Weird membrane in some hatching eggs

[Ariel301]

I've got an assortment of eggs hatching right now and three of them have had a weird problem I have never seen or heard of. The chick pips, and begins hatching, but the membrane, instead of being that normal thin film with some blood vessels in it, is thick, dark colored, and gelatinous, and there's still a lot of fluid inside the egg. As soon as the chick starts breaking out of the shell and the membrane is exposed, it also hardens up right away like super glue, basically gluing the chick into position so that it can't move and can barely breathe. I got two free, the first one did fine but then died suddenly after being just fine for two days. The second one came out but its feet don't work,they are cold and pale and the chick cannot control anything below the hock joint, it also has an opening with some egg yolk still protruding at the umbilical, and the abdomen was swollen and dark. This morning, a lot of slimy yellowish brown fluid drained through the opening at the abdomen (this seems to be why it was dark, it looks empty now and normal colored) and the chick is looking like it will die, it can't eat or drink and is very weak. The third one is out of the shell, but the membrane glued it into the position it was in while in the shell, and I keep soaking it with warm wet cloths but it won't come off, the chick is just stuck in that position and breathing but can't move, I guess it will have to be put down. The other chicks are fine.

Anyone ever seen this before or know what's going on?

 

[white01]

this happened on 2 of mine that i hatched last month, they both passed away

, i have no idea y this happened. so will be also checking back for answers

 

[ladybug99]

I have one that looks like that too... I think it is dead.... but I am not giving up hope

 

[Ariel301]

The third one with the weird membrane made it. I got the shell off but it was like it was covered in dry super glue and it couldn't move. I wrapped it in a warm damp cloth and put it back in the incubator, thinking at least to keep it comfortable while it died. I had to go to a party last night, and came back to it crawling around dry in the incubator.

 

[SarahIrl]

Humidity too high for whole incubation for that egg. Some shells are just too thick and so retain more moisture. I over did it on humidity with goose eggs last year and practically drowned them. The goo was dark straw coloured and coated the goslings, when dried was indeed like varnish or super glue. It is fairly normal to have a little of tat goo with waterfowl, but too much - especially with chicks - is what drowns them. My duck/goose hatching has been better this year, but so far have had long waits from pip to zip. Had some shrink wrap issues, some wonky air cells, etc, a nightmare to be honest. All groups of eggs will have subtle differences in the shells which is why people say 50% or 60% - it suits them in their environment/incubation room, and with the eggs they know. Out of a group it will be a tad too high, for others a tad too low - you are aiming to get it right for the majority of the eggs.

Candle your eggs before setting, if they are all from teh same breed or you have several from one breed, avoid setting any that look mottled (too porous) or too dark (thick shells) - btw by dark I mean in comparison. You couldn't judge Maran's eggs, they are dark as anything anyway, but lighter shells should be obvious enough.

 

[Ariel301]

Interesting that it would be high humidity causing it, as we have extremely low humidity here. My usual problem is shrink wrapping, because I can't get the humidity high enough, ever. No matter how much water I put in the incubator, it won't go over 40%, our usual humidity in the house is rarely over 20%.

 

[KatGold]

Quote:
Oh SarahIrl, please talk to me about wonky air cells. I am trying to hatch my first batch of duck eggs. I've never hatched anything before. I've been curious about several of my eggs because their air cells were not like an even little disk the way ever picture shows it, but rather dip here and there creating what I'm thinking is a wonky air cell. I couldn't find any info on it and didn't know how to describe it.

So you've seen this? What does it mean?

We had internal pipping the evening of May 10th (Day 22, earlier than I expected). I've seen eggs rocking and heard cheeping since the evening of May 11th. There has been no external pip. Today is Day 25.

I suspect I've kept my temps too high in the beginning (60ish or a tad over) and then let it drop probably too low (40s because I'm insane). They're in lockdown and it's now 57.

What is the wonky air cell indicative of? What might I expect? You talked about long hatches, does my description above seem like a long hatch or do we seem to be chugging along at an okay pace? If I have superglued them, is there anything I could do at this point to help undo that?

Thanks.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Sounds like you have some sticky chicks, caused by too high humidity.

I keep my humidity in the 25%-35% range and have still had problems with sticky chicks on my Marans and some turkeys.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
Geese usually take 24-48 hours to pip the shell after internal pip, then another 24 hours to hatch after pipping the shell.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
Oh SarahIrl, please talk to me about wonky air cells. I am trying to hatch my first batch of duck eggs. I've never hatched anything before. I've been curious about several of my eggs because their air cells were not like an even little disk the way ever picture shows it, but rather dip here and there creating what I'm thinking is a wonky air cell. I couldn't find any info on it and didn't know how to describe it.

So you've seen this? What does it mean?

We had internal pipping the evening of May 10th (Day 22, earlier than I expected). I've seen eggs rocking and heard cheeping since the evening of May 11th. There has been no external pip. Today is Day 25.

I suspect I've kept my temps too high in the beginning (60ish or a tad over) and then let it drop probably too low (40s because I'm insane). They're in lockdown and it's now 57.

What is the wonky air cell indicative of? What might I expect? You talked about long hatches, does my description above seem like a long hatch or do we seem to be chugging along at an okay pace? If I have superglued them, is there anything I could do at this point to help undo that?

Thanks.

Ducklings usually internally pip a day or so before they hatch. As for the shape of the air cell, as long as the majority of the air cell is on the big end, they should do fine. Were they shipped eggs?