PLEASE look at this pic! Should I proceed?

[AmyLynn2374]

Well, I decided to open the egg at the air cell to see what was going on. I made a small hole and saw the white membrane. I gently pressed on it and got no response. I knew he didn't make it. The air cell was large and I continued peeling the shell off around it and pressing to see if there was any sign of life. There wasn't. He had not broken through the white membrane, but he was definitely dead. I wanted to see his positioning in the egg, so I peeled the papery membrane off of him. He was positioned correctly, and the yolk sac was almost completely absorbed, so I still don't know what happened. He was a perfect little chick and alive just hours ago. It breaks my heart to know that he might have been saved if I had only known he was in trouble. I wish there was some way to see more clearly what was going on inside the egg.

Even if you knew, before the pip and before the vascular system between egg and chick shut down, there isn't much you can do. Going in to help would almost undoubtfully cause the chick to bleed out. There's nothing you could have done.

 

[Ks1063]

Thank you for that. I guess I should be glad 20 of the original 32 eggs hatched with the crazy temp/humidity fluctuations.
I started out with 11 eggs from the coop, 11 from cartons on my kitchen table, and 10 from the refrigerator. Of those, hatch rate was 7/coop, 10/table, 3/refrig. All eggs were less than a week old.

 

[chooks4life]

Sorry to hear he didn't make it. Even when they look perfect there's often something wrong if they're malpositioned or otherwise unable to hatch on their own.

Depending on your chooks, it's considered normal for them to take from 12 hours up to (and over) 48 hours to hatch, but 'normal' is such a vague thing; it varies between individuals never mind breeds and over 48 hours is getting worryingly long in my opinion, but it is normal for some.

I'm used to mine taking no longer than 6 hours max. I have some malpositioned ones that won't hatch unassisted, of course, and it's also possible to breed in the trait of not absorbing the yolk properly so they don't ever actually transition all the way into being ready to hatch. Just like with mammalian babies, some of them are nonviable and cannot transition to independent respiration. Once severance with the life support system (mother, or in this case the eggshell) occurs --- they die. It's one reason premature babies have better survival rates if they delay cutting the umbilical cord for half an hour or more, they often struggle with their underdeveloped lungs. Of course for a chick there are no alternatives and no prolonging the life support system, once they start hatching time is running out.

I've bred in (and culled out) a few varieties of hatching abnormalities by now, unfortunately, some I am still removing. Very easy to breed in just by taking pity on (or losing track of) one chick that needed assistance.

Best wishes.