No movement from duck egg in 3 days - egg now 27 days old!!

[Jo1313]

I have been incubating a single egg since the 5th of this month, i diddnt expect anything thing to come of it but after candling it at around a week old, to my suprise - a tiny chick was in there kicking away with blood vessels and all the rest - i will admit i cried upon seeing this and since ive known its alive, i have worried about it like im an expentant mother!

Its now on its 27th day (i originally thought it was a chicken egg, but since its upto day 27, im assuiming its a duck egg or some other bird?) but there is no movement or chirping whatsoever - i candled him last night just to see if there had been any progress and growth since i last candled him a week ago, and sure as ever it had grown much bigger, turned to the wider part of the egg where the air cell is and had no blood vessels visable anymore. The air sack had changed shape too (before it went straight across, but now it tilts down slightly and has a darker patch on top of it, almost like a shadow, im not sure if this is a sign the air cell has been broken into?). Around the chick itself i can see tiny little specs which look almost like bubbles or small air pockets gathering also.

I have had the temp exactly as it should be, the past few days i have been spraying the egg lightly with luke warm water also as instructed.

Is there a chance ive lost it? I know i must be patient but i assumed id see at least a little bit of movement at this stage.

Thank you in advance.

 

[jm93030]

Eggs will hatch in 28 days

so give it extra days

if you want to make sure there is a live chick in the egg

get a glass of warm water and put the egg in the water

if is alive it will start rocking like crazy

if it doesnt move most likely is dead

make sure there are no pips or cracks in the egg

I have done this test many time and is very accurate to tell you if the chick is dead or alive

keep us posted

 

[Jo1313]

Hi, thank you for the reply. I tried this test straight after reading your message, sadly i had no movement from the egg when in the water. I will continue to incubate it up until 30 days (to give it a day or so leway).

 

[jm93030]

you can candle the egg in a very dark room with a strong LED flash light

is you noticed some kind oof liquid around the embrio is dead

you must be able to notice some movement by the air cell
and all black under the air cell

no water at all

 

[jm93030]

how exactly was your temp and humidity?
what ind of incubator are you using?

 

[Jo1313]

I am using a still air incubator which is set at 99 F/ 38.5 C, it does not have a humidity setting so i am having to manage the humidity levels myself by using troughs of water etc.

All i can really see from candling the egg is a large black mass with a few tiny spaces of pink, how can tell if there is liqid in there? - there also seems to be a strange gathering of 'bubbles' or tiny air pockets around the chick. The air cell only has a shadow right at the top of it, with a small solid black dot right at the top. Its certainly grown from when i last candled it, there are no longer blood vessels visable but the lack of movement is a worry for me - i have even played duck chick chirping sounds for it in attempt to get it exited and hopefully chirp out and let me know its alive!!

I will try and provide a photo later on if i can.

 

[jm93030]

Quote:
I am sure ur temperature has someting to do with this issue

The proper temperature for still air incuabtor is 102º F
I think yours is little to low this may cause to late hatch or not hatch

also get an hydrometer do read your humydity it is importan to know


I like to use this one from walmart

 

[Jo1313]

Thank you very much! I will get onto that straight way and see if it helps with the hatch - ive had so many people telling me so many different temps, i thought the temp i was currently at seemed a little cooler than it should be but as you can probably tell im very new to this and so i was scared of causing harm to the chick it the temprature became to high.

 

[jm93030]

Quote:
I recomend you to add a fan to the incubator this will help u control the temp much easier

if you choose to add a fan than your temp must be 99.5 to 100

also
if you buy the hydrometer
google some information on hydrometer calibration salt method

 

[Gypsy07]

If it's a duck egg there's a good chance it will still hatch. In this case, you wouldn't expect the float test (as described above) to give you an accurate result, as the egg only rocks like crazy when the chick is actually getting ready to hatch and trying to pip through the shell, and if it's a duckling in there, it probably wouldn't be ready to hatch yet, as ducklings don't hatch till day 28, and your temps have been a bit low, which would slow development down and put the hatch date back a day or two. So no sign of movement, in this case, would just mean that the embryo wasn't sufficiently developed yet for the hatching process to start.

If however it is a chicken egg, it is most likely dead, and the float test would confirm this by showing no movement long after it was due to hatch, even taking into account the slightly low temps in your bator.

But if you don't know what kind of egg it is, we really can't give you any definite advice or predictions...