Thought egg was dead, cracked it open, but it's moving...

inquisitivebird

Songster
8 Years
Oct 16, 2014
130
122
176
Hi Everyone, so this is my second time incubating chicken eggs and I have 5 eggs going at the moment on day 16. I was candling them tonight to see if they were all doing alright and if I needed to throw any of them. All were almost completely dark like I would have expected with a nice air sack forming at the large end of the egg. One of the eggs though only looked like it was on day 12ish with a lot of clear in the egg and only a bit of dark. I did notice though early on that this egg didn't have an air sac at all, and while it was a darker shelled egg and it was a bit hard to see, I thought I could see an air bubble inside the egg rolling around when I moved the egg. So, today since the egg looked like it was so far behind, I took it out and cracked it open. I noticed a little fetus with feathers and quite a large yolk yet, and like I had thought, there was a bubble of air all around the yolk and right next to the fetus. I thought to myself, 'poor little fella, didn't make it with a wonky air sack'. But then I poked it's foot, and it moved!!! I feel so awful, because half of me thinks that I ended up killing it for no reason, and then the other half of me thinks, well it wouldn't have made it much farther. Then I had the crazy idea, that since there was no blood bleeding anywhere and that I didn't break any of the membranes yet... I peeled back the shell and pinched the outer part so the chick fell out membranes still intact on the inside... I thought, what would happen if I put him in a little dish with some cling wrap on top with a few holes... back into the incubator? So that's what I've done... I have low hopes that it will live, but would like to hear any thoughts you have on this. Thanks!
 
Last edited:
Its a very slim chance. I have heard of people attempting to grow embryo's in sandwich bags in their incubators before, the babies made it about half way through and quit. If he does somehow make it past potential bacterial infections, and all the other things working against him to hatch day, then the trick becomes, how does he hatch? The hatching process helps strengthen the chick, so it is very likely he will be extremely weak.
Dont feel too bad though, from what you have been describing, even if you hadnt broken the egg open, it is very unlikely the embyo would survive. You can try the dish method, I would be curious to see what happens, however survival is a long shot!
 
Well, I checked on it in the morning and it had died... it was worth a shot but next time I think I'll ler it sit in the incubator until its several days over due just to be sure...
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom