# Questions about eggs



## Korvia (Aug 3, 2012)

do they move in the egg all the time? and when do you know when to assist in hatching?


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## lilbear (Aug 2, 2012)

Does your egg have pip marks? and for how long/many?


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

Assist hatching should only be done after the baby has been trying to pip for over 24hrs. Any sooner and you risk killing the baby. The yolk and blood vessels have to be fully absorbed into the body as well or there can be complications. The babies will be moving quite a bit inside the egg. Any chirps you hear are correlating with the drawing in of the vessels/sac. 
http://justcockatiels.weebly.com/assist-hatches.html This article has a lot of helpful info.


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## Bird Junky (Jul 24, 2012)

Hi It's a tight fit in a shell so they won't move so you would notice.
They don't need assistance, it uses its egg tooth to chip a circle 
round the shell. This can take up to 24hrs, the chick takes lots 
of rests so you don't need to panic. The chick pushes off 
the cut section & crawls out the hen then eats the egg membrane.
If after 24 hrs the chick is still in the shell then some assistance
may be required. After breeding many hundreds of babies I have
never had to help a chick from its shell....B.J.


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

> It's a tight fit in a shell so they won't move so you would notice


I have always been able to see my chicks move in the egg, up til the day they hatch.

And out of the numerous babies that I have had hatch, I've had to assist two or three. One was because Daddy got too excited and tried to pull her out early. Its best just to keep an eye out in case.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

Making sure that the room has about 50% humidity at hatch time will reduce the risk of the baby getting stuck in the egg. When the humidity is low the membrane in the egg can dry out, making it impossible for the chick to turn properly in the egg. 

Excessive humidity can cause problems too so don't crank it up too high. About 50% is considered ideal, although my little ninja chicks kick their way out of the egg really fast (in 2-6 hours) at much lower levels than that.


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

> crawls out the hen then eats the egg membrane


I would also like to point out that this is incorrect. Tiel hens DO NOT eat the membrane out of the egg. They don't normally eat the egg shell either which is why once the baby hatches its best to remove the shell so it doesn't get wrapped around another egg and trap that baby in the egg.


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## Korvia (Aug 3, 2012)

at the moment, none are near hatching I think.
I can see movement in 1 out of 4.
The ones that look closer to hatching are the ones I see next to or no movement in.
There is also no pip marks yet, I was wondering about the assist just in case.


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## bjknight93 (Nov 13, 2011)

They could possibly be DIS (dead in shell).


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## Korvia (Aug 3, 2012)

bjknight93 said:


> They could possibly be DIS (dead in shell).


That's what I was afraid of.
I also have no idea how far along they are, since I got them with the parents and they had been sitting on them for a good while before I got them.


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## Korvia (Aug 3, 2012)

roxy culver said:


> Assist hatching should only be done after the baby has been trying to pip for over 24hrs. Any sooner and you risk killing the baby. The yolk and blood vessels have to be fully absorbed into the body as well or there can be complications. The babies will be moving quite a bit inside the egg. Any chirps you hear are correlating with the drawing in of the vessels/sac.
> http://justcockatiels.weebly.com/assist-hatches.html This article has a lot of helpful info.


Thanks,none of the eggs show pip marks yet, but I wanted the information just in case. I can only see movement in 1 out of 4 eggs


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

Are they red or brown when candled? Red means they're still viable. Brown means they're DIS. A DIS egg will have a distinct grey cast to it.


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## Korvia (Aug 3, 2012)

roxy culver said:


> Are they red or brown when candled? Red means they're still viable. Brown means they're DIS. A DIS egg will have a distinct grey cast to it.


they still look red but there is no movement,unless the veins are moving and I just can't see it. I was wondering because the one little guy moves so much when I candle him (easier to call it a he).


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

The closer they get to hatching, the less they move because they fill up the whole egg and there isn't a whole lot of wiggle room. How long have you had the eggs?


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## Korvia (Aug 3, 2012)

roxy culver said:


> The closer they get to hatching, the less they move because they fill up the whole egg and there isn't a whole lot of wiggle room. How long have you had the eggs?


Umm, little over a week. Mom and dad had abandoned them, because there was a fire in my building,quarantine also got broken for this reason.
I can see in the older ones the heads are up against the air sac and the air sac is tilted.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

A tilted air sac is called draw down, and it's a sign that the egg is getting ready to hatch. If the baby's head is against the air sac I think it's in the correct position for hatching. The first pip mark should be made at the lowest point of the air sac. It sounds like everything is going well!


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## Korvia (Aug 3, 2012)

tielfan said:


> A tilted air sac is called draw down, and it's a sign that the egg is getting ready to hatch. If the baby's head is against the air sac I think it's in the correct position for hatching. The first pip mark should be made at the lowest point of the air sac. It sounds like everything is going well!


I hope so, it's really all a guessing game on my end since I have no idea when they were laid. I was worried since I don't see much or no movement in the bigger guys.


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## Korvia (Aug 3, 2012)

This might help:
Baby 1: I see a lot of movement in there








baby 2: No movement (blurry sorry)








Baby 3:








Baby 4:


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## Korvia (Aug 3, 2012)

The last three had a rather dark grey cast to them,which I know means DIS.
So what we did is I toke them up to my mom's and as bad as it sounds we opened them to see how far along they were. They had feathers and heads were up against the air sac, helps us judge how far the last baby is. We named the three (Sarah,Steve and Bob jr) and buried them in my mom's back yard. My dad has breeder experience told me as well that they were dead.


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

Yep sounds like they were right there but the parents being scared off the nest messed them up. That last one looks like its still good though so fingers crossed! (I always open eggs that don't hatch to see what's going on inside.)


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## Korvia (Aug 3, 2012)

roxy culver said:


> Yep sounds like they were right there but the parents being scared off the nest messed them up. That last one looks like its still good though so fingers crossed! (I always open eggs that don't hatch to see what's going on inside.)


It was rather neat to see them. The kids were sad, but happy that we named them and buried them. They had a bunch of little feathers.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

I'm just guessing here, but I assume that unhatched chicks have quiet periods in the egg so you aren't necessarily going to see movement every time you look. The babies spend a lot of time sleeping after they hatch, and I can't think of a reason for it to be different while they're still inside the egg. An unborn human baby doesn't kick nonstop, the movement is sporadic.


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