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Egg Hatch After 21 Days!?

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The last egg in a clutch has been 21 days and no hatching, so today I took the egg out of the nest because I thought it was a "dead in shell" egg. I took a knife and made a hole in the egg, to see how far gone it was. And what a CHOCK, the pink thing inside was squeazing and moving :fear !!!! Very fast I put the egg back in the nest and I hope I did'nt hurt the baby and that the mother can help it out properly. She has been in the nest quite a while now.

 

Advice anyone? Have someone experienced this situation before?

 

//Maria

The first time i ever had eggs hatching they hatched after 21 days. It depends on when the hen starts incubating them. :fear

How big is the hole? It can take 24 hours to hatch.

I don't like to help hatch the chicks I did that to one of mine and he died :fear I found out later I damaged the cord becuase it hadn't removed from the side of the egg yet.

 

If your willing to do something I would just remove the egg from the head that way the hen could feed it and he can kick the rest off when ready. I can't say if that would work or not just an idea.

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Thank's for your answers!

 

I decided to become a midwife and help the little baby. I was afraid that it should be too weak to get out of the shell by itself. Very carefully I losened the shell, a very tiny and dried out cord was stuck to the shell so I put the baby with the shell back to the nest. And the baby is still alive several hours later and the crop is filled with food. What a survivour! :) I give you the links to the photos I took, they are blurry, but my hands was a bit shaky after this big moment!

http://wb476978.one.se/BILDER/FoMbebis510april.jpg

http://wb476978.one.se/BILDER/FoMbebis5.jpg

Oh My! How scary but exciting. I hope little one does well. Keep us posted!!

I think your going good. Just don't try to remove the shell it will come away by it self in time :)

fingers crossed and a good temporary name or permanent could be Miracle :)

fingers crossed and a good temporary name or permanent could be Miracle :)

 

I agree, and I'll be crossing my fingers for the little guy..or girl. :D

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fingers crossed and a good temporary name or permanent could be Miracle :)

 

Oh yes! Thank you :) a very suitable name! And thank you all for your crossed fingers, we'll need it!

 

The little one is still alive. "He" has a very strong voice and he is pushing his older siblings away when they are lying to hard on him. The crop was not so filled a moment ago :dbb1: I will check later. His mother is not the most "intelligent" of my budgie mothers ;) , I do not trust her completely, although she is doing very well. She is the single mother I wrote about in another topic.

 

I will keep you posted!

Awww bless him, I hope he continues to do well... love the photos

thats a fantastic heartwarming story hope everything goes okay for you

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Little Miracle took his last breath in my hand this morning :)

 

I found him lying in a corner in the nest. He was still moving a little, but after a while he was all still :angry: . Last evening he was all right, it looked like he had been fed, and he seemed so strong. But this morning his crop was empty, and it looked like there had been an internal bleeding in his tummy, maybe it was due to my too early removing of the shell that caused this :angry: And maybe he was'nt feed allright. I had a thought to move him to foster parents, but I hesitated because the babies in that nest are so much bigger. ... Many maybees ....

 

Since I'm a beginner in breeding, I have learned not to move eggs until they are really too old. I heard from another breeder that 23 days old eggs were hatching in her nest once.

 

Thank you all for your support!

Awww Maria, great big hugs to you.

You did the best you could for him and some things are just not meant to be.

I have heard from a breeder that he takes eggs away from some hens to give them a rest. He fosters them up to two weeks latter and they still hatch. Because they haven't started incubation the count starts from when they start to incubate them not when they were laid.

 

Yours could be late incubating.

 

I am sorry for your loss and hope that it has been a learning experience that you can use latter.

Aww Maria im so sorry to hear this, Big hugs to you. I had an hen killing her chicks more or less as soon as they hatched, and caring fo ronly her eldest two chicks so i took out some eggs and fostered them out, they are now lovely little birds.

It was a very sad thing you had to go through. You did the best you could under the circumstances.....all of us feel your pain. Cheers Karen :angel1:

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