What day to do the Egg-topsy (autopsy)?

[BeardedChick]

I have some eggs on day 24-ish that didn't hatch. I had lots of thermometer/thermostat trouble in my larger 'bator so I'm not suprised. Is it time to do the eggtopsy?

After reading on here, I'm sooo afraid of opening an egg and finding a live chick...

 

[justpete]

If chicken eggs I would wait a two more days.
Did you try to candle them? Sometimes you can see movement inside the egg.

 

[BeardedChick]

Haven't tried candling them since day 18. They are welsummer eggs, too dark to see inside of anyway.

 

[Patchesnposies]

Yesterday I opened two of three eggs that hadn't hatched with my other five serama's.

One was obviously rotten (just beginning to smell and that is an odor that is not easily mistaken!) so we did not open that one! One had stopped growing early on....but the third was all formed and feathered and had red veins, lots of yolk sac left.....no visible signs of life....so I keep telling myself that it was already dead...but in the back of my mind I kinda sorta think it might have lived if I'd given it more time.

Give those eggs a couple more days if you can stand to.

Deb

 

[willowcol]

I just always open a small whole at the top in the airsac first, that way if it is alive your not really hurting anything. If you see mo movement then finish opening the rest.

 

[BeardedChick]

Thanks - I will wait a couple more days.

Deb, wouldn't that chick have moved if it was still alive? I had one like that, too. I assumed it had quit at about day 18 or so.

 

[Patchesnposies]

Thanks, Beardedchick, that's what I keep telling myself. That it had died shortly before it and the rest were due to hatch.

I tend to have an overactive guilt gland!

 

[bheila]

I always give them a couple of extra days in the bator. Then when I think that they've expired I take them out of the bator and leave them sit for a couple days so I know that they are really gone. I have opened eggs before thinking that they were goners, just to fine out that they were still alive and there was nothing I could do for them. So if I leave them at room temp for a couple of days then open them. That way I know there is no possibility of life still left. I know there are pros and cons to this but for me I'd rather not see a struggling little chick as I open the shell. Does this make sense?

 

[becky3086]

If you open at the top in the air sac like willowco suggested, it won't hurt the chick, then if it is alive you can know whether it needs a little help or not. I recently helped out 4 chicks and a duck that way, that were overdue.

 

[BeardedChick]

Ok, I'm going to do just that. Wish me luck!