Day 21--are these goners? Pics

[RedMoxie]

Hi All, I know there are going to be some feelings and thoughts about candling at day 21, but with no movement and the need to know if I can move some additional eggs into this incubator for their day 18, I needed to sense if these guys might still hatch or are "bomb threats" at this point.

At day 18, there was movement and wiggling. Nothing since. You can see one pic with an egg that has the airsac at the bottom, and it has definitely grown, but there is absolutely no movement or sign of life. Additionally, while there isnt a blood ring on either, there are more bloody clots that seem to be around the air cell now.

The second egg (and the one with the videos) has an airsac on the side, which has already worried me, and the same bloody spots along. I've tried to capture best as possible.

Thanks in advance.

 

[andreanar]

I wouldn't get rid of any yet.

 

[alexa009]

I would leave them in there until at least day 23. If you don't get any hatches then you will have to review and go over the facts of what went wrong during incubation period. Chicks that are fully formed and died without showing any pips usually means, wrong temperature or improper turning.

 

[RedMoxie]

Okay. I think one of my concerns is letting eggs explode in the incubator. It is my first time hatching--ever. I'm wondering if there are any kind of visible signs that the embryo has quit at the 12th hour?

 

[Zinjifrah]

Can't really tell much with how the egg's getting moved around all over in the videos, and the light leakage... personally, if I have an egg that I think has died in shell, I'll open a tiny hole at the top of the air pocket to see if there's any signs of life. Through the shell, check the membrane, then through the membrane if there aren't any blood vessels. So far, every time I've done that, the chick was already dead in the egg. I keep a bit of oil on hand, so that I can dab the hole with it if there's any sign of life and put it back, however.

There are other causes for a chick to develop to full term and then die, including the nutrition and health of the flock the egg came from, bacteria, egg size and lethal genes in some breeds.

Bear in mind, I'm no expert. I'm just referring to my own personal experience, what I've read up on about late-term DIS, and personal choice. Any egg that I think may be a problem I remove and examine as soon as I'm convinced enough to be worth losing a prospective chick. I'd rather make a mistake and kill a viable embryo than compromise the entire set with an exploding egg. It comes down to personal choice.

 

[RedMoxie]

Yeah, not ready to put a hole in the shell. I'll probably use the early stage incubator for the lockdown for my set currently in there and possibly transfer one or two to the current lockdown incubator just to see if there is some issue with the incubator. I can't imagine what would cause all 4 chicks, which have been active and very visibly healthy for the last 2 weeks, to die at transfer. The humidity and heat have been monitored with 3 (!!!) separate meters, remained steady at 99.8 and 69% respectively...

 

[Kiki]

69% humidity the whole time?

 

[alexa009]

Yeah, not ready to put a hole in the shell. I'll probably use the early stage incubator for the lockdown for my set currently in there and possibly transfer one or two to the current lockdown incubator just to see if there is some issue with the incubator. I can't imagine what would cause all 4 chicks, which have been active and very visibly healthy for the last 2 weeks, to die at transfer. The humidity and heat have been monitored with 3 (!!!) separate meters, remained steady at 99.8 and 69% respectively...

You mean 69% on the last 3 days, right?

 

[RedMoxie]

69% since lockdown. It was between 42-46% on days 1-18.

 

[RedMoxie]

You mean 69% on the last 3 days, right?

Yes--thanks.