Question on failed egg

[mikewcgy]

Hi all, just completed our first ever round of egg incubating and we ended up with 7 chicks. Did our best to follow all the advice on the internet, much of it from posts here (so thank you!) and we feel like we did not too bad. We have learned a lot about more carefully selecting eggs etc., and will likely do less candling this time around, not use permanent marker on the shells (read that about 10 minutes too late!) and minimal incubator opening / touching of the eggs period. We had 20 or so eggs to start, on day 15 we candled and eliminated 8 of them. I cracked them to make sure we were correct that they were not actually housing an embryo.
Anyhow, of the 12 remaining, 7 hatched, and 4 never showed any signs of pipping. One however is quite odd in appearance and hence why I am here asking you all. I will attach a photo of this strange egg- what was strange is in a matter of hours this egg went from no apparent signs of activity at all to the state I found it in at 2am. It looks like the outer membrane is bulging out the sides. Is this what "shrink wrapping" or "drowning" end up looking like?
I have read other threads and most of the pics were from the "eggtopsy" which I havent worked up the mettle to do just yet.
Also adding one of our 7 little champs to lighten the mood of the post a little!
Thanks in advance all!!

 

[Fishychix]

So glad you joined us!

Congratulations on your new chicks! That egg looks like it may have been rotten. Did it have a smell at all?

 

[mikewcgy]

View attachment 2465205 So glad you joined us!

Congratulations on your new chicks! That egg looks like it may have been rotten. Did it have a smell at all?

Thanks for the quick reply! The incubator smells a little musty inside but not any more than I expected after all the chicks hatched. The rotten egg theory seems very probable as I think I read that when heated a rotten egg can "explode" on touch? And I know a couple of the later hatching chicks were leaning on the remaining eggs quite a bit.

 

[MGG]

That is embryo wastes, which is stuck to the chick's navel at hatch. It is usually left inside the egg, but in your case one of the chicks still had it stuck to his/her navel, and somehow hopped over the egg in question and got it stuck onto the egg in the process. I would guarantee you it will just rub right off. It's not from the egg it ended up on at all.
Here are some pics of embryo wastes. It's just what they excrete during the incubation process. (All my pics) It looks like the wastes on your egg just dried out. Mine are all pics taken right after hatch so they're still moist.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Is this what "shrink wrapping" or "drowning" end up looking like?

Hi there, welcome to BYC!

100% no that isn't what shrink wrapping or drowning look like.

All the info about carefully selecting eggs and such.. is good GENERAL rules of thumb but very few things are set in stone. Temperature being the MOST important.

First, congrats on your new babies!

Next, to the gritty Q and A..
What incubator, at what temperature and humidity? Verified by the bator or by calibrated equipment?

Eggs from your flock, elsewhere, or shipped?

Did they hatch on day 21? Upright, sideways, auto, or hand turned?

Was day 15 the first time you candled? Or why are you going to candle less?

When you cracked the eggs were there an that had developed but quit or they appeared to be infertile? If from your flock, hen to rooster ratio and age of birds please? Also breed?

I agree, I think that may have been a quitter that rotted.. this could be a version of exploding.. I've never yet had a blow out like that.. with hundreds of chicks under my wing. But there's a first time for everything! And them little buggers do play soccer with unhatched eggs sometimes.

The sniff test can be informative, indeed. If you smell funk.. sometimes rot or even death.. I have left the bator running long enough to see anything was still going to hatch in my early days to smell it.. Since I NOW actively breed and select hard for vigor in my stock AND have my hatch frame dialed in.. it's usually easier to identify embryo condition in lighter colored eggs and I can more confidently make the call to discard eggs sooner..

Undeveloped eggs and early quitters.. get boiled or scrambled and fed back to my animals instead of tossed. ONE time, I misread an egg and had an eye with an active heart beat looking at me when I cracked it open. But TOO wanted to verify my read. It was an awful experience.. BUT that was NOT developing at the same rate as others.. so MAYBE it was still the right call or would have just been a quitter closer to hatch or a weak link.. Basically this is what keeps chickens fun for me, the learning never stops!

Couple resources for hatch failure analysis including what day they quit and so on..

Hatchability Problem

Failure analysis starts around page 52, I think. This is a fantastic resource, bookmark it..

Incubation guide

Of course the place that started it all for me, right here in this very wonderful community..

A great resource, with some out dated links but still LOTS of valid stuff to review..

Hatching Eggs 101

Happy hatching, it's addictive!

ETA: I ALSO thought it looked like waste.. MGG is onto something! Is the chick still hatching and that's just zipping?!

 

[MGG]

Hi there, welcome to BYC!

100% no that isn't what shrink wrapping or drowning look like.

All the info about carefully selecting eggs and such.. is good GENERAL rules of thumb but very few things are set in stone. Temperature being the MOST important.

First, congrats on your new babies!

Next, to the gritty Q and A..
What incubator, at what temperature and humidity? Verified by the bator or by calibrated equipment?

Eggs from your flock, elsewhere, or shipped?

Did they hatch on day 21? Upright, sideways, auto, or hand turned?

Was day 15 the first time you candled? Or why are you going to candle less?

When you cracked the eggs were there an that had developed but quit or they appeared to be infertile? If from your flock, hen to rooster ratio and age of birds please? Also breed?

I agree, I think that may have been a quitter that rotted.. this could be a version of exploding.. I've never yet had a blow out like that.. with hundreds of chicks under my wing. But there's a first time for everything! And them little buggers do play soccer with unhatched eggs sometimes.

The sniff test can be informative, indeed. If you smell funk.. sometimes rot or even death.. I have left the bator running long enough to see anything was still going to hatch in my early days to smell it.. Since I NOW actively breed and select hard for vigor in my stock AND have my hatch frame dialed in.. it's usually easier to identify embryo condition in lighter colored eggs and I can more confidently make the call to discard eggs sooner..

Undeveloped eggs and early quitters.. get boiled or scrambled and fed back to my animals instead of tossed. ONE time, I misread an egg and had an eye with an active heart beat looking at me when I cracked it open. But TOO wanted to verify my read. It was an awful experience.. BUT that was NOT developing at the same rate as others.. so MAYBE it was still the right call or would have just been a quitter closer to hatch or a weak link.. Basically this is what keeps chickens fun for me, the learning never stops!

Couple resources for hatch failure analysis including what day they quit and so on..

Hatchability Problem

Failure analysis starts around page 52, I think. This is a fantastic resource, bookmark it..

Incubation guide

Of course the place that started it all for me, right here in this very wonderful community..

A great resource, with some out dated links but still LOTS of valid stuff to review..

Hatching Eggs 101

Happy hatching, it's addictive!

ETA: I ALSO thought it looked like waste.. MGG is onto something! Is the chick still hatching and that's just zipping?!

Excellent informative post, @EggSighted4Life !
Edited, sorry again

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Excellent informative post, Eggcessive!

Eggsighted..

Thank you!

Yours was also.

 

[MGG]

Eggsighted..

Thank you!

Yours was also.

Oh my gosh, I'm sorry!
Autocorrect changed it

Anyway, I am 100% positive it is embryo wastes, but you posted some really great info! I actually bookmarked your post for future reference/links.

 

[MGG]

Looking again, you can actually see some streaking on the egg from the wastes being drug across it.

 

[MGG]

Also, welcome to BYC, @mikewcgy ! And your chicks are adorable. ❤
Congrats on your hatch!