ICE-COLD egg thrown out of nest… STILL ALIVE!!!

[Reebz]

Hi guyz!

While I don’t really have a question as such, I thought this was such an interesting crazy thing to happen, I might as well document it on here!

Sooo my beautiful Turkey girl Irene (rescued from the Xmas dinner trade, lol) recently decided to get it on with my adorable stag Bronson (a.k.a “The Boss”) and ended up laying 7 eggs in her custom-sized nest box.

For a first-time parent, Irene has been extremely diligent and has sat on her eggs solidly over the past 3 weeks or so. To be honest, I’ve basically tried to interfere with her as little as possible, and just let her do her instinctive thing.

Yesterday, I go up to see my feather crew, and Irene has the cutest ever little fluffy mini-me; her first hatchling. Keeping her segregated from the other birds, I left her to it once again.

Roll on to today; I’ve been at working day, get back to discover both happy and sad times. Irene has 3 babies. She is up and about with 3 them. She has moved from her nest area, and has seemingly kicked out 3 of the remaining eggs. A sad discovery is made when I checked in the nesting area to see a 4th poor little dead chick who, tbh, looked like he was a bit malformed or something. Tiny and soggy-looking in comparison to his thriving counterparts. So I was saddened by this.

I went to inspect the other 3 eggs that had been seemingly discarded out of the nest (they were some distance from the nest.. I assume this is some kind of instinctive unviable egg disposal thing on Irene’s part?), all of which are ice-cold. Literally have a digital thermometer gun thing, which when aimed at the eggs are telling me they are about 13°C. So yeah, really sad. As I am collecting them to do an “Eggtopsy” (just in case there was any physical issues as to why they didn’t make the hatch), I notice that one of these poor little guys had tried to pip externally. The egg is ice-cold, no movement, no sound, nothing. I have been away all day, so the eggs could have been discarded last night and I wouldn’t have seen until just now.

I go to open him up (very gently and slowly I will add; I don’t want to accidentally damage anything that could potentially be a telling piece of evidence), and notice the inner membrane is bone-dry, hardened, and strangely has not even got a hole in it. I don’t know how he would have externally pipped when I can’t even see an internal one, but maybe he had done the internal pip in a different place? Anyway, I peel back some of the dried membrane to expose his little beak; he looks to be fully formed. Really sad that he got so close to life but didn’t quite make it.

And then, the most shocking thing ever… HE MOVES!!! He opened his little beak, and started chirruping away!!! Like literally I’m insanely shocked! I honestly don’t know how he would have clung on like that- I thought he would have at the very least have suffocated, or gotten too cold.

So now I’ve got the little dude (still in his egg) in the incubator. Chipping away at a tiny bit more of the shell revealed in-tact blood vessels- he’s obviously not ready to come out yet. Possibly the crack I initially thought was an attempted ex pip could have just been shell damage, where Irene had discarded the egg onto a hard surface? (Although the cracked shell was angled outwards, definitely suggesting a pip. And that exact spot is where his little beak is as well).

Sooo I’m monitoring the little terminator closely, and I will defo post some more updates on him, as this is a pretty fascinating scenario at present!

****Quick Late-Night Update*****

The little one is doing well it seems, for now. Thank you sooo much for the person who suggested coconut oil to soften the shrink-wrapped membrane.. I’ve used a little on what bits I can safely access for now, and it seems to work a treat.

He is still in the egg at the moment. Very chirpy and wriggly Being super careful earlier, it became evident there were areas of active blood vessels still attached to parts of the membrane. So I’m going slowly slowly with him to avoid any haemorrhaging. Parts of the membrane vessels are progressively getting absorbed (the vessels change colour from a pink/red to a brown when they are no longer active), so I am hoping he will make a full eggxit from his shell tomorrow (jeez I shouldn’t ever take up comedy LOL)!

Hi guyz!

While I don’t really have a question as such, I thought this was such an interesting crazy thing to happen, I might as well document it on here!

Sooo my beautiful Turkey girl Irene (rescued from the Xmas dinner trade, lol) recently decided to get it on with my adorable stag Bronson (a.k.a “The Boss”) and ended up laying 7 eggs in her custom-sized nest box.

