OH NO! I killed it!!!

[zowieyellowflame]

I tried candling yesterday and my poor little hen was on like 22 or 24 eggs and this was after she got locked out of the pen so all of the eggs were stone cold. (and a couple of cold and rainy days here in nova scotia) I wanted to try to take some of the "dead" ones out. I looked at pictures on the internet and thought I had it figured out. I removed about 6 and set them on the kitchen counter.
The next morning, I decided to candle them again in my basement for fun. One had a bunch of veins and a blob. Oh shoot, I thought. How did I do that? I should have left it in there. I must have mixed it up with another one by accident. Then I thought maybe I should put it under the hen just in case. But then I thought it was silly so I put it, and 5 other eggs that had only just started in a brown paper bag and into the compost bin. I walked away, then I went back and decided to crack open the egg with the veins. Inside, it was kind of gross but I could make out a eye, a wing and a leg. My hands were shaking a bit so I set it on the ground. There, the little eye stared at me and the wing moved and the leg moved. ARGGHHHH!!!! I killed it! I feel so bad, my husband is mad that I was messin with the eggs. I was trying to help, but instead I am killing them!
One good thing..... this egg was in the cold all day yesterday, and all night at room temp. And still at 9 am, the poor little thing was still alive. It does give me hope for the others though. I think I will stop candling and I will just wait. sigh.

 

[LALADY1101]

Quote:
I'm so sorry!! I candled this weekend and took out 2 eggs that I thought weren't gonna do anything. One of them was just a little blob on day 15 and the other one had what I thought was a VERY large air cell with no movement. Well I decided to crack them open and see what had happened....1st one had stopped developing a long time ago; however, when i cracked the other one the baby came out moved his head and started gasping for breath. I felt soooooooooooooo bad. I just started screaming OH MY GOSH, OH MY GOSH WHAT HAVE I DONE!!!!!My DH was also quite upset with me. I will NEVER do that again. If in doubt I'll leave them alone. Very hard way to learn a lesson!!!!

 

[walkswithdog]

It's a tough way to learn a lesson and I'm sorry. The last two days movement is very tough to discriminate, if it can be seen at all.

You have to leave them unless they're mostly clear and it's obvious, until all the others hatch out, and even then if you're too aggressive, you'll lose a couple late hatchers by breaking in to check out the "failed egg."

Patience is a tough thing to learn, hardly ever learned the "easy" way. Whenever you go to open an egg, pretend you think it might still be alive, open a small bit on the air cell end and check with a light and a wet q-tip for life and veins before you go and open the whole thing and get a bad surprise. When in doubt, open it, peek, dampen the membrane and put it back, check a couple hours later.

Hugs. Most people make the same mistake either early or late at some point.

 

[Mom2Cool]

I agree with less is more. Even when I have the eggs in the bator unless I see something sloshing around or I have an egg that smells I leave the rest. I got over zealous 2 weeks ago & candled my duck eggs & I could see a "red spot" in one of them & thought "hmmm isn't that a bad sign?" apprently not because they all seem growning healthy now. It's hard to compare what you're seeing to what is seen on the internet & so unless I'm afraid a egg is going to explode I leave it in the bator or under the hen...


zowieyellowflame I almost forgot to say I'm sorry & to please don't be too hard on yourself we're all learning as we go along & these things happen.

 

[racuda]

I did the same thing yesterday. I took out 12 eggs (out of 23) that I thought wouldn't make it. I was right about 11 of them and wrong about 1. I killed a buff Silkie

 

[Freckle Face Farm]

Sorry for your loss that is so sad!!!

 

[LALADY1101]

Quote:
mine was a black silkie

 

[zowieyellowflame]

thank you! i feel better now.

 

[rancher hicks]

I only read the first post, but it seems to me there are alot of people messing with their hatches. What gives? I've read posts like this over and over, can't we just be patient and leave things alone?

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

Because we're human. We don't have the patience of a hen!

You could put the developing chick into a petri dish or a container of some type and see if you could save it. But I have a feeling you went ahead and disposed of it.

That is why I ALWAYS check the air cell first. Open the egg at the air cell so that you give the LEAST amount of damage possible.