How long wait for eggs to hatch? Day 24. UPDATE graphic pics

[ISSOLA]

I had my first experience hatching eggs.

14 eggs set on 5/29/2010 at 6pm made it to day 21. On day 21, some eggs had pips.

5 hatched on day 22. 3 hatched on early day 23. 1 hatched late day 23.

So far - 9 hatched. 5 are leftover in the bator.

Temp and humidity have been stable. At lockdown (day 18) temp 99-5 to 100.2F Humidity 65-70%

Now at day 24 - there is not a pip or movement in the 5 leftover eggs in bator. I don't smell any rotten smell other than waste (nitrogenous - not sulfur) smells from previous hatchings.


What should I do? Toss them? Concern for egg explosion!

 

[mrslb333]

I've just had the same problem with 2 of mine. I waited until 4 days after hatch date, candled them and things didn't look right so I pipped the air sac end enough to see inside and both were formed but dead.
Maybe leave it another day or so and try candling.

 

[ISSOLA]

By 6 pm today, will be start day 25.

Hmmm......

Thanks mrslb333. If 2 extra days in bator, does not result in bad egg explosion - I would be so cool with that.

Still pondering....

 

[Kedreeva]

If they're not moving after Day 25, you should probably take them out and give them an eggtopsy. If you're worried about exploding eggs, slip them into a zipperloc bag, zip it closed, and crack them in there.

 

[ISSOLA]

Well - this evening will be day 25. I decided not to wait for eggs to hatch and did an egg-topsy. The last chick to hatch has been more than 24 hours. I had no desire for stink bomb to happen.

I have also read through many of forum questions on this issue, of "when to stop futile hatching" but almost always there was no updates, leaving the reader (me) a little frustrated.

So here goes with my update:

At 8.30pm - I put each of the unhatched 5 eggs into there own clear ziploc bags. I cracked each egg. Please feel free to comment on what each embryo's problem is, ie. external umbilicus, stunted growth, "shrink-wrap", yadda-yadda-yadda...

Egg1

Egg2

Egg3

Egg4

Egg5 (infertile - potential egg explosion!!!!!)

I would like to learn from the experienced what could have precipitated each egg's demise (except for #5 - obvious infertile)

I do note that the eggs that did not make it may have had some mild speckles of dirt stuck on it, i.e. residue hay/grass or dirt/poop. I did not clean them off because I read that I should not wash hatching eggs in this forum. All hatching eggs were mailed priority over two days. Good wrapping from Steve (mcspin at BYC).

Sigh! - whatta weekend, but great learning experience. Now - please hatching experts - help explain the postmortem chicken CSI.

Also, thanks Kedreeva for the ziploc bag tip!!!

 

[mrslb333]

Good job you did take them out with no 5 could of been messy! I'm eager to see if any-one knows what was wrong because I had 2 similar eggs yesterday, I thought maybe it could have been humidity or temp problems?

 

[Kedreeva]

I'm no expert, but it looks like for the most part they stopped developing before hatch time. I can't really see what is going on in Pic #1, but in Pic #2 and #4 you can pretty clearly see that there's a lot of yolk there in the middle of #2 (or it looks like it from the pic) and spilled all over in pic #4. Sometimes they just stop and there's not much of an answer for that- maybe it didn't handle the temp or humidity, maybe it was a genetic issue, maybe it just wasn't meant to be.

In pics #1 and #3, it looks like they made it farther than the others, but it doesn't look like they made it to hatch date either, which is typically a temp or genetic issue. Or really bad luck.

Sorry for your losses! But at least you got a lot of them to hatch

 

[ISSOLA]

To be on a brighter note. Thought I would share my "live" chicks pics.

The first lot of 5 that hatched:

The second lot of 3 that hatched on right (waiting to get dried off before merge):

The total final 9 chicks (after additional one more hatched)

A close-up of a few (see those fuzzy butts)

 

[mrslb333]

Ahh so cute

 

[Kedreeva]

Very cute chicks! I have thought a lot about the photos you posted of the ones who did not make it and I am considering starting a thread or a page detailing what to look for in an eggtopsy. Would you mind if I saved the pictures to use?