How could I have saved this chick?

[Germaine_11.20]

Hi, I am checking fertility and hatchability of my White Rocks. I put two eggs in the incubator and today was hatch day. This morning one is hatched and healthy and I took the other egg out because it didn't have a pip.

I candled it and it was dead so I opened it up. I found a perfectly formed chick inside an egg with a perfect sized aircell.

There looked to be a small tear in the top of the membrane but it could not have been an internal pip because the head was tucked under the wing.

I dry incubated and I mean dry. Pretty much NO water at all. Left humidity at about 20-25% the whole time.

How could it drown? The shell didn't seem abnormally hard to crack.

I am trying to figure out if it was lack of oxygen (all the vent plugs are open) or if by some odd reason there is still TOO much fluid in there.

Any ideas or suggestions? Does this happen to anyone else?

 

[kathyinmo]

I will follow this thread, because I wonder about that also! I hope someone has suggestions! Sorry for your loss.

 

[MagsC]

I have had this a couple times when I dry incubated as well. I was always told sometimes the weaker ones just cant hatch and that is natures way of weeding them out?
Of course maybe as dry as you hatched them, even with upping the humidity, it affected it as well, too dry to pip through, got stuck?
Those are the only ideas I have.

 

[Germaine_11.20]

Well, the other chick of the two hatched so I can't think it was a "dry" issue. When I opened up the egg it was soft and pliable in there. The chick must have just died because I could see the veins were still strong when I candled (before I opened it up)
The head was under the wing.

Here are my guesses.

1) It grew too big to move and pip right.
2) It had too hard a shell to pip through
3) The shell was too hard and didn't allow enough oxygen
4) It didn't dehydrate enough and drowned

I can't think of any other reasons other than a weak chick in general.

 

[kathyinmo]

So, WHAT IF .....
what if you could have made the pip for it? If the shell is so hard, maybe it is too hard to pip through. Could that be possible? AND, if that is so ... would it be possible that the shell is so hard that it would not allow for it to dehydrate, and thus cause it to drown?

Maybe the answer is ... make the initial pip for it? But, how would you know when to do that? I guess you could go by the timing. If you knew exactly when it should hatch, according to the others in the hatch.

Interesting thoughts going on in my head here! LOL

 

[kathyinmo]

Double post!

 

[kathyinmo]

Triple post!

 

[kathyinmo]

4 TIMES? Geezzzz.

 

[bigstack]

I wish I had the answers. I hate to lose anything. its especialy hard knowing it was so close. It really could have been any of the above reasons. I have thought of piping for them myself. I was told that if you have to do it for them. They MIGHT live and grow. Might not! If they do live they will prolly have alot of health issues. So it IS natures way of culling. There is a reason for everything. All I can do is try to give them the best chance to live. Then it's up to nature to do the rest. I hate that there isn't more I can do to help. BUT It is for a reason beyond me.

Good luck and God Bless!

 

[jenjscott]

first comes the internal pip into the air cell, this can be even a couple of days before the external pip. This is when you can hear the chick inside the shell. This is when it starts breathing, or drowns. If it never makes the internal pip, there is probably nothing you could do. If the egg was too dry, the membrane could be tougher without being dry, and would be a disadvantage to a weaker chick. If it is malpositioned and can't pip into the air cell, I THINK, it can also die. Just thinking aloud here also.