Thread formerly known as Hatch day is today

[qwackers]

Good luck to you too Nebraskagirl! Have yours pipped internally yet? What are you hatching by the way, I'm sure you said somewhere, was it welsh harlequins?
I've heard that too about the cooling thing Pedrazzi and I don't quite understand it either, be interested to learn it's uses! Yeh I've learnt so much through this whole thing and still learning. Sometimes I'm trying to explain something to my bf and he just looks at me blankly! He says they are all 'my' ducks as I'm the only one who understands the whole process. But I say they are 'our' ducks when they need a poop patrol hahaaa.

 

[Marty1876]

Oh my gosh all these hatchings are so exciting!

Question: Metzer's printed out a copy of their guide to incubating for me when I picked up the eggs, and it says after day 7, you can lightly spray the eggs with room temp water, leave the lid off for a couple of minutes then continue as normal. I've heard about the spraying before but I just wanted to know if anyone does it, the benefits of it, is it worth the risk of cooling them down etc etc. Can you please let me know if you do it, and why?

Thanks! Can't believe how much I've learned in the last 2 weeks researching all this!

I absolutely ALWAYS DO THIS ALWAYS! I also, with goose eggs, set them out to cool for 15-30 minutes every evening. You should read Petes hatching guide, it is also excellent. I spray my duck and goose eggs 2x a day. I just keep a sprayer right there, and give everyone a nice even misting. In a hovabator full, that's about 6 or 7 sprays on fine mist.

 

[qwackers]

I've read Pete's hatching thread but I got abit lost at the cooling bit. What is the benefit of cooling them? I get the spraying bit, as its good for humidity levels and to soften the shell and stop them shrink wrapping. But yeah don't get the cooling.

 

[Pyxis]

Just thought I'd share a quick photo of my assistant who volunteered to test the coop I'm building. You know, between chewing on my hair and begging to be picked up.

 

[carcar80]

12 days left til my next eight should hatch. All eight are looking fantastic!! And all look the exact same stage of development- whew! (with the power outage last incubation I ended up hatching from Fri til Monday, lol. Talk about nerve wracking!)

 

[qwackers]

Aww pyxis, that's a cute duckling!

Carcar good luck with your hatch. Reading your post made me wonder if that's why mine are taking longer. I had a power outage about a week ago, don't know if you remember.

 

[RiverGoddess]

RG - post a pic of a white african dewlap baby, would you? I've got my buffs and africans all in the bators toagather, so I want to know what they look like, to assist in sorting out youngsters here in a while.

Will do!

I am excited about them

Just thought I'd share a quick photo of my assistant who volunteered to test the coop I'm building. You know, between chewing on my hair and begging to be picked up.

LUV it ! Thx for sharing

 

[Nebraskagirl]

Good luck to you too Nebraskagirl! Have yours pipped internally yet? What are you hatching by the way, I'm sure you said somewhere, was it welsh harlequins?
I've heard that too about the cooling thing Pedrazzi and I don't quite understand it either, be interested to learn it's uses! Yeh I've learnt so much through this whole thing and still learning. Sometimes I'm trying to explain something to my bf and he just looks at me blankly! He says they are all 'my' ducks as I'm the only one who understands the whole process. But I say they are 'our' ducks when they need a poop patrol hahaaa.

I am hatching two Welsh Harlequins (hopefully GIRLS!) I have no idea if they have pipped internally. I really don't know for sure what to look for. I am really scared to even open the incubator at this point with it being lockdown. I thought you were not supposed to open it once it hit lockdown because of dropping humidity. The incubator quit turning the eggs yesterday so we are T-minus two days and go for hatch! How about you? How are yours doing?

 

[Nebraskagirl]

Just thought I'd share a quick photo of my assistant who volunteered to test the coop I'm building. You know, between chewing on my hair and begging to be picked up.

I LOVE it!!! I really giggled when I saw the little pile of poo by her foot....he he he. So cute!

 

[Evelle]

Trying something... Did it work?