I had 4 Silkie eggs that did not pip, zip or even wiggle while all the others were going nuts. 24 hours after the last of that group hatched out, I candled. Two were obviously quitters even before they made it into lockdown. I had randomly candled all of my eggs since about day 3-5 so apparently I missed these guys on lockdown day. The other two were questionable. I steamed up my bathroom and took the questionable eggs in with me armed with nothing but a butter knife. I tapped the tops of the eggs with the knife to get them started. Turns out that the very last one that I cracked (I went ahead and cracked the obvious dead ones as well) was still alive. This is what I saw...Outer membrane came away easily with the shell. Since I saw no movement, I nudged the inner membrane a bit which immediately started to bleed one little drop. At that point, the chick moved. Crap! The inner membrane was white but not sticky. I put my hand under the running hot water and started to dab the inner membrane with it. Wrapped the egg in a dish towel and immediately placed it back into the hatcher. I have been keeping an eye on this very last egg. It looks as if this poor little thing still has a yolk sac but not 100% certain. I would have to remove more of the inner membrane to know for sure. Due to how I made my incubator/hatcher, I can easily put a wire into a vent hole and move away the towel to check on it's progress. Each time I have checked on it, the chick has moved a bit. Am I doing all that I can to improve it's survival? Humidity is at about 75-80% and the temps are perfect for forced air.
