Chick hatched "Outside" the shell!!!!!

Post by **WLLady** » Sun Jun 05, 2016 8:58 pm

alright.....here goes. earlier today i took 3 eggs, washed them off with ethanol. got an el cheapo plastic wine glass, got my surgical drape of paper towel set up and the all important mug of caffeine, and my fine tweezers and everything.....

then took egg 1 and chipped it open, broke it into the el cheapo wine glass and .....well....um.....hm....not fertilized.

so...took egg number two, dumped egg number 1, broke egg number 2 and viola! looking better (still not a really good clean bullseye, but we'll see)

covered that with film, punched a few tiny holes in the top for air exchange and put it into the incubator.

Then, took egg number 3 and chipped a hole carefully in the top, dissected out the membrane and shell and cursed the rooster....okay, he's 7 years old, and probably shooting blanks if he can even figure out what to do anymore.....the ovum is at almost 12 oclock right close to the egg shell

threw that one out.....
and went a got one of my black tailed buff marans eggs (i KNOW that boy is doing his job!) and chipped a hole carefully in the top

then dissected out the membrane (very carefully)

and then found yes, it's fertilized (embryo is at 4 oclock near the edge of the shell)
covered it very carefully with film

and placed it very gently into the incubator beside the wine glass.

we shall see what happens!!!!!

redninja · Post by **redninja** » Sun Jun 05, 2016 9:53 pm

This is very cool! Look forward to following along.

Post by **WLLady** » Mon Jun 06, 2016 7:28 pm

So lesson number 1...film does not survive warm plastic with sharp edges. Both embryos are developing. The one in plastic is much slower and less robust...

Post by **Home Grown Poultry** » Mon Jun 06, 2016 7:56 pm

right on Kathy!

windwalkingwolf · Post by **windwalkingwolf** » Mon Jun 06, 2016 11:17 pm

So cool! Thanks for providing us this window into embryo development!!

Poultryprincess · Post by **Poultryprincess** » Tue Jun 07, 2016 9:35 pm

OMGAWD WLLady....this is SO Freakin' EXCITING!!!!!
Thank you for this ~ I never heard of such a thing, I can't wait to see what happens (*o*)

Post by **WLLady** » Tue Jun 07, 2016 10:06 pm

Well the one in the glass dried out like i thought it would...so i did another today...with better film covering it. This is the one in shell. The embryo is just visible at 11 oclock and the clearer circle with the white stripe is the forming tail bud.

Post by **WLLady** » Sat Jun 11, 2016 5:10 pm

Okay. One glass dried out. The egg gave up today...the embryo never surrounded the yolk but instead tried to envelop the film. Not good. But the second glass i started is looking good. Day 4 i think. Blood islands are visible and the trophoblast is migrating to surround the yolk. Thats the whitish stuff around the yolk. 2 photos one is earlier where you can see the edges of the cells migrating around the yolk.
Earlier pic:

Today:

the embryo will form inside that red circle of forming blood islands

kenya · Post by **kenya** » Sat Jun 11, 2016 5:26 pm

Oh nice!

windwalkingwolf · Post by **windwalkingwolf** » Sun Jun 12, 2016 1:04 am

Is that what they look like when they're cracked open at that stage? Gross and cool at the same time!