11th Annual Easter Hatch a Long 2020

[Mylied]

Well it's very clear I screwed up immensely this hatch. Out of 17 developed duck eggs, 4 are still alive, 3 with major intervention. They are working on absorbing their yolks and I'm hoping I can get them out alive. Most of the dead were properly positioned but never internally pipped. What could have caused that?

 

[ronott1]

What do you recommend re a good hygrometer?

I use one from the incubator warehouse. They have good ones that are not too expensive there

 

[ronott1]

Well it's very clear I screwed up immensely this hatch. Out of 17 developed duck eggs, 4 are still alive, 3 with major intervention. They are working on absorbing their yolks and I'm hoping I can get them out alive. Most of the dead were properly positioned but never internally pipped. What could have caused that?

The number one cause is the temperature being too low on average during incubation. It could also have been too high but those are different symptoms.

The temp needs to be 99.5 plus or minus half a degree farenheit. 99 to 100F is best.

That requires calibrating the incubator

 

[ronott1]

What is snow? I can look far into the distance and see some at the top of the Sierras....

So, out if the 12 Cream Crested Legbar eggs that I set, all of them were fertile and made it to lockdown. Unfortunately, 3 of the chicks never internally pipped, and they died. One externally pipped and then it died. So my total for this hatch was 8/12. 5 of them are females and 3 are males. They are absolutely adorable! They are going to their new homes tomorrow.
View attachment 2089657View attachment 2089658View attachment 2089659

Very nice pictures!

First one is out! Pita Pinta! View attachment 2089746

Nice! You will love Pita Pintas

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

I noticed something interesting today on my ducklings. The 4 Khaki colored ones appear to possibly be sex linked. I'm messaging to seller to see if this is a possibility. Basically I took a stab last night at vent sexing them after watching the Metzer farm video. I guessed 4 males 3 females. Banded the "males".

Today we took them outside for the first time. In broad daylight I noticed a very subtle difference between the 4 brown ducklings' coloring. Two have darker feet. Two have chocolate feet. This causes me to examine them closer. There are also slight differences in down and bill color. Sure enough the two I'd tagged as male are the black based chicks. The two "female" were the chocolate based ones. Let me know what you think from the pictures.

The pic of the feet was the best one I could get of the black vs brown base.

I already ready this on a gift thread "There are numerous potential sex-linked matings that can be done, basically any drake that carries Brown or Buff on any hen that is Black or Grey (Mallard)."

 

[Redhead Rae]

Lonely chick now has a name. Robin (Robinson Crusoe).

My mom came over to take my toddler for a couple hours (they live next door and we are acting as one household for the duration of the stay home) and she said the chick was sounding rather distressed out in the brooder on the porch. It is cold and wet and it has been getting colder all day long. Poor baby had cold toes even with the heater plate. So I brought Robin inside, wrapped it up in a paper towel and reaffirmed my crazy chicken lady status by having a boob chick. Since it is getting close to freezing tonight and the guineas have pipped internally, I decided to move Robin back to the incubator (with feed and water). I think that helped. Poor little
thing.

 

[ANightPerson]

I candled them for the last time before hatch. I haven't candled since about a week ago, so I've got six quitters. The other six have all pipped internally and should be out tomorrow!

 

[Missy020219]

Day 18, just took the 30 eggs out of the turner and candled them all. One was pushing on the air cell. We'll see how long it takes till I see some babies. Incubating eggs sure tests your patients

 

[juliasflock]

I can say with confidence that this will be my last hatch ever out of my current incubator. There is absolutely no reason I should have had a glued chick. Humidity is perfect, wouldn’t dare open the top. Ugh. Luckily everyone else, so I thought (story below) was hatched. Glued baby is out, no idea how long it was like that. Was not pipped last night, but glued this morning.

I thought my sweet little Viva, the one with the nail polish crack didn’t make it, I was going to candle for movement, picked up the egg and got a very loud peep! She pipped on the side towards the floor, right on her nail polish crack! I helped her about half way, and put her back to finish herself.

I had 1 egg pip in the middle of the shell last night. I wish I would have checked on it in the middle of the night, although there probably wasn’t anything I could have done to know. It was DIS this morning. It suffocated while trying to zip. It was malpositioned upside down. I’ve never had this happen, and it’s so sad to find.The other egg that didn’t make it died sometime early lockdown.

On a happy note, I have 6 little chicks from 10 shipped eggs, and 1 was cracked! Can’t wait till they’re all fluffed up!!

 

[TJChickens]

I can say with confidence that this will be my last hatch ever out of my current incubator. There is absolutely no reason I should have had a glued chick. Humidity is perfect, wouldn’t dare open the top. Ugh. Luckily everyone else, so I thought (story below) was hatched. Glued baby is out, no idea how long it was like that. Was not pipped last night, but glued this morning.

I thought my sweet little Viva, the one with the nail polish crack didn’t make it, I was going to candle for movement, picked up the egg and got a very loud peep! She pipped on the side towards the floor, right on her nail polish crack! I helped her about half way, and put her back to finish herself.

I had 1 egg pip in the middle of the shell last night. I wish I would have checked on it in the middle of the night, although there probably wasn’t anything I could have done to know. It was DIS this morning. It suffocated while trying to zip. It was malpositioned upside down. I’ve never had this happen, and it’s so sad to find.The other egg that didn’t make it died sometime early lockdown.

On a happy note, I have 6 little chicks from 10 shipped eggs, and 1 was cracked! Can’t wait till they’re all fluffed up!!View attachment 2090597

Actually not a bad hatch for shipped eggs. What kind are they?