I've never cut eggs open on their due date. (That seems to be a common practice with balls.) I prefer to wait until they pip and then cut a larger window. If the hatchling doesn't pip on it's own, I wait for about a week. Well, this was the last egg, bottom of the cluster, and a week late. It looked good right up to the time the rest of the clutch pipped and hatched out. This a.m. I picked it up and felt a hard spot on the bottom. I knew then that this one was dead.
If you haven't had this experience, I think it's only a matter of time. It seems that the longer we breed, the greater our knowledge and success, but also the greater our exposure to the odds. The odds catch up and sooner or later, you experience something like this.


