2014 breeding season begins, post your results

[Birdrain92]

Well today is day 20. Yesterday I was freaking out because the chick was pecking a lot at the egg from what I could hear. Today I hear some pecking but not as much as last night and not as loud. I hope it won't tire itself out pecking this early. Sunday or Monday it will go into lockdown but last night candling showed it is still too early for lockdown so I don't know why it keeps pecking. I am happy to know that it is alive but don't want it to tire itself out too soon.

I'm in the same boat but inverse. I got an egg that looks like it will hatch today but it's not and then the other eggs first seems normal and the third is weird. The dark part of the egg gets bigger each time I candle but I don't know if I see veins or not that dark area has thin stray spots really hard to see but I'm not entirely sure if it's vein

 

[frenchblackcopper]

Minx,if you hold the egg longways and shine an led flashlite on the air sack end,with the lite at about 1-2o'clock pointing towards the airsack that is more indented at the top you can see the beak of the peachick rubbing against the airsack,or if it's broken thru the airsack. They seem very active with a brite lite. If the beak is thru the airsack make a notation of the time. There is enough air in the egg for the peachick for about 24 hours. If it still hasn't pipped in 24 hrs,it's time to intervene and poke a small hole thru the shell directly in the center of the large end, so at least if it's a weak chick,it won't suffocate while getting it's strength back.

What we are doing by housing-rearing and then hatching peafowl eggs inside a heated box is no way natural so I see it as a necessary deed to do,,if the chick needs help, we should help it as much as needed. Hatch days are Celebrations of Life and if the little buggers makes it this far and needs some assistance to make it out and into the world of the living,who is to say it is bad to intervene and lend some much needed assistance??

 

[MinxFox]

We were just using an LED flashlight held to a toilet paper roll to see if we could see a difference. I can see the air sack but I don't know if I was looking at it right. I will have my mom help me look at it again.

I will help it out if it eventually needs help. I wouldn't leave it to die or want to, but I just hate helping them out because it makes everything extra stressful and just seeing a tiny bit of blood when helping them out just makes my heart sink even though I have never had one die after helping it.

I really hope it isn't wanting to hatch this soon. I want it out of the egg but not this soon haha but if it is ready it is ready I just hope it is healthy and stuff... The egg isn't really rocking though. I thought they rock a lot when they are trying to hatch?

 

[Birdrain92]

They usually rock they egg chirp and peck a hole in the egg.

 

[PeepsCA]

Quote: Here ya go Zaz.... I am really horrible at taking candling pics (can't figure out the correct settings on my camera, then hold the light and the egg and snap pics all at the same time, lol) but here are 3 of my eggs that are now on day 13 of incubation, as of about 10PM PST tonight. These are from my own Hens (but I think all 3 are from the same Hen), and the embryos were all 3 very much alive and moving, I had to keep turning the egg to try to catch the embryos in the pics.






And just in case anyone needs this pic for comparison here is an egg that is on day 22 of incubation (not much to see tho, lol). It was also alive and moving, but it was not as active as the 13 day old embryos.

 

[Peacockvilla13]

Zazouse One of my young peahens layed an egg out in the open and my husband put her back in the coop with the egg but she lost interest , I have a fridge incubator my husband made for me and it's working just fine , but i am not sure what to do on day 23 or 24 when they say you have to put them in the hatcher ?? Where ?? Do you make a separate hatcher ? And what is the right temperature and humidity for hatching ? Cause my bators humidity wont go up more than 68 -70 and some say the hatcher's humidity got to be at 80 , And do they get enough oxygen in the bator of do we have to drill some holes ?sorry for my ignorance but im new at all this incubating and hatching process lol .thanks in advance for the info

 

[Birdrain92]

I don't know how much my humidity is in my and I have at least 2 eggs ready to hatch soon that are peafowl. Usually between 98 and 102 degrees is safe. I have all of my eggs in the same incubator so I wouldn't worry about needing a separate one. You need so type of way for air flow I have air holes in my incubator so just drill a few. Just think what a hen would do in nature. Or at least that s what I do.

 

[zazouse]

I have an incubator i use just for hatching and a few i use just for incubation but many folks here just use their incubator for a hatcher.
i maintain a humidity of 70% but have had them start hatching in the egg trays in the incubator with a humidity of 55 so i think as long as you keep it at 55 and up and not open the bator while hatching you will be fine.

 

[casportpony]

Zazouse One of my young peahens layed an egg out in the open and my husband put her back in the coop with the egg but she lost interest , I have a fridge incubator my husband made for me and it's working just fine , but i am not sure what to do on day 23 or 24 when they say you have to put them in the hatcher ?? Where ?? Do you make a separate hatcher ? And what is the right temperature and humidity for hatching ? Cause my bators humidity wont go up more than 68 -70 and some say the hatcher's humidity got to be at 80 , And do they get enough oxygen in the bator of do we have to drill some holes ?sorry for my ignorance but im new at all this incubating and hatching process lol .thanks in advance for the info

You might want to read this:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-101

-Kathy

 

[Hens and Roos]

So our peahen who is sitting on eggs only has 5 under her now, when I went out to feed this am- 2 of the eggs were rolled at least 5-6 feet away from the nest- I candled and put them in the incubator- 1 looks to have red veins, the other not much of anything but we 'll see what happens. I have noticed that our peacock pesters her a lot and even though her nest is tucked into the back corner, he ends up chasing her off because there isn't enough room for him to pass by- does anyone else have this problem? She does go right back to the nest.