My last duck egg- will it hatch?! - Page 3

DISCLAIMER: There will be people who disagree with me on this who raise MANY chicks at a time, but when every chick counts I use all means possible for successful hatch & survival.

Ok...your last 2 chicks may or may not be alive at this point. The point of pipping the egg is to check for life. You only need to make the pip hole big enuf to see the membrane at 1st. If it's nice & white with a few veins faintly visible & moves on it's own, baby is ALIVE!!! If is is brown, yellow or clear & veins look brown with no movement, baby is DEAD.

If baby appears to be dead, proceed slowly with eggtopsie & watch for signs of life (movement & fresh blood). Slowly remove small bits of shell at a time to expose beak & head. If you find signs of life STOP, dampen membrane that is exposed with warm water & return egg to bator to watch for progress. If no progress in another 8-12 hours & baby is still moving try locating tip of beak & slitting membrane over beak to allow baby to breathe. A safety pin works well for this. If you get fresh blood STOP, dampen membrane again & wait another 4-8 hours to try again. Many times baby will free itself once you free it's beak & at least part of it's head & be fine. Other times, baby will die in shell. This means it was too weak to make it. If membrane begins to dry or stick to chick dampen it with warm water & work it down over chick's body from tip of beak down until chick is able to free itself. Make sure all yolk is absorbed before pulling chick entirely from shell. If yolk is still present, moisten membrane as needed & return baby to bator to wait for yolk to absorb.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sparkypatriot15 

Where do I make the pipping hole? On the air sac, or in the body of the egg?

In the air sac as close to the end of the egg as possible. You can candle before poking the hole to make sure of where the air sac is.

We're so alike it's creepy O__O I love drawing and animals too ^.^ The names Steven. Did you pip the eggies ?! I'm headed to whole foods in a bit. If they were REALLY warm then some of the embryos could have started already when you had them. If they weren't kept consistent then... Dead embryo. And you're supposed to leave them to get room temperature a minimum of 12 hours - some people do 24. I thought it wasn't that important when I started . I guess it is .... FOR YOUR PARENTS. Ask them if you can keep the pullet if you have one. So maybe they'll like the eggs. And if it's sweet... maybe a house chicken ! 

Make a business out of the eggs ! When they start laying, don't tell your parents, then sell the eggs to some neighbors - I've seen people sell eggs on craigslist ! Then after you get a decent amount of money, you can propose an idea. 'Hey mom, I made such and such off of these eggs." Maybe they'll like the idea of a little business. Or tell them before they lay, since they'll probably see you selling the eggs to a neighbor or if the neighbor comes down to thank you.