When do you start lockdown with bantam eggs?

[annmarie33]

 

[AmyLynn2374]

This is the one who pipped in the middle of the egg yesterday. No change in 24 hours and the membrane around the hole was dark yellow and hard and kinda like glue. I noticed no veins so I took it out and the membrane was stuck to it and very sticky. There was green/yellow goo everywhere and I freed it. But I put a paper towel around it and felt wetness- a green watery goo came out of its stomach I think. Is this what shrink wrap is? Or something to do with piping in the middle etc. I hope he survives!

Sounds more like there was extra fluid in the egg that started to dry thus "gluing" the chick. I wholeheartedly believe more chicks are "glued" from the leftover fluid and moisture drying from a prolonged pip than shrinkwrapped. I am convinced that shrinkwrapped does not occur anywhere near as much as people seem to think. I think when they see the membrane around the chick they think it's shrinkwrapped when in fact it takes time for the membranes to dry out and actually compress a chick into being shrinkwrapped. I hope you don't mind if I share a pic with you of a truely shrink wrapped chick. This is from one of my hatches last year where my two silkie eggs both shrinkwrapped between day 18 and 20.

 

[annmarie33]

Thanks Amy. Ya I don't see how it could have shrink wrapped since none of the others did. And from the beginning since it pipped in the middle there was yellow stuff. It's doing good just still has dried membrane on it and kinda matted. I will give it a little bath today since its strong enough.
Ok this evening starts day 24. I have 5 eggs left in the bator. Only 1 moving as far as I can tell. It hasn't internally pipped. Should I just let it be or do you think I need to make a hole for it? As far as the others- when should I throw them out? I guess I could do the float test. But none of them internally pipped

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Thanks Amy. Ya I don't see how it could have shrink wrapped since none of the others did. And from the beginning since it pipped in the middle there was yellow stuff. It's doing good just still has dried membrane on it and kinda matted. I will give it a little bath today since its strong enough.
Ok this evening starts day 24. I have 5 eggs left in the bator. Only 1 moving as far as I can tell. It hasn't internally pipped. Should I just let it be or do you think I need to make a hole for it? As far as the others- when should I throw them out? I guess I could do the float test. But none of them internally pipped

You can have just one egg shrink wrap. If you have an egg that is extrememly porous and the rest were not, you would adjust your humidity for the majority which could in turn put the more porous egg in a position to loose too much moisture, so technically it's possible, to have one out of the bunch go to that extreme. My two that shrinkwrapped were two out of 36 that made it to lockdown. 33/36 hatched. In that case though, I'm 98% positive it was egg quality. The girl I bought them from, I really wanted eggs out of her silkie pen because she had a showgirl roo in there, but it was the end of winter/begining of spring and her silkies weren't laying well yet from winter break and she was only able to collect 3 eggs during the week. One hatched too early and died and the other two shrink wrapped. It was a learning experience, I know better to not buy eggs from hens that are not in regular production.

Personal I don't make artificial pips in eggs. It would have to be a rare case with exceptional circumstances for me to go into an unpipped egg. I will assist till the cows come home, but they have to pip themselves.
I always recommend doing eggtopsies if the hatcher can handle it. But if there is no movement or signs of life, at day 24, I'd call it for sure and move on.

 

[annmarie33]

2 of the eggs are from the same hen bc they are the darker eggs- both those died so maybe some genetic thing. The other 2 appear to be the same a well. I don't know if I can to an eggtopsy

but when they die without pipping generally what does that mean? Not positioned correctly? It's sad when they die so close to hatching! So I still have one alive and it's all in the air sac moving around but no chirping. And no pip. Have you ever had an egg hatch on day 24? I wonder why this one is so late?!

 

[annmarie33]

Well just checked and it has internally pipped finally day 24. Hope he pips and lives

 

[AmyLynn2374]

2 of the eggs are from the same hen bc they are the darker eggs- both those died so maybe some genetic thing. The other 2 appear to be the same a well. I don't know if I can to an eggtopsy

but when they die without pipping generally what does that mean? Not positioned correctly? It's sad when they die so close to hatching! So I still have one alive and it's all in the air sac moving around but no chirping. And no pip. Have you ever had an egg hatch on day 24? I wonder why this one is so late?!

My very first hatch was a botched hatch because of a faulty thermometer. I bought a new thermometer for my borrowed incubator and never checked it for accuracy. I had 17 eggs going into lockdown with good movement and life. They looked a bit behind, but I was hoping it was inexperience. Late day 23 I finally had a pip and my chick hatched day 24. I had one hatch day 25 but he died within 12 hours. My day 24 hatcher thrived and he became our little house pet....but as he grew and started putting on weight, I started to notice his balence was off. The bigger he got, the more noticeable it got. I finally realized that his "knee" joint was turned in toward his body and the more weight he put on the more it turned in. He's a year and a half now and he is still our baby, I don't foresee him having a long life, but I could be wrong. Anyway, someone told me to check my thermometer so I did and it was 6 degrees off so my entire incubation time I was only running 93/94 degrees. Plus I was using 50-60% humidity like the book said, so I'm sure it was a combo of high humidity and low temps.

I learned a lot on that hatch though and have not had a bad one since.

 

[annmarie33]

What about only having 1 being late? All were born day 19-21 and this one is still not hatched at 24. So I do t think it's a temp or humidity thing since it's the only 1

 

[AmyLynn2374]

What about only having 1 being late? All were born day 19-21 and this one is still not hatched at 24. So I do t think it's a temp or humidity thing since it's the only 1

If you have warm or cool spots in the bator and you don't rotate the eggs during incubation it could cause an egg to be either early or late. I have an LG9200 with a fan and I still have hot and cold areas in my bator.

 

[annmarie33]

I'd be surprised if that was the case- I moved around the eggs all through incubation and especially after lockdown. 3 eggs does the day after lockdown and one died on day 22. All before internally pipping. There is 1 left that is just starting to hatch on day 24. So first hatched on day 19 and last on day 24. I haven't read that happening before. I guess every hatch really is different. It seems like alot is the egg more than anything. After this hatch I know bantams do hatch early but no need to do early lockdown. They will just hatch earlier like day 19. But it is possible for an egg to be very late even after all hatch. Very interesting