I eggtosied the two that were left... Both were indeed dead, but fully developed chicks. The Silkie had almost absorbed all of it's yolk. The egg from my chickens had a fully developed chick, although the poor baby's head was facing the wrong way. Both of them seemed to have excess fluid still in the shell, but the air sac was dry... What does that mean? The only chick to hatch hatched on Thursday with no issues at all.
Most of my issue was just infertility, I think. I know for my own eggs, it was because my roos are extremely young. It surprised me more that I already had 2 fertile eggs out of the 13 that I set than that 11 of them were infertile. With the silkies and Seramas I got through the Easter swap... Who knows?? Fertility?? Shipping?? Only this one little Silkie ever developed at all...
But what bothers me is the ones that almost made it, then didn't... Am I doing something wrong? How could I have that one hatch so early, then the other 2 never even pip? I was surprised to see how developed they were because I almost threw them before lockdown, especially the Silkie. It just didn't seem to fill up enough of the egg. The egg from my hens, I may know the answer... Somehow, I found 2 days before lockdown, that I had marked the number on the wrong end of the egg (the small end) , so I had been incubating the poor thing for 16 days UPSIDE DOWN!!! How is that even possible that I didn't catch that when I was candling them??? So I'm pretty sure the poor baby just couldn't orient himself properly... It would have been my first buff chick, too. All of my others have been various shades of black with some red or white... Very sad....
Feb. 23, 2013 set twenty four Catdance Silkie eggs in the Genesis 1588. Between March 16th to 17th, twelve chicks hatched.
