Is this yolk sack mostly absorbed? * WARNING ~ GRAFIC PICTURES*

[AmericanMom]

Incubating Bourbon reds.. They are two days late as of 3pm today but all 7 eggs were as of last night showing lots of movement when candled and rocking in the shell.. Figured since the chicken eggs were late so would these ones be... At 3 today did my candle to see if any had internally pipped... I was candling one of the eggs and realized not only was there no movement but the egg had started to get cold.. I have incubated enough to know this was a bad sign... Decided to open it up and it was fully formed, After removing the membrane noticed I could just barely see its beak so went to work it out.. I think it couldn't position itself for pipping/hatching... I had never seen the yolk sack like this tho...it looks like it has pretty much absorbed but was unsure... Got six more Turkey eggs in incubator #1 and now I am alittle worried! 15 in the second incubator doing a lot better (it has a fan and the temps have been rock solid, air cells are spot on where they should be except for one of the chicken eggs on day 20) Broke my heart...My first ever turkey

The other 6 turkey eggs are still moving...

 

[TurkenItUp209]

That is EXACTLY what mine looked like last night. The other four eggs still have nothing going on. I am too afraid to even candle them at this point

T

 

[AmericanMom]

That is EXACTLY what mine looked like last night. The other four eggs still have nothing going on. I am too afraid to even candle them at this point

T

Well the other ones are moving as are the geese eggs.. I just got the humidity up and now just going to monitor and hope for the best.. although I candle looking for the inner pip I just am not going to worry about it now.. The humidity is up and now we just wait and see.. If they are going to hatch they will, if not I still have hope with the other 15 in the other incubator.

 

[TurkenItUp209]

Mine ended up being fully developed, found out my thermometer was reading 5 degrees to high, so I had it at 93.5 killing my poults, just sick, this was the one that came with the LG. I now have 5 thermometers in it.

 

[AmericanMom]

I lost everything in that incubator except for one chicken and three geese..... move on to second incubator. I started out doing a complete dry incubation and didn't handle them except to candle at the appropriate times. lockdown I cut a sponge into strips and wet two and added those, did not monitor humidity at all.... the next day the four chicken eggs started piping hatched that evening, the next night got the first pip in the turkey egg..... with 36 hours I had nine vigorous healthy chicks.... one piped yesterday ( actual due date and hatched this morning, one more has piped..... no movement out of the three remaining eggs..... I will always do dry hatches from this point forward. I have lost a lot of chicks because I didn't think it would work. I am a firm believer in it now!

I believe what happened in the first was many issues, but first and foremost was the humidity, chicks were to large to position them selves for hatching, the geese that hatched all had to have help and were extremely sticky. Thankfully they are doing fine.. And because of some very patient people on this forum who helped me understand some things I have 9 healthy Bourbon Red Turkey chicks!

I will never measure humidity with an instrument again, from now on I will watch the air cells and weight and let those determine whether or not the eggs are on the right track... Temperature is also a factor, I believe in the first incubator my temps ran a degree or more low causing them to fall behind..

I find it sad that it took me four failed or low numbers hatching to come to this conclusion. Each person and the environment they live in is different, but I urge those who are having problems with low hatch rates to try it.. Its not easy the first time, always second guessing yourself but if you follow the advice of more experienced hatchers who use this technique you like me might be pleasantly surprised.