Incubation progress of Muscovy eggs

[casportpony]

Just to be clear, the stain was not there the day before.

-Kathy

 

[Lacrystol]

None of them have made any progress, except for the one that I helped out, lol.

-Kathy

How about your safe hole guy??

 

[Lacrystol]

Here's the one I helped. Umbilicus is nice and clean! -Kathy

Awe he's adorable

 

[Lacrystol]

Funny I've never seen nor have any of my girls ever asked if they could weigh there eggs. I think I'll just keep learning from them and continuing to study what they do since they seem to have to down.. Lol

 

[AnimalQuackers]

Bob - Thank you for the kind explanations regarding humidity. It's VERY helpful!

Kathy - Continuing to keep my fingers crossed for you and your eggs!

Michelle

 

[casportpony]

None of them have made any progress, except for the one that I helped out, lol.

-Kathy

How about your safe hole guy??

One of the four that were pipped on the wrong side is out, two are resting in the bottom half of their shells and the other one was dead when I opened the shell. So out of 12, five are out so far, four are all resting in the bottom of their shells and three died late term, one due to infection.

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

Weighing is something I plan on doing for my next batch of Muscovies and for my 2014 pea eggs. My goal is to get 95% hatch rates and I think weighing them is probably the right thing for me to do.


-Kathy

 

[charlindabob]

Funny I've never seen nor have any of my girls ever asked if they could weigh there eggs. I think I'll just keep learning from them and continuing to study what they do since they seem to have to down.. Lol

You must do what works for you. What works for me may not work for you. Once you take the eggs away from the nest, YOU are assuming the role of Mother Nature and even if you were a chicken, mistakes happen. What I have posted are only suggestions and the way I do it, but then I'm not a chicken either.
Bob....

 

[yinepu]

Quote:
yes and no.. lol

they won't really gain more weight from a higher humidity .. they just lose it at much too slow of a rate..

so if the eggs are losing too much weight too fast (or if the air cells are enlarging at too fast of a rate) raising the humidity will slow that process down..
and if they aren't losing weight (or the air cells aren't enlarging fast enough) lowering the humidity will cause them to lose more weight

to determine proper humidity weigh or candle eggs prior to incubation.. then incubate dry for the first few days and monitor the eggs again to mark any changes.. if weight loss is off or air cell growth is off.. adjust the humidity as needed
then continue to monitor the eggs throughout incubation

as a note weight loss/air cell growth CAN vary from hatch to hatch.. depending on the location of the incubator in the home, relative humidity (rain, heaters being turned on and so on) and porosity of that particular batch of eggs... also fan placement in the incubator can cause more weight loss if the fan is blowing air directly onto the eggs (acting much like a dehydrator) or if the air flow is too hard.. which is why I say that people need to learn how THEIR incubator works in THEIR home for that particular batch of eggs.. since it can vary from home to home or even room to room in a particular home.. even from incubator to incubator in the same home especially if they are different brands of incubators with different vent/fan placement designs. The eggs should ALWAYS be your best indicator of the humidity required and not some text book recommendation since there are so many factors which can come into play.. so listen to what those eggs have to tell you!

most of the chicks/ducklings/goslings and so on die just before hatch because of several reasons...
the main ones:
humidity being too high or too low (being too low is usually not an issue since the relative humidity of the average home is high enough to keep that from happening.. which is why incubating dry and adjusting humidity as needed works best)
lack of proper air exchange ..carbon dioxide poisoning from the vents being closed or not enough vents or the incubator sitting in a "dead zone" where there isn't enough fresh air to allow for proper oxygen exchange
bacteria (improper sanitation)
mishandling/improper turning of eggs
improper fan placement causing issues with the chicks which are trying to hatch

the other causes which can also cause late death would be poor feeding of the parent flock, bad genetics or disease

 

[yinepu]

Funny I've never seen nor have any of my girls ever asked if they could weigh there eggs. I think I'll just keep learning from them and continuing to study what they do since they seem to have to down.. Lol

they also aren't artificially incubating their eggs.......