April 2020 Hatch-A-Long! All are welcome!

[UThobbyfarmer]

Well, 3 of my cayuga eggs have externally pipped I definitely thought it would take longer, it's only Tuesday and they are due on Friday! How long for ducks from external pip to zip? Of course, one is in the wrong end.

How are your ducks doing, @FortCluck? I think we set ducks on the same day!
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I'll have to keep an eye on your hatch closely. I have duck eggs on day 22. They should hatch Monday but I candle them regularly and can't help but feel like they're farther along. Maybe my incubator is running hot? Who knows.

In your last pic it looks like might be a wrong end pipper? Or is it just the camera angle?

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

I was weak. I pulled it out and helped it. The membrane where it pipped had turned brown and crackly. It was stuck on its head and neck but the beaks was visible. I wrapped it in a very warm washcloth then took tweezers to the other side of the shell to expose moist membrane then I had to pull off the majority of the shell then it finally pushed itself free. Now it's back in the incubator to warm up and dry off. Its holding its head weird like it's still trapped in the egg.

That's great! It was ready to hatch. Best case scenario for an assisted hatch.

 

[gmjarvi]

How young is too young to be broody?
This gal has been flirting with the idea, and is definitely not gentle about it like my silkie was. She keeps switching boxes, though. Defitinely poofy, screaming, pancake on the eggs...all that good stuff. I cant even collect eggs from other boxes without her screeching at me . But she doesnt even lay a full sized egg yet. And of course, she's laying on all pullet eggs, too . She does have two ceramic eggs, so if she stays on I may just swap out her eggs for some of the ones I'm supposed to receive next week from MH.

 

[gmjarvi]

I'll have to keep an eye on your hatch closely. I have duck eggs on day 22. They should hatch Monday but I candle them regularly and can't help but feel like they're farther along. Maybe my incubator is running hot? Who knows.

In your last pic it looks like might be a wrong end pipper? Or is it just the camera angle?

It's definitely a wrong end pip! I'll be watching it closely.

 

[2102Simm]

This is Fanny, my shrink wrapped baby. Why is it doing this now? Sorry the pics aren't great I'm not opening the incubator anymore since it decided to take a large dip in humidity which I think caused the shrink wrapping.

 

[gmjarvi]

This is Fanny, my shrink wrapped baby. Why is it doing this now? Sorry the pics aren't great I'm not opening the incubator anymore since it decided to take a large dip in humidity which I think caused the shrink wrapping.View attachment 2078939View attachment 2078941

Sweet baby, I hope it makes it! I've never had a shrinkwrapprd chick.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

This is Fanny, my shrink wrapped baby. Why is it doing this now? Sorry the pics aren't great I'm not opening the incubator anymore since it decided to take a large dip in humidity which I think caused the shrink wrapping.View attachment 2078939View attachment 2078941

Hopefully it's just taking longer to recover because it was stuck in the egg longer. If it's wry neck that could be a sign of vitamin deficiency. This one is going to need some time before we can make any determinations. Plus is had a tough start. Does the beak look odd or is that just the angle of the image?

How is the curled toe chick doing? Are the toes still curled? It's definitely been enough time that they should have straightened out on their own by now if they were going to. If they're still curled you can straighten the toes and make little bandaid shoes....I stole this picture at some point and I don't know who do give credit to but this is a great example of bandaid shoes.

 

[2102Simm]

Hopefully it's just taking longer to recover because it was stuck in the egg longer. If it's wry neck that could be a sign of vitamin deficiency. This one is going to need some time before we can make any determinations. Plus is had a tough start. Does the beak look odd or is that just the angle of the image?

How is the curled toe chick doing? Ar

When I had it out while helping it, the beak was fine its another SLW cross. Its laying on its side now just chirping up a storm. I'm trying not to hover over the incubator.

Unfortunately crooked toes passed sometime early this morning. It was alive last night before I went to bed and I found it with Dos curled up beside it.

My husband wants to do another hatch after this but I'm starting to have serious questions about my flock and extreme loathing for the incubator. I also don't think I can keep dealing with these issues with the babies.

 

[FortCluck]

Well, 3 of my cayuga eggs have externally pipped I definitely thought it would take longer, it's only Tuesday and they are due on Friday! How long for ducks from external pip to zip? Of course, one is in the wrong end.

How are your ducks doing, @FortCluck? I think we set ducks on the same day!
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Mine aren't due till Saturday. I have one that's air cell is drawn down.

My ducks took 2 or more days from pip to zip it took forever

 

[CluckNDoodle]

When I had it out while helping it, the beak was fine its another SLW cross. Its laying on its side now just chirping up a storm. I'm trying not to hover over the incubator.

Unfortunately crooked toes passed sometime early this morning. It was alive last night before I went to bed and I found it with Dos curled up beside it.

My husband wants to do another hatch after this but I'm starting to have serious questions about my flock and extreme loathing for the incubator. I also don't think I can keep dealing with these issues with the babies.

So sorry to hear that! What incubator are you using and I can't remember if you said before, are you using a secondary calibrated thermometer? I would be wondering if something is up with your flock as well. A couple situations you experienced in this hatch can be due to high temps, a couple could be due to vitamin deficiency in the breeding flock. Vitamin deficiency or illness in breeding flocks can cause all sorts of issues in a hatch. Did you happen to have a lot of early quitters as well?
Sorry for all of the questions, I'm SURE we can get to the bottom of what's going on with your hatches though. It may be as simple as trying to hatch eggs from another source so you can at least figure out if it's related to something happening during incubation or the breeding flock.