I have a clutch of 8 eggs that is on day 52 right now, that was showing NO signs of hatching whatsoever. No dimpling, no condensation. All had good veins still. Temps very steady at 89°. The clutch had gotten a little dry in the first couple days of incubation, so the top two eggs had dented a bit. Humidity was brought back up and i had no further issues. One egg (different from the dry ones) went bad the first week. With the exception of the two on the top of the pile that had gotten dry at the start, all eggs were very plump and full at day 52, almost to the point of feeling too full, if you know what i mean. Now i wonder if they had absorbed TOO MUCH moisture trying to recover from being too dry?
Anyway, i cut them tonight because i was no longer seeing movement in the "plump" eggs upon candling, and was concerned about the effect of too high a moisture content on the babies. I wasnt sure if their bodies could swell and absorb too much water before hatching like chicks could. All eight babies look full term and healthy, and are alive and well. But there does seem to be an excessive amount of fluid around the babies. It was almost pressurized coming out of a couple when punctured! I was surprised to see normal sized babies in some of these MASSIVE eggs, just surrounded by a LOT of fluid! Mother was over 3500g before laying, and instead of a huge clutch she gave me a 9 egg clutch of mostly huge eggs, so i was expecting monster babies, lol.
I think i stopped seeing movement in the eggs simply because the baby to liquid ratio was off. I was wondering if anyone else had experienced this and had any thoughts to add. Just wanted to share because i thought it was odd. Not sure if this was a chance happening, a result of large eggs, or related to humidity errors. Btw i normally cut all eggs after the first pip, or on day 60.