Anyone going to have eggs hatch in novemeber?

are their veins dried up? If the veins are dried up then they may be stuck. The fluid inside the shell starts to turn sticky by this late in the game. If the veins are dry you can moisten the membranes and peel a little bit back bit by bit to help them out. Just be aware this is where it can get heart breaking or joyous. If you are wrong about the blood when you peel you'll tear a vein and mostly game over. They also may not have absorbed egg yolk which makes it hard too. However by this late in the cycle I'd start to worry about them exhausting their food supply and dying from lack of energy and water.

I had to bust out 4 last night/ this morning. I also had to go to work so I don't know if they all will make it 2 looked very lethargic. My hubby who hasn't done this tried to help and the one he worked on he nicked a vein and it died. But they are on day 25 and due to lots of errors on my part would have died in shell without help.

Things I learned/relearned in this. I had read it didn't matter if you went into lockdown up to 5 days early. Well I tried it and well I'm calling that a bust. I will never go to lockdown early again. I had too many pipping the side of the shell right in the middle. I had a temp spike the first day of lockdown because I hadn't had my hatcher up and running 24 in advance and thought it was stable but it wasn't and I fiddled with the knob. Then after panic over high temp I lowered it a little and it was too low but for hatching that is usually ok but I think it slowed their development which made for the late hatching. when they are in the hatcher longer even though the humidity is 60% they still lose some moisture which means by day 25 they are shrunk in there even if they have good humidity. Never get cocky ( I relearned that. ) I had several 100% hatches in a row with very little help. This batch I think 16 went in and I lost 3 and had to over help 4. So it wasn't a totally bad hatch but nerve wracking and stupid on my part all the way around. I may have to adjust my losses when I get home. They were all out of the shell when I left but I'm not sure they are going to make it. I did gain some new experience though unwanted. I learned to internally pip as I had some that were trying to breath under the membrane but due to being oriented in the wrong way couldn't seem to get enough pressure to break the membrane, I blame
that on lockdown early and not being oriented to the big end.

ETA: for those curious, I lost 2 that I didn't open the shell early enough to help (dead when opened) 1 that I nicked the vein. 6 helped. 2 just moistened membrane and 4 way too much help but alive.
 
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It came!! My incubator came today!! So excited!!! It's gonna be hard to wait for my eggs to get here... I'll set it up and test run it so I know how to keep the temp and humidity where I want it... Plenty of time to play...
wee.gif
 
i agree with kizanne.... i had 34 call duck eggs in the bator. day 26 came and went. i was told they could take up to 3 days to hatch after the due date and NOT to help them. so i candled and waited on day 29 i re-candled, didnt see any movement like i did earlier. i opened them up (outside of course and there was more than 12 that had internally pipped but couldnt finish hatching out. the membrane had that "sticky" goo which kinda stuck the ducks fast. they died by me NOT helping.

call ducks are notorious for being hard to hatch (especially the show quality ones) ..... so i've read. their short necks, rounded heads and small bills makes it hard for them to externally pip. i was able to help 1 from this sticky goo and it did hatch, but it still needs time to recover (eyes matted shut).

if your eggs are over due and you see movement, at least make a little hole in the membrane to let in some fresh air..... take it from me (a fella who lost about 30 call ducks due to NOT helping). sometimes the risk of helping is worth it.....

don
 
Yay. Checked under my broody this afternoon to see any if someone poked through and have one egg in half and no chick. It is hiding in momma's fluff somewhere. I didn't want to move her to see it since she still has another egg to hatch, hopefully tomorrow(I hope it didn't give up) The inside of the half egg shell are clean, no blood so I know it was a good hatch.
 
Yay. Checked under my broody this afternoon to see any if someone poked through and have one egg in half and no chick. It is hiding in momma's fluff somewhere. I didn't want to move her to see it since she still has another egg to hatch, hopefully tomorrow(I hope it didn't give up) The inside of the half egg shell are clean, no blood so I know it was a good hatch.
YAY! Come n chic number 2
 

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