Too Early for Feb Hatch-A-Long Thread??

[CluckNDoodle]

I don't know why I didn't think about this until just now. "Meat spots" in hatching eggs can look all kinds of bizarre if you don't catch it before incubation.

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

Anyone know what’s going on? This is the egg that keeps growing, but doesn’t move. Today it looks like there is black stuff by the embryo, but the chick is clearly still alive and growing. It’s it getting rotten in there? I’m going to candle that specific egg to keep a close eye on it but I’ve never seen anything like that before. I don’t want to pitch it because it’s alive, but I also don’t want a rotten egg. View attachment 2016216

I'm not sure what's up with it. Are you talking about the darkest area straight up from the "1"? Other than that it looks healthy. I'd stick it near the side of the incubator and candle daily.

I've never had an exploding egg but I have had a few rottens ones. I believe the window to get from alive embryo to exploding is pretty big. A couple of days at least. If you're candling and sniff testing regularly you should be able to catch it well before that point. If it gets loose or sloshy or the clear veining fades suddenly it's gone.

 

[ShannonsChimkens]

So out of 23, there are 13 in the brooder box (one in a chick chair made from an egg carton with slipped tendon) slipped tendon chick may have to be culled.

There are three VERY sticky babies that had to be helped out. Warm, wet paper towel was used to remove as much goop as possible. Now they’re just in the incubator and just hoping they will make it. 5 shipped eggs quit and 1 silkie bantam quit. 1 silkie is still alive in its shell and I’m closely watching it.

When the power went out and we had to go to bed, the generator had to be turned off. Could only run the small generator outside of one room. Couldn’t run the brooder box heat bulb, so had to put 7 babies back into the incubator so they could stay warm. They survived and glad I did it, but I believe the 3 now sticky ones were hatching and shrink wrapped them pretty bad.

Not sure I did the math correct though. 13, 3 sticky and 1 not hatched. 2 out of all the chicks aren’t on the numbered sheet. Soooo, no clue on the breeds now.

In light of everything on, this hatch proved that dry hatching helped ALOT with numbers (for me at least). That’s the only thing that changed was not putting water in until lockdown. 23 eggs in, 17 made it to hatch. That’s almost 75% on shipped eggs. I believe that the power going out caused a lot of the current problems. Out of the 5 shipped eggs that didn’t make it to hatch, were fully developed and alive at lock down.

 

[FortCluck]

So out of 23, there are 13 in the brooder box (one in a chick chair made from an egg carton with slipped tendon) slipped tendon chick may have to be culled.

There are three VERY sticky babies that had to be helped out. Warm, wet paper towel was used to remove as much goop as possible. Now they’re just in the incubator and just hoping they will make it. 5 shipped eggs quit and 1 silkie bantam quit. 1 silkie is still alive in its shell and I’m closely watching it.

When the power went out and we had to go to bed, the generator had to be turned off. Could only run the small generator outside of one room. Couldn’t run the brooder box heat bulb, so had to put 7 babies back into the incubator so they could stay warm. They survived and glad I did it, but I believe the 3 now sticky ones were hatching and shrink wrapped them pretty bad.

Not sure I did the math correct though. 13, 3 sticky and 1 not hatched. 2 out of all the chicks aren’t on the numbered sheet. Soooo, no clue on the breeds now.

View attachment 2016335
View attachment 2016343

In light of everything on, this hatch proved that dry hatching helped ALOT with numbers (for me at least). That’s the only thing that changed was not putting water in until lockdown. 23 eggs in, 17 made it to hatch. That’s almost 75% on shipped eggs. I believe that the power going out caused a lot of the current problems. Out of the 5 shipped eggs that didn’t make it to hatch, were fully developed and alive at lock down.

I love dry hatching! I don't even add water at the end and my chicks hatch better than if I added water.

 

[juliasflock]

I'm not sure what's up with it. Are you talking about the darkest area straight up from the "1"? Other than that it looks healthy. I'd stick it near the side of the incubator and candle daily.

I've never had an exploding egg but I have had a few rottens ones. I believe the window to get from alive embryo to exploding is pretty big. A couple of days at least. If you're candling and sniff testing regularly you should be able to catch it well before that point. If it gets loose or sloshy or the clear veining fades suddenly it's gone.

Yes, the spot above the 1. I figure as long as the embryo is alive it shouldn’t pop, but I also don’t want to poison and kill the poor little thing with whatever is going on in it. Trying to decide what is more humane. Let it live, or pull the egg.

 

[FortCluck]

Yes, the spot above the 1. I figure as long as the embryo is alive it shouldn’t pop, but I also don’t want to poison and kill the poor little thing with whatever is going on in it. Trying to decide what is more humane. Let it live, or pull the egg.

Pulling the egg in my opinion is more humane. I let eggs go and I regretted it because we just had to euthanize a chick last nigg. It had bulging eyes, it was blind, and wasn't thriving.

It's your call though. You can continue to let it grow and see what happens but it might not make it to lockdown.

 

[FortCluck]

Now I have two externally pipped eggs I'm sure they won't hatch till tomorrow though.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Yes, the spot above the 1. I figure as long as the embryo is alive it shouldn’t pop, but I also don’t want to poison and kill the poor little thing with whatever is going on in it. Trying to decide what is more humane. Let it live, or pull the egg.

Do what ever you're more comfortable with. We each handle these situations a little differently and there's nothing wrong with that. You can remove the egg now and not think about it again, you can wait and if it quits naturally then no harm done, and if it makes it to hatch, then great, and we can all wonder what in the world caused it to stick to the membrane and develop a dark spot.

After randomly diving into reading an old article written in 1943 after I searched for meat spots in hatching eggs I'm leaning more toward it being that. It still doesn't explain why the embryo is attached to the membrane and it didn't actually talk about the effects of meat spots in hatching eggs but it does discuss the change in color and size when exposed to different temperatures. If you feel like jumping down that rabbit hole, here's the link for reference.
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.883.8915&rep=rep1&type=pdf

 

[CluckNDoodle]

So out of 23, there are 13 in the brooder box (one in a chick chair made from an egg carton with slipped tendon) slipped tendon chick may have to be culled.

There are three VERY sticky babies that had to be helped out. Warm, wet paper towel was used to remove as much goop as possible. Now they’re just in the incubator and just hoping they will make it. 5 shipped eggs quit and 1 silkie bantam quit. 1 silkie is still alive in its shell and I’m closely watching it.

When the power went out and we had to go to bed, the generator had to be turned off. Could only run the small generator outside of one room. Couldn’t run the brooder box heat bulb, so had to put 7 babies back into the incubator so they could stay warm. They survived and glad I did it, but I believe the 3 now sticky ones were hatching and shrink wrapped them pretty bad.

Not sure I did the math correct though. 13, 3 sticky and 1 not hatched. 2 out of all the chicks aren’t on the numbered sheet. Soooo, no clue on the breeds now.

View attachment 2016335
View attachment 2016343

In light of everything on, this hatch proved that dry hatching helped ALOT with numbers (for me at least). That’s the only thing that changed was not putting water in until lockdown. 23 eggs in, 17 made it to hatch. That’s almost 75% on shipped eggs. I believe that the power going out caused a lot of the current problems. Out of the 5 shipped eggs that didn’t make it to hatch, were fully developed and alive at lock down.

A couple of guesses from me. I can't see them all well enough to give my opinion but I've only hatched a few of these breeds.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

And I still think you may have a little Frosted Legbar in there. lol