For a first-time parent, Irene has been extremely diligent and has sat on her eggs solidly over the past 3 weeks or so. To be honest, I’ve basically tried to interfere with her as little as possible, and just let her do her instinctive thing.

Yesterday, I go up to see my feather crew, and Irene has the cutest ever little fluffy mini-me; her first hatchling. Keeping her segregated from the other birds, I left her to it once again.

Roll on to today; I’ve been at working day, get back to discover both happy and sad times. Irene has 3 babies. She is up and about with 3 them. She has moved from her nest area, and has seemingly kicked out 3 of the remaining eggs. A sad discovery is made when I checked in the nesting area to see a 4th poor little dead chick who, tbh, looked like he was a bit malformed or something. Tiny and soggy-looking in comparison to his thriving counterparts. So I was saddened by this.

I went to inspect the other 3 eggs that had been seemingly discarded out of the nest (they were some distance from the nest.. I assume this is some kind of instinctive unviable egg disposal thing on Irene’s part?), all of which are ice-cold. Literally have a digital thermometer gun thing, which when aimed at the eggs are telling me they are about 13°C. So yeah, really sad. As I am collecting them to do an “Eggtopsy” (just in case there was any physical issues as to why they didn’t make the hatch), I notice that one of these poor little guys had tried to pip externally. The egg is ice-cold, no movement, no sound, nothing. I have been away all day, so the eggs could have been discarded last night and I wouldn’t have seen until just now.

I go to open him up (very gently and slowly I will add; I don’t want to accidentally damage anything that could potentially be a telling piece of evidence), and notice the inner membrane is bone-dry, hardened, and strangely has not even got a hole in it. I don’t know how he would have externally pipped when I can’t even see an internal one, but maybe he had done the internal pip in a different place? Anyway, I peel back some of the dried membrane to expose his little beak; he looks to be fully formed. Really sad that he got so close to life but didn’t quite make it.

And then, the most shocking thing ever… HE MOVES!!! He opened his little beak, and started chirruping away!!! Like literally I’m insanely shocked! I honestly don’t know how he would have clung on like that- I thought he would have at the very least have suffocated, or gotten too cold.

So now I’ve got the little dude (still in his egg) in the incubator. Chipping away at a tiny bit more of the shell revealed in-tact blood vessels- he’s obviously not ready to come out yet. Possibly the crack I initially thought was an attempted ex pip could have just been shell damage, where Irene had discarded the egg onto a hard surface? (Although the cracked shell was angled outwards, definitely suggesting a pip. And that exact spot is where his little beak is as well).

Sooo I’m monitoring the little terminator closely, and I will defo post some more updates on him, as this is a pretty fascinating scenario at present!

****Quick Late-Night Update*****

The little one is doing well it seems, for now. Thank you sooo much for the person who suggested coconut oil to soften the shrink-wrapped membrane.. I’ve used a little on what bits I can safely access for now, and it seems to work a treat.

He is still in the egg at the moment. Very chirpy and wriggly Being super careful earlier, it became evident there were areas of active blood vessels still attached to parts of the membrane. So I’m going slowly slowly with him to avoid any haemorrhaging. Parts of the membrane vessels are progressively getting absorbed (the vessels change colour from a pink/red to a brown when they are no longer active), so I am hoping he will make a full eggxit from his shell tomorrow (jeez I shouldn’t ever take up comedy LOL)!

*****UPDATE!!!******
I’m SUPER SUPER happy to tell you all that the little dude made it safely and successfully out of his shell this morning!!!

He had actually made a considerable effort overnight and had managed to get a wing and a foot out (looked hilarious lol), and with a teeny tiny bit of help he was free!

Really pleased to report that all vessels on inner membrane had fully dried up and been absorbed, and he is a very chirpy and lively little guy! Nature has been very kind to him so far, I’m just hoping he stays happy and well now! I will be sure to post more updates on him as the days/weeks go on!

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[ChickAsThieves]

I love a happy ending!