Is an Egg lighter when it has stopped growing?

[I-Have-Happy-Hens]

Hi everybody,

This is my first time hatching eggs and I was candeling and holding the different eggs and one is like half the weight of the others...Does this mean it has stopped growing??

Thanks,

Happy-Hens

Wanted to add I am on day 12.

 

[I-Have-Happy-Hens]

Any Help would be very appreciated!!

Happy-Hens

 

[brijay2]

What did it look like when you were candling? How long have you incubated it? Is it the same breed as the others?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Something sounds wrong, but I may not have the whole story. A chicken egg is not going to stop growing at 12 days. They lose weight because they lose moisture through the porous shell, not because they are growing. If that is a very old egg, it may have lost most of its moisture, but that should have been obvious when you set it. I really don't know what is going on.

Have you sniffed it. If it smells like it might be rotten, very carefully dispose of it. Very carefully!!! If it doesn't smell, I'd candle it or look for a reason it is lighter.

 

[I-Have-Happy-Hens]

Ok I could not see anything really while candeling but I just looked at it again and it had 2 cracks in it so I melted some wax and covered them up. I am on Day 12 of them being in the bator and yes it is the same breed as all the other ones. When I said stop growing I ment a quiter, These eggs were shipped eggs if that helps. Yes I did smell it they all smell the same so I really have no idea.

Happy-Hens

 

[brijay2]

Could you see the same amount of nothing in the other eggs? Were the others moving and this one wasn't? Try looking through the top (round end) next time and seeing what the air cell looks like as that could tell you alot. It may be that with the cracks that you lost more moisture with that egg.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm still guessing, but since it was cracked, it maybe lost so much moisture it won't hatch? You can keep it in there as long as it doesn't smell, and who knows what will happen. I hate giving up on any egg.

But I'd keep a close eye on it. It will not explode or anything like that unless bacteria got in it and I'm guessing they were pretty minute cracks or you'd have seen them without candling.

Can you see the air cell when candling? The size of the air cell should tell you how much moisture it lost.

 

[I-Have-Happy-Hens]

Ok so after further inspection I think I know what happened. The cracks were pretty big and all on one side, and there were no cracks when I candled the first time today. So I think the egg fell over on its side and cracked when I put it back in

. I can not see the air-Cell though, we are going to go to lowes tomorrow and get a nice bright LED flash light and then I should be able to see the air-cells. It is the smallest egg out of all of them half the weight but not half the size. So we have decided to put it in there and will keep a close eye on it. And like I said it does not smell bad so maybe it will hatch

If it does it will be little miracle baby!

Happy-Hens

 

[Gypsy07]

From beginning of incubation to day 18, a chicken egg with a normally developing embryo should lose about 13% of its starting weight. As the embryo grows, the, egg evaprrates moisture through the pores of teh shell, so although the embryo is getting bigger, overall the egg will lose weight. This doesn't sound like what's happened with your egg, I just thought the information could help you out with future incubations...

 

[cmom]

Here is an egg at day 10. Click on the image for the video.