Candling egg - infertile or dead?

[LMO]

Sorry this isn't a parrot egg but wondering if someone could still help? This egg has had 6 days in the incubator, 37.5-38.5*C, trying to keep humidity around 55% though I found it dropped so suddenly overnight a couple times without warning. Photo is before incubation started, video is now. Please could someone have a look and advise what has happened with the egg? Thank you

 

[Jcas]

I’ve never seen an egg quite like this. It’s certainly not infertile but it is difficult to tell for sure if the embryo is dead or alive. If it were me, I would keep it in the incubator for a couple more days and then candle again to see if there is any change.

 

[LMO]

I’ve never seen an egg quite like this. It’s certainly not infertile but it is difficult to tell for sure if the embryo is dead or alive. If it were me, I would keep it in the incubator for a couple more days and then candle again to see if there is any change.

Thank you. Will do. Yes it looks really strange. I can see a dark blob but no veins. It's so sad I think it has died as it doesn't look like it should but would like to hold on to hope

Should I change any of my incubator settings?

 

[Jcas]

Just checking; is it a chicken egg? If so, 37.5 c should be good for a forced air incubator ( one with a fan to move the warm air around) a little higher for a still air incubator. 55% humidity is fine until lockdown when you want to bump it up to about 70% Don’t worry if temp or humidity fluctuate a little. That would happen if the egg was hatched naturally and the embryo can handle slight or brief variances. 🙂

 

[LMO]

Just checking; is it a chicken egg? If so, 37.5 c should be good for a forced air incubator ( one with a fan to move the warm air around) a little higher for a still air incubator. 55% humidity is fine until lockdown when you want to bump it up to about 70% Don’t worry if temp or humidity fluctuate a little. That would happen if the egg was hatched naturally and the embryo can handle slight or brief variances. 🙂

Sorry should have said - it's a duck.

Thank you. The problem I've had with the temperature is I'm getting thermometers saying different things. When I set up the incubator I put 2 extra thermometers in (a digital one and an analogue one) that both showed the incubator about a degree lower than what it said. (Online reviews for the incubator had said the same thing.) I'd read an incubation range that said 37.5*C - 38.5*C so set the incubator at the higher end, thinking the actual temperature would be 37.5*C.

The digital thermometer then started showing even lower temperatures which just didn't seem right so I got a couple more digital thermometers with good reviews on amazon. And with the new ones when I place them in the middle of the incubator, they agree with it's temperature setting usually within 0.1*C but on the edge of the incubator read up to a degree lower. But as the egg's close to the centre I've turned the temperature down. The incubator has a fan but it's only a little incubator, I don't know why in the temperature differs on area. And I don't know what's going on with my original digital and analogue thermometers.

 

[Jcas]

Yeah, I hatch eggs using a little Amazon incubator too, lol! It sounds like your incubator thermometer is pretty accurate. Thermometer readings can vary just slightly depending on location in the incubator, especially, it seems, with the smaller incubators. Really though, a degree up or down most likely will just result in the eggs hatching a day early or late. Probably not a big deal 🙂. I think for ducks, humidity is supposed to be 55% for the first 25 days and then closer to 80% once they get ready to hatch. I hope they hatch for you 🤞🏻

 

[LMO]

Yeah, I hatch eggs using a little Amazon incubator too, lol! It sounds like your incubator thermometer is pretty accurate. Thermometer readings can vary just slightly depending on location in the incubator, especially, it seems, with the smaller incubators. Really though, a degree up or down most likely will just result in the eggs hatching a day early or late. Probably not a big deal 🙂. I think for ducks, humidity is supposed to be 55% for the first 25 days and then closer to 80% once they get ready to hatch. I hope they hatch for you 🤞🏻

Thank you so much. I'm really upset I trusted those 2 thermometers I put in at first and ran it at a higher temperature those first couple of days. The old digital one was going lower and lower - it's telling me 34.8*C at the moment! But the new thermometers agree with the incubator and are holding steady. What thermometer do you use? How do you know you can trust a thermometer - I tested the hygrometer using the salt water in a bag method but I don't know how to calibrate a thermometer.

 

[Jcas]

Thank you so much. I'm really upset I trusted those 2 thermometers I put in at first and ran it at a higher temperature those first couple of days. The old digital one was going lower and lower - it's telling me 34.8*C at the moment! But the new thermometers agree with the incubator and are holding steady. What thermometer do you use? How do you know you can trust a thermometer - I tested the hygrometer using the salt water in a bag method but I don't know how to calibrate a thermometer.

Honestly, the first time I hatched with an incubator I was freaking out over the temperature being just right. But gradually I’ve decided to just trust the thermometer in the incubator and go with it. 🙂. If you’re interested, there’s a forum called Backyard Chickens that’s all about fowl. They’re a great resource for incubation questions and all kinds of other questions relating to poultry and fowl! I’ve learned a lot from that forum 🙂.

 

[LMO]

Honestly, the first time I hatched with an incubator I was freaking out over the temperature being just right. But gradually I’ve decided to just trust the thermometer in the incubator and go with it. 🙂. If you’re interested, there’s a forum called Backyard Chickens that’s all about fowl. They’re a great resource for incubation questions and all kinds of other questions relating to poultry and fowl! I’ve learned a lot from that forum 🙂.

Thank you. I've joined Backyard Chickens and asked on there too. This is a couple days on now. What do you think might be happening inside?

 

[Jcas]

It looks like it’s growing bigger? So that would be a positive! Hopefully you get some responses from people on Backyard chickens; I know there are some very experienced hatchers on there!

 

[LMO]

It looks like it’s growing bigger? So that would be a positive! Hopefully you get some responses from people on Backyard chickens; I know there are some very experienced hatchers on there!

Yeah that black shadow's definitely getting bigger. But I don't know if it might be bacteria/fungus/decomposition. Should the yolk get mis-shaped like that - I'm not sure if it looks like the yolk's starting to mix with the albumin like the membrane's broken? I'll keep it in my incubator and see what happens over the next few days. I want to give it every chance even if it's only a tiny chance. Just a bit worried about it exploding if it's rotting as I've heard that can be really awful to deal with and clean up.

 

[Jcas]

Yeah that black shadow's definitely getting bigger. But I don't know if it might be bacteria/fungus/decomposition. Should the yolk get mis-shaped like that - I'm not sure if it looks like the yolk's starting to mix with the albumin like the membrane's broken? I'll keep it in my incubator and see what happens over the next few days. I want to give it every chance even if it's only a tiny chance. Just a bit worried about it exploding if it's rotting as I've heard that can be really awful to deal with and clean up.

Yes, the fact that there don’t seem to be obvious veins is pretty concerning, but I guess if it were me I would let it go just a little longer. Although I’ve heard of the whole exploding rotten egg thing, it seems super rare. I’ve let eggs go and had hens who sat on eggs long past their time without any incidents so hopefully that won’t be a problem for you. I just hope the little duck is alive in there.

 

[LMO]

Hello

Just to update. At day 12 there's no further development apart from the yolk moving about more freely within the egg, looking like it's starting to disintegrate. The shadow I was hoping might have been something just looked very liquidy like it was a fluid changing shape as the egg moved. The video's from day 10 but it still looked like this at day 12 -

Thank you again for your help and so sorry that it's not good news.