Runny yolk in incubator

[Tiny Egg]

Hi! I’m on day 3 of incubating my first quail eggs. I took one out to candle it (I know it’s too early, I’m sorry I couldn’t wait) and I noticed it had a crack, so I took it to the kitchen to do an eggtopsy to see if it was fertilized and to see what I could see.
The yolk was completely runny. I also couldn’t find the bullseye or non-bullseye-looking circle, even after looking up at the bottom of the glass. I wish I had thought to take a picture but I threw it out. Next time I’ll be sure to take a picture.
I guess my question is, do you think this means the egg wasn’t fertilized at all? Was it shaken too much during shipping (which took four days in freezing or near freezing temperatures)? Or did it die too early to form an embryo? Maybe the crack let in some bacteria? It didn’t smell at all. Or is a runny yolk like that completely normal in an egg thats been in the incubator? I’m pretty worried that it could mean the rest of the eggs will be in the same boat.

 

[Susan Skylark]

You should have seen a blood spot or embryo on a fertile day 3 egg. Yolks get ‘delicate’ after a couple days in the incubator, it isn’t uncommon to rupture one when opening a bum egg. The crack would have been an issue whatever happened, bacterial contamination is certainly a possible side effect but in quail eggs I’ve had more trouble with dehydration (the embryo gets dessicated) than rotten eggs with cracks I fail to notice.

 

[Tiny Egg]

You should have seen a blood spot or embryo on a fertile day 3 egg. Yolks get ‘delicate’ after a couple days in the incubator, it isn’t uncommon to rupture one when opening a bum egg. The crack would have been an issue whatever happened, bacterial contamination is certainly a possible side effect but in quail eggs I’ve had more trouble with dehydration (the embryo gets dessicated) than rotten eggs with cracks I fail to notice.

And the blood spot would have been very noticeable, right? Not easy to miss in a fertilized egg?

 

[Nabiki]

If the egg was cracked, it probably never began to develop even if it was fertile.

 

[Tiny Egg]

Thank you both for explaining! Tonight (day 5) I got my first confirmed embryo death At least I got to feel like a scientist doing the eggtopsy. Am I allowed to post the pictures here or is a dead embryo too graphic for a public forum?
I’m pretty sure there are a lot more infertile ones in my batch too but I’m going to leave them for a little while just in case I’m wrong about them.

 

[Nabiki]

Thank you both for explaining! Tonight (day 5) I got my first confirmed embryo death At least I got to feel like a scientist doing the eggtopsy. Am I allowed to post the pictures here or is a dead embryo too graphic for a public forum?
I’m pretty sure there are a lot more infertile ones in my batch too but I’m going to leave them for a little while just in case I’m wrong about them.

You can put it in a spoiler. Plenty of us are accustomed to gory pics, but the spoiler makes it so only people who want to see the images will do so.

 

[catesquire]

How did you realize it was dead at day 5? I have never thought to check for dead chicks that early and would have no idea what to even look for

 

[Tiny Egg]

You can put it in a spoiler. Plenty of us are accustomed to gory pics, but the spoiler makes it so only people who want to see the images will do so.

View attachment 4305012

Thank you, I will do so

 

[Tiny Egg]

How did you realize it was dead at day 5? I have never thought to check for dead chicks that early and would have no idea what to even look for

I was candling, and one egg looked a lot different in the red spots. It wasn’t quite a blood ring, but on opposite sides of the egg there were two, almost thick, red lines. On a few of my eggs yesterday I saw a red spot and some veins, so I’m choosing to hope that those are still-developing embryos. But on the dead one I didn’t see any thin veins or one red spot, just those big red “lines.”

 

[Tiny Egg]

Egg after cracking. Is that big white film the yolk sack?