Late Feburary-Early March 2016 Hatch-A-Long!

[caesargirl]

So here's a candling from my store bought eggs last year. This egg turned into LouLou my house duck.

 

[Gone-Quackers]

Tomorrow night 10 Indian runner eggs go into lockdown! They'll be taken off the turner, have the temperature dropped a bit, and have humidity raised. I'm so excited! Last night I stood by the incubator listening. . . can you tell I'm waiting for the first peep?

 

[Gone-Quackers]

So here's a candling from my store bought eggs last year. This egg turned into LouLou my house duck.

You hatched store-bought eating eggs?

 

[Purpletie3]

So one of my chicks has pipped! I noticed a pip at around noon, by 3 most of its beak was out and I could hear it chirping. It looks like it's getting shrink wrapped though. The humidity has been around 75% though and the temp around 97.9. I'm not sure what to do about it get shrink wrapped. Any suggestions?

Give it some time...it's only been 5 hours. I killed my first hatch because I was worried about a stuck chick...lost the humidity in the incubator and lost my hatch assisting it. How were your other eggs going into lockdown? Viable?

 

[sharonmc2002]

This is from Sally's hatching 101 article. Are you close to this?

Mine looks more like 18 and its only day 10

 

[NTBugtraq]

So one of my chicks has pipped! I noticed a pip at around noon, by 3 most of its beak was out and I could hear it chirping. It looks like it's getting shrink wrapped though. The humidity has been around 75% though and the temp around 97.9. I'm not sure what to do about it get shrink wrapped. Any suggestions?

Do not open your incubator for at least 24 hours after a pip. If they are getting shrink wrapped, its because the bator is being opened. Even after 24 hours, my suggestion would be to not touch the egg or incubator for another 24 hours, unless, you have chicks wandering around inside the bator completely dry. Then, every 6 hours, remove the complete dry chicks as quickly as you can and close the bator again.

 

[caesargirl]

You hatched store-bought eating eggs?

Yup. After reading the trader joes thread here, I bought some duck eggs from a local mom n pop store. They were from a local farm that I knew had drakes. 4 out of 6 made it to hatch. One had a LOT of trouble hatching. So she was never released to the flock. I ended up finding out they are saxony crosses. LouLou was a silver saxony. I'm going to do it again this year and hope I don't end up with all drakes, again.

 

[becca777]

I put a wet paper towel around it and left room for its beak for now. The humidity is at 75 right now. 6 out of the 7 chicks looked really good going into lockdown. One was iffy, it wasn't really moving when I candled it and the air cell hadn't grown since day 14 so I'm not confident in that one. But all the others were great, air cells looked perfect for day 18 and all looked lively and feisty. Today is day 20 btw.

 

[Purpletie3]

Mine looks more like 18 and its only day 10

Start increasing your humidity by 5% and see if that helps. You want to do it in increments.

Do not open your incubator for at least 24 hours after a pip. If they are getting shrink wrapped, its because the bator is being opened. Even after 24 hours, my suggestion would be to not touch the egg or incubator for another 24 hours, unless, you have chicks wandering around inside the bator completely dry. Then, every 6 hours, remove the complete dry chicks as quickly as you can and close the bator again.

x2 on that. (I don't open my incubator until the hatch is over and I am ok with the rest of the ones in there dying.)

 

[gimmie birdies]

When a chick pips, it still has an egg full of yolk and is not ready to come out for at least 24 hrs.

(If I could say anything to a person new to hatching ...that'd be it.)