Dottie dug a nest and laid two eggs on June 7, 2005. I didn't know how many eggs she deposited until I dug up the nest a few weeks later.

Fast forward to August 13, and I'm looking at these two eggs in the incubator and worrying.
Its been much longer than the average 58 days it took the eggs to hatch last year and I'd had two ornate eggs that had failed to hatch a couple of years ago. They didn't look bad until several weeks after their due date, they just didn't hatch. When I cut them open later I found what appeared to be fully formed skeletons of the would be hatchlings. So I was starting to wonder if this might be a repeat of two years ago, although I knew the incubator was a few degrees cooler this year.

So, Sunday night, August 14th, I felt some relief when I saw fluid oozing out of a spot on the top of the egg, near one end, usually a sign that hatching has commenced. When I checked the egg on Monday morning there was no change except that the fluid was still oozing out. Monday afternoon, STILL no change except that those little mites, the ones that inexplicably seem to appear when an egg goes bad in an incubator(I had just removed two bad eggs), were congregating on the fluid.
I wiped the fluid and the bugs away.

Monday night the second egg has a small crack in it. Tuesday morning, bugs were on the openings of both eggs and the first egg hadn't made any progress. The opening wasn't any larger.
Since I had never had these bugs attack hatching eggs before, I decided to remove them from the incubator and put them on wet paper towels in a plastic container, something I usually do later in the hatching process. I'm worried that the first egg hasn't progressed much so I take a toothpick to slightly increase the opening. As I do this, I can tell something isn't quite right with the egg, there seems to be tissue, or a membrane lining the inside of the egg shell, something that usually isn't there and there seems to be something covering the baby, and I can see a tiny blood vessel, so Ieave the egg alone and hope that I haven't screwed things up. There is a little flap of eggshell open on the second egg and there is no membrane, everything looks like it should, and I can see a little foreleg moving.

When I moved the eggs Monday morning, I felt the baby move in the first egg, so I knew it was alive at that time, but by Monday night, there was still no more progress hatching.

Tuesday morning, still no progress and the eggshell has started caving in around the opening. I'm worried that the baby is dead. The opening in the egg has a dry, nasty look to it.

Misting the egg causes the egg to look not so caved in and I see the baby move through the very small opening. I'm relieved that it is alive but worried about the membrane and blood vessel I'm still seeing.

Meanwhile, baby # 2 has his head out of the egg, and I've trimmed the egg shell so it doesn't close up around his neck and head as it dries.

Wednesday morning, I see another opening at the opposite end of the egg from the first opening, more like where it should be, but my heart sinks when I see that pink tinged fluid has soaked the paper towel around the opening, indicating blood, which is not supposed to be there.

I've heard of eggs opening prematurely, when the inside of the eggshell is lined with blood vessels and the baby dies because it bleeds to death. This doesn't seem to be very much blood, considering it is diluted by the other fluid, but I am still worried. The new opening is big enough that I can recognize a front leg inside, I see it move, so there is still hope.

Wednesday night, baby #1 is trying to poke his head through the opening so I cut a slightly larger window with some fingernail scissors. Baby #2 is about to fall out of his eggshell.

Baby #2 starts trying to crawl out of his eggshell, so I pick him up.

He still has a pretty big yolk sack, so he'll need a "yolk sack" pillow. Not unlike a "pregnancy" pillow.

As of friday night, baby #1 is hanging in there and has opened up a little more of his eggshell. He just might make it!