hunthaven
Songster
Hi! First, I should explain that I have a Whiting's True Green who lays green eggs. 
. I have always noticed, though, when I cook with her eggs, that they are hard to crack--the inner lining is extremely thick.
Fast forward--one of her eggs was fertilized by my rooster, so I put it in the incubator with some other fertile eggs from my Leghorn. The Leghorn eggs hatched easily and beautifully, but this WTG egg had me scared. It and a Leghorn egg pipped yesterday morning, but by this morning, the WTG egg had made NO progress at all. I looked more closely at it and realized that it had pipped closer to the pointed end of the egg than the round end. Uh oh. So I did some reading on assisted hatching, then I took away part of the shell. Did the same thing with the Leghorn egg, because it hadn't progressed, either, and the humidity was at 72 percent in my incubator.
By lunchtime, the leghorn egg hatched with no further assistance. But the WTG egg had made no more progress, and the baby kept its beak out of the hole, struggling to breathe. While the leghorn chick staggered around the inky, it kept rolling the WTG egg so the hole was on the bottom, so I had to keep righting it again--I was afraid the baby would suffocate. Finally, I took the Leghorn chick out and put it in the brooder so I could focus on the green egg.
Long story short--I candled the green egg, marked the air cell, and made a safety hole. Didn't seem to help. So I took away some of the shell at the air cell and made a little shell-less "trail" to her pipped hole. Gave her time, she still made no progress. Finally had to slice into the membrane and open it up quite a bit before the baby was able to stretch out. All the while I was checking for blood vessels (weren't any in the membrane), egg yolk (never saw any inside the egg), and anything else that might indicate she wasn't ready. That membrane was like thick skin!
So what I'm really writing to ask is this: Have any of you ever run into a hen that just has a super-thick membrane (can't remember the name of it--albium?) and had problems hatching? I felt like I was doing a Caesarian breech birth, but the baby is out and doing fine, though exhausted. I've attached some pictures. And if I ever try to hatch a green egg again, I'll be prepared.
. I have always noticed, though, when I cook with her eggs, that they are hard to crack--the inner lining is extremely thick. Fast forward--one of her eggs was fertilized by my rooster, so I put it in the incubator with some other fertile eggs from my Leghorn. The Leghorn eggs hatched easily and beautifully, but this WTG egg had me scared. It and a Leghorn egg pipped yesterday morning, but by this morning, the WTG egg had made NO progress at all. I looked more closely at it and realized that it had pipped closer to the pointed end of the egg than the round end. Uh oh. So I did some reading on assisted hatching, then I took away part of the shell. Did the same thing with the Leghorn egg, because it hadn't progressed, either, and the humidity was at 72 percent in my incubator.
By lunchtime, the leghorn egg hatched with no further assistance. But the WTG egg had made no more progress, and the baby kept its beak out of the hole, struggling to breathe. While the leghorn chick staggered around the inky, it kept rolling the WTG egg so the hole was on the bottom, so I had to keep righting it again--I was afraid the baby would suffocate. Finally, I took the Leghorn chick out and put it in the brooder so I could focus on the green egg.
Long story short--I candled the green egg, marked the air cell, and made a safety hole. Didn't seem to help. So I took away some of the shell at the air cell and made a little shell-less "trail" to her pipped hole. Gave her time, she still made no progress. Finally had to slice into the membrane and open it up quite a bit before the baby was able to stretch out. All the while I was checking for blood vessels (weren't any in the membrane), egg yolk (never saw any inside the egg), and anything else that might indicate she wasn't ready. That membrane was like thick skin!
So what I'm really writing to ask is this: Have any of you ever run into a hen that just has a super-thick membrane (can't remember the name of it--albium?) and had problems hatching? I felt like I was doing a Caesarian breech birth, but the baby is out and doing fine, though exhausted. I've attached some pictures. And if I ever try to hatch a green egg again, I'll be prepared.
