrogate shell rather than a cup, then place a sterile piece of glass (or something) on the top. It would even be glued on. You'd have to leave a gap at the top for an "air cell", so maybe cut the end off a bigger egg (maybe a turkey egg), sterilize that shell, aseptically transfer the contents of a smaller fertilized into the surrogate shell, making sure there's air at the top, then cover the hole with something clear and sterile. I'm sure the survival rate would always be lower, but that's also true of eggs that been shipped or obsessively candled once or twice a day, lol.

I suppose you might be able to cut a window into a shell and leave it in that shell, but I think you'd have to hermit-crab the egg contents into a bigger shell. Anyway, those are just my ramblings, lol.

 

[Flashpoint]

From what I read, it is nearly impossible to do without being under lab conditions.

 

[PoultryAnna]

From what I read, it is nearly impossible to do without being under lab conditions.

Which isn't to say a layperson can't create "lab conditions". I was a lab technician for 4 years and I have a decent home lab, but if this is your first rodeo, expect to make several errors on the way to "lab condition", and only set yourself up to make the kind of error you can live with.