HI there,

Today i decided to take out the eggs in some of the breeding boxes.

Aprille had laid 10 eggs and chucked out 4 of these after about 2 weeks incubation, these eggs were not fertile. . She then sat on and off the remainding 4 eggs and notthing happened so i left them in their for about another 1-2 weeks and they eventualy went cold. I took them out and 2 of them looked to be fertile but they all had cracks in them so i figured the babies if there were any would be dead so i buried the eggs.

 

I have another budgie that has one 3 week old baby and a 2 week old.there were 5 eggs left over really pooyand cold so i took them out and cracked open 4 of them which were yolk but the last one was a baby . It felt cold but it looked like a baby that wouldve hatched any day.

I feel so guilty.

I dont know how could this be when that egg wouldve been sitting in the nest for over 5 weeks and still hadnt hatched.

I now wish i shouldve left it.

 

Ive also had something similar happen to my cockatiels when theyve left their eggs for weeks and then i removed them and their was a baby.

 

I feel so Bad!

Could the baby have died a while a go and it wasnt me that did it?

Hi,

If the eggs were in the nest for 5 weeks and hadn't hatched then they wouldn't have hatched anyway. It is possible that the hen had abandoned the eggs and it had died from being cold, or there was another reason that it had died in the egg.

Anyway if the egg was going to hatch it would have hatched before that, it usually takes about 18 to 20 days for an egg to hatch. I wouldn't blame yourself.

The eggs usually hatch about 2 or 3 days apart so it would have hatched by now if the others were that old. A good way to see if the eggs are fertile is to candle the eggs where you shine a light through the egg to see the chick, that's how i could tell which of my eggs would hatch. Do you candle your eggs?

 

Good luck with future chicks!

 

Megan

Thanks alot, That makes me feel a better.

I have only just read up on candeling which i will start doing from now on. Is there a certain torch/light i need to use.

Thanks

Brittany

If it was a live chick there would have been bleeding when you opened the egg. The chick would have been bright pink. If it had died the chick would have been cold and purple/blue and no bleeding.

Is there a certain torch/light i need to use.

A bright one that doesnt put out heat.

The babys head was pinkish not very though, no bleeding and its back was purple.

Thabks alot

you should use a small but bright led torch so it doesn't put out any heat on the egg. Go into a dark room and you will see a very clear image in the egg. In a couple of days you will see veins if the egg is fertile. When i was candling once i saw a spiderweb of veins and a tiny little beating heart, it was amazing! also look out for bacteria rings that will kill a chick in the egg.

The babys head was pinkish not very though, no bleeding and its back was purple.Thabks alot

It had died. You didnt kill it.

you should use a small but bright led torch so it doesn't put out any heat on the egg. Go into a dark room and you will see a very clear image in the egg. In a couple of days you will see veins if the egg is fertile. When i was candling once i saw a spiderweb of veins and a tiny little beating heart, it was amazing! also look out for bacteria rings that will kill a chick in the egg.

you do not need to handle eggs nor take them anywhere, even into a dark room. Candling eggs can be done in the nestbox without even touching them.

okay thanks alot for all your help.

Brittany

This is just one example of a candle egg... This was my first one, purchased off EBay for $10.00 and I had it for almost 10yrs...

 

cool thanks

By the sounds of it, the chick was killed by faecal bacteria. Once the first chick hatches you run the risk of it defacating on its fellow siblings' eggs while they are still growing and because egg shell is porous, bacteria from the poop can travel into the inner egg membrane and the developing chick dies from infection due to its undeveloped immune system. This risk increases with each additional chick that hatches as well as the growing size and amount of poop as each additional chick ages and eats more. The only way to avoid this is to put adequately absorbant nest material in the box, or to micro manage nests where nest material still fails to protect eggs and manually clean them 1-2x daily (usually i moisten caked on poop with a few drops of water, soak an ear bud/ Q-tip in water and gently 'roll' it on the poop to pick it up off the egg).

okay thanks for the advice, I didnt think that poo would be able to get into an egg.Thanks for the info and i will start doing that now,

Edited April 3, 201015 yr by KAZ