Eggtopsy: What happened to my egg? {Graphic Pictures}

Very interesting and useful post.

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The last pic is the same chick as the second to last pic, just from the top. The yolk is very clearly visible half in and half out of the chick in the second to last pic, less so in the last pic; absorption started but it certainly didn't finish. It never pipped internally (I did check) so I still think 'around' day 18. Around meaning perhaps not exactly, maybe later, but fairly close

Great idea. We always do 'eggtopsys' and now I know the real 'scientific' name for it.

Just last week we had a wierd one, never thought to take pictures though.
It had gone full term under mum, didn't hatch but was clearly something, went under another mum for a week, didn't hatch so decided to feed it to the fish in the pond, which is where most non hatchers or DOH's go (DOH - not Dear Old Husband but Dead On Hatching).

When I cracked the fat end - so that the shell breaks on impact with the water - a lot of fresh bright red blood appeared, I thought I'd done a Baaaaad thing.
I gently removed the shell from the fat end, took the membrane off, still more blood but no chick. The final contents of the egg were a large blob of living tissue, definitely not chick, not even any features of a chick but whatever it was was 'alive'. Grossed out I threw it in the pong and the fish ate it.

We've got another girl hatching today, there should be some 'eggtopsys' availabel from that. I will take pictures this time.

So I just had my first ducklings start hatching. They have a 28-30 day hatch cycle, and I took them off the turner at day 25. Lo, one had already pipped externally and one had pipped internally (the one below). I set them quickly and closed the incubator. Less than 48 hours later, the one that had pipped externally hatched and is doing fine. Another pipped externally last night (Day 27) and hatched early this morning right on time. This one, however, had stopped moving and with the other two making outside-the-egg noises, I realized I was hearing no noise from this one- nor had I seen any movement from it since day 25.

Since there were no other active pips, I pulled out the two that had hatched and grabbed this guy to see if there was movement. Indeed, there was none; it smelled funny and had clearly died a bit ago. It had pipped externally, but on the bottom. The inner membrane had turned brown and gummy and smelled horrible once I started to peel away the shell for my eggtopsy. The duckling looked FINE, like there was no reason for it to have croaked.... until I got to the bottom of the shell, and there was a hug yolk sack just hanging out



So I'm thinking, humidity may have been an issue (although the membrane was looking like one that had too MUCH humidity, when ducks are supposed to want a much higher humidity than chickens, so it *should* have been low for him). I can't blame humidity entirely though, as the other two eggs hatched pretty much fine, and their yolk sacks were not hanging out like this- and one of them hatched at the same time this one pipped. So I'm not honestly sure!

it sounds like these are incubator hazzards??? with humidity issues.....obviously this happens with nature's way too (momma sitting on her eggs) but are the reasons the same? We recently had 3 fertile eggs that were under their momma for full term and when one hatched, I waited 3 days later and cracked the other two that didn't seem to be doing anything and they were just rotten liquid and a black spot (eye like) what would of caused that? any suggestions?

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Sounds like either an early term death or a 'meat spot' egg. Sometimes infertile eggs (even ones you can get from the supermarket) will have just a brownish/blackish/reddish spot of 'meat' in them that isn't a chick or anything, it's just tissue. And of course, any egg setting in ~100 degrees for full term + additional wait time is probably going to smell rotten if it doesn't develop.

If the blackish spot was recognizable as a small embryo, any number of things could have happened. If there was any sort of blood or red in the eggs, it could have been death to bacteria.

Hard to say without a picture which it might've been though.

Here's a pigeon egg that was left uncovered too long during the final states of incubation. I had always heard about "shrink wrapped" chicks but this is the first I have ever seen it. It appears that the chick had pipped internally but then the membrane contracted around the baby, preventing any further progress.



This was a really interesting failed egg because I know why momma left her nest. My pigeon loft has a one-way door that is made from about 10 individual swinging metal rods (called bobs). The pigeon can land on a platform outside the bobs and push their way through into the loft but the bobs only swing one way so they can't get back out. This way, I can let the pigeons out in the morning and then they come back for their dinner and they're safely locked up for the night, or so I thought. I woke up yesterday and went to let out my pigeons for their morning flight time and a Great Horned Owl had figured out how to use the bob entrance. Of course once he got in there, he couldn't get out and he killed 25% of my flock. Lesson learned, now I'm blocking the bobs after my pigeons are in, and any that haven't made it back in are roosting outside for the night.

So needless to say that momma wasn't focused on finishing the incubation on this egg.

I've heard it results from a sudden loss of temperature and humidity and provides the reason why you don't open your incubator during the hatching/pipping stages..

Dan

Dan, excellent example of shrink wrapping. Very sorry to hear about the great horned owl.... did it manage to get out again after its killing spree or what? I just keep imagining you walking up to the barn loft and BAM owl to the face as it escapes in the morning.

I'll repost the pic in the 1st post with name and explanation Thanks for the example!

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We had to go in and get the owl out. We released it and I have posted a more complete story with photos here:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=368462

Dan

So I had small hatch (three eggs, started with 5, 2 infertile) of polish eggs that was in with a group of duck eggs. Unfortunately duck eggs need a LOT more humidity than chicken eggs, and these three sort of got the short end of the stick when it came time to hatch. The thing about humidity is that it won't kill the chick early on, usually. It doesn't stop them or start them growing; but when it comes time to hatch, how the humidity went through the incubation can really determine whether the chick lives or dies around pip-time.

So here is our first egg:

This one was very tiny but well developed. The membranes were tougher than expected. This was the egg I marked as an early death (it stopped all movement internally before the others), but is clearly developed. I am uncertain why this one was different than the others.

And here is our 3rd egg:

This one was positioned incorrectly inside the egg, most likely due to the increased humidity in the bator making it hard for the chick to turn to get in position to pip the air cell. My best guess is that it drown in the last few days because it was unable to get to the air cell in time. This is also the egg which is in the video on the first post.


For the second egg, I actually took pictures as I took it apart and got some nice ones of things to look for if your humidity was too high.

This first picture shows the opaque outer membrane of the egg, which is not to be confused with the inner membrane. It is the inner membrane which would shrink wrap a chick as a result of a drop in humidity during hatch time. Sometimes this outer membrane can turn yellowish once the egg pips, as liquids drop onto it from inside the egg.


I gently broke through the top of the egg (where the air cell was located) to see if the chick had pipped internally or not. It had not pipped and I could not even see a beak, telling me that this one was positioned incorrectly. The lining itself looked all right; it was not too tough, had not turned milky or brown, and was not gummy. You can clearly see the difference in the white outer membrane and the clear, veined inner membrane here.


After ensuring that there was no internal pip, I moved to peeling away the shell to see if I could find the beak. I left the inner membrane intact, and without an air cell, it expanded to be egg shaped. Again, the two membranes are clear and distinctly different. You can see the dark eye and the yellow beak here, indicating that the chick was not positioned properly. Also, you can observe here that there is a LOT of liquid under the surface of the membrane. This is a heavy indication that the humidity was too high through incubation. unfortunately you can also see a smear of blood where the chick probably made its last stand against the egg shell, broke a vein, took a breath of liquid, and died


I then peeled away the inner membrane and gently pulled the chick out to get a closer look. Sure enough, the chick looked well developed but was still sporting an only partially absorbed yolk. This can indicate that it died around when it should have pipped internally.


So, there's my too-high-humidity hatch. Hopefully this will help someone determine when their own humidity was too high through a hatch.