Surprise Hatch

[MarshyRooster]

I have a young chick (Dawnwing) in the brooder right now, with her buddies Moonwing and Breezewing. I'm delighted to have her, but I really don't know how I have her. I put her egg in the incubator with five other eggs and then waited. I don't know how, but I lost count of the days and didn't know when she was supposed to hatch. My dad wanted to throw her egg out, but I told him not to. I don't know why, but it was apparently a very good choice. The night before she hatched, I thought I was hearing things when I heard chirping. I knew the ducklings were safe and sound in the shop- not in my bedroom- but I knew I was hearing something. I was really alarmed, and the thought of hatching eggs (Dawnwing was now one of the two only remaining eggs in the incubator) DID cross my mind, but I thought Dawnwing was dead in the egg. Two days ago, she'd been an unmoving blob with a few veins, barely even an embryo. The next day, she was exactly the same day. I hadn't candled her that night. I thought she was definitely dead. But the next morning, my dad got me up and told me she was hatching, and she was. She hatched pretty fast- she'd been working in the night. I was shocked. I sort of still am. How did Dawnwing go from the blob-with-a-few-veins to a chick so fast? Please tell me if you have any idea.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

You simply misread the candling. She was not a blob, she was a fully formed chick with only a few veins left in an egg yolk that was absorbing. Often that looks like a blob with a vein or two to the inexperienced.

Sometimes you see them moving in the egg shell, but usually you do not as they by instinct hold very still whenever the egg is picked up (by a predator).

So, congratulations on your hatch.
LofMc

 

[MarshyRooster]

Thank you so much! That makes a lot more sense.