I think my eggs are 1 day overdue

[Bryce Thomas]

All the eggs laid in my incubator were at different times, I had 9, 1 died in the egg, 1 died post hatching, 2 have hatched, 1 wont hatch in at least a week looking at its development, 2 will hatch today or tomorrow, and I forgot about the last one

The 1 that died post hatch was beautiful. It was the only egg laid by my black silkie, and its feathers and skin were as black as night, its skin was not purple like most silkies, this ones skin was as black as night. I almost believe it was an ayam cemani. Im sad that it died because it was the only one I hoped to survive, it was a hen too, so I would have been able to keep it. I was going to name her midnight : (

So about my question, I dont want my 2 eggs that hatch today to meet the same fate as the dead 2 eggs. Here is what I want to do, I want to use a nail file and file down on the air cell side of the egg, and make a toothpick sized hole into the aircell to give it some help with an already made hole so it can escape easier, and so it has more air to breath, and yes I make sure to keep the humidity extra high at this time

So can I do it?

 

[JaeG]

I'm sorry about the chick you lost - it sounded like a stunner, but isn't it always the way?

Have the eggs in question pipped internally? The purpose of a safety hole is to ensure the chick doesn't run out of oxygen, so if they have pipped internally (into the air cell but not through the shell yet) and haven't progressed to an external pip around 24 hours later then you'd make a safety hole.

I'll give you a couple of links to excellent articles that might help guide what you decide to do:

This one is in the Goose forum but applies to all birds and is full of excellent information:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/goose-incubation-hatching-guide-completed.491013/

And this one is specifically about assisted hatching:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/guide-to-assisted-hatching-for-all-poultry.72886/

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Bit confused, how are you certain it was a female chick that died?

 

[topochico225]

Bit confused, how are you certain it was a female chick that died?

I was wondering that too. Since it wasn't a sex link, I'm confused on how they sexed it.

 

[Bryce Thomas]

I have raised chickens long enough to just eyeball it basically. I also did the vent sexing and wing feather sexing and looked at the posture, so I know who was who, and the dead chick I dissected it and knew it was a girl, it had no testes

 

[Bryce Thomas]

I'm sorry about the chick you lost - it sounded like a stunner, but isn't it always the way?

Have the eggs in question pipped internally? The purpose of a safety hole is to ensure the chick doesn't run out of oxygen, so if they have pipped internally (into the air cell but not through the shell yet) and haven't progressed to an external pip around 24 hours later then you'd make a safety hole.

I'll give you a couple of links to excellent articles that might help guide what you decide to do:

This one is in the Goose forum but applies to all birds and is full of excellent information:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/goose-incubation-hatching-guide-completed.491013/

And this one is specifically about assisted hatching:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/guide-to-assisted-hatching-for-all-poultry.72886/

The 2 most developed eggs have already pipped. They are actually talking to each other through eggs in the incubator as I am typing this. I also have an egg that is day 6 or 7 and somehow heard it peeping, im not joking, I literally heard a 7 day old egg in my incubator peeping which I dont even know its possible but it is apparently(I only had that egg out at the time and I candled it in a different room than the incubator is in

 

[Kiki]

The 2 most developed eggs have already pipped. They are actually talking to each other through eggs in the incubator as I am typing this. I also have an egg that is day 6 or 7 and somehow heard it peeping, im not joking, I literally heard a 7 day old egg in my incubator peeping which I dont even know its possible but it is apparently(I only had that egg out at the time and I candled it in a different room than the incubator is in

Cone on...this is just not true.
Please don't make stuff up.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I'm not sure a dis chick would have visible testes. When you capon, the birds sometimes are too small to see them, and those birds are a good couple weeks