I feel awful, I just killed a baby in the egg

[minpinmama]

I was candling for lockdown tonight and thought one egg wasn't right.
The air sack was weird and there was a lot more space than all the others showing
in the bottom of the egg. It was different from the others.
I was told a bad egg in the bator can cause a the ones around it to died due to bacteria
and I've been doing this and been spot on, every egg I destroyed was bad, each time I was so relieved.
This time there was a baby chick in the egg at day 17, the poor thing was alive.
I feel so awful. My heart just feels awful. I don't ever want to make that mistake again.

 

[Reyvaughn]

I leave mine in. I have Oxine AH in my incubator water and I am sure the humidity causes it to kill a bit of the bacteria. I've never had one that was rotten, though. All of mine were clear or just died. If I don't know when I lock down on day 18, I leave them until I know the hatch is, or should be, over.

 

[minpinmama]

I just feel so awful, that poor baby chick.
I lost so many last hatch, dead in shell that when I was told
by one person an egg undeveloped in the bator can emit a fume, or something like that
and can kill the eggs around it, and another told me the same for quitters.
The air sack was huge and not normal compared to the others and there was so much extra space in the egg
you could see through, all the others look full or have very little space in the bottom of the egg.
Maybe he was just developing a little slower. I thought he was a quitter.

I'll google Oxine AH cause I have no idea what it is.

 

[Atomic Ranch]

It's not your fault! You did what you thought was best for the rest. If you hadn't have taken it out, and it WAS bad, and ruined the rest, you'd feel worse. A hen may have done the same thing as you-- instinct.

Feel better

 

[Tracy the chick]

I just feel so awful, that poor baby chick.
I lost so many last hatch, dead in shell that when I was told
by one person an egg undeveloped in the bator can emit a fume, or something like that
and can kill the eggs around it, and another told me the same for quitters.
The air sack was huge and not normal compared to the others and there was so much extra space in the egg
you could see through, all the others look full or have very little space in the bottom of the egg.
Maybe he was just developing a little slower. I thought he was a quitter.

I'll google Oxine AH cause I have no idea what it is.

We all learn from our mistakes and believe me ive made plenty! We are not born with a degree in chicken hatching and if we were there would be no BYC Forum . You need to move on and startvgetting excited on watching your chicks hatch. Keep us posted i love to see baby pictures.

 

[jeepguy982001]

Sorry this happened to you. I've never hatched eggs so i can't say too much. But you went off your instincts, so don't beat yourself up too much. Everything happens for a reason.

 

[suebee]

Similar thing happened to me but it hatched after covering the huge hole with melted wax. A true miracle since I had torn the membrane day 17.
We all learn from mistakes. I just leave them alone until at least day 22.

 

[rbaker0345]

I leave them in, its normal for the air sac to shrink back and tighten up around the chick as it uses up the moisture in the egg to form its body. The bottom of the egg should start looking dark, opaque and the air sac to get much larger and uneven. The egg is truly an incredible thing and just as it doesn't allow bacteria in, it also doesn't allow them out. If they start to smell, now that's a sure sign, but if there's no rotten smell, let it go.

You didn't know, don't beat yourself up. I have inadvertently killed so many babies, I had the incubator too hot one time and they hatched early, I put some chicken eggs under a muscovy once and she hatched them out successfully only to equally successfully smother them with her webbed feet. Its part of a learning experience that has taken evolution millions of years to perfect, you're only dealing with a handful of decades to get yours right.

Backyard Poultry magazine just had a great article on hatching eggs and gave some really helpful hints on how to salvage an egg that you've accidentally cracked. I can photocopy it and send it to you if you like.