Day 28 of Incubation. Should I intervene?

[Amiga]

Have you checked in over here? https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...ds-w-host-sally-sunshine/124160#post_17268816

 

[LittleLakesFarm]

Nothing is happening still today . Trying to be patient but I am really worried that I shrink wrapped them yesterday when I opened the lid.

 

[Birdlady2248]

I apparently am not up to date with the latest theories on hatching, but i do have some experience in incubating eggs and hope i can allay some of your worries. I have not fired up my incubator for a number of years, but for a period of four or five years i kept my large incubator full for months on end and hatched hundreds of birds--mostly ducks and geese but also chickens, guineas, button quail..... For two years my partner and i had a wide assortment of birds--pheasants, partridge, pigeons, doves, diamond doves, mountain quail, button quail, chukkars, as well as many varieties of chicken, ducks, and geese. We attempted a count at one point and came up with over 600 birds. So i have seen a lot over the years.

One thing that is definitely on our side is Mother Nature. She wants her creatures to multiply, and that balances the scales heavily on our side. Something that amazed me was an experiment i tried with a friend in Maryland. We had both had difficulty trying to hatch eggs we had gotten through the mail. We decided they had been handled so roughly that they ended up pretty much scrambled no matter how carefully packed. So we wondered how half-hatched eggs would react to an interruption in incubation. On a visit to her house, she gave me a dozen guinea eggs that were about halfway through incubation. We had candled the eggs, so we knew there was a live chick forming in each of those eggs. We put them in an egg carton, and i set the carton in the floorboard of my truck, where it remained for two days--no heat, misting, humidity control....nothing. When i got back to Kentucky, i put the eggs in my incubator. Every egg hatched. They even hatched right on time--i had thought there might have been a delay.

And obviously a bird sitting on a clutch of eggs has no way of doing a lockdown. The only misting i can come up with would be waterfowl taking a swim and coming back to the nest with wet feathers. If a chicken or robin wets her eggs, i am not aware of that. I opened the door of my incubator at least once a day, usually more, with no problem whatsoever. So try to take comfort in the probability that your eggs are going to hatch just fine.

As far as the shrink wrapping, the only time i ever had a problem with the membrane sticking to a fledging chick was when it was partway out of the egg. I am certainly not saying this doesnt happen but just that it never happened to me in hundreds and hundreds of eggs.

So try not to worry. As i said in an earlier post, it is a lot harder for the birds with bills and an egg tooth to get out of the eggs than those with pointy beaks. Just give them time. And dont be surprised if the fledged duckling needs some time to just lie there and get its strength back. The opposite of the waterfowl in my experience was hatching button quail, who seemed to get out of the egg about 30 seconds after they pipped, and i ended up with birds the size of a bumblebee that could have beaten a roadrunner in a fair race minutes after hatching.

Again, goid luck! I dont think you have done anything that will hurt the hatch at all.

 

[Chickies2020]

Nothing is happening still today . Trying to be patient but I am really worried that I shrink wrapped them yesterday when I opened the lid.

Im on day 29 now, and one of mine died overnight. I did an eggtopsy and the yolk wasn't full absorbed - even though last night at 11pm she was alive. Give them time - even if theyre shrink wrapped, they may not be ready. Hang in there!

 

[LittleLakesFarm]

Thank you so much for your comforting words. I really appreciate it and I hope you are right. I would be happy with just a little wiggle or a peep for now! It has been hours with nothing! ugh. I am practising patience.

 

[LittleLakesFarm]

I just saw one wiggle!!!!!!

 

[LittleLakesFarm]

I hear chirping!

One has pipped internally but not yet externally. 2 of them sadly did not make it . I am left with 3 (2 of which have not pipped internally yet). Late bloomers here. I hope at least one of them make it. This is so stressful!

 

[Miss Lydia]

I hear chirping!

One has pipped internally but not yet externally. 2 of them sadly did not make it . I am left with 3 (2 of which have not pipped internally yet). Late bloomers here. I hope at least one of them make it. This is so stressful!

How are things going this morning. Worse thing you can do is freak out and jump into help too soon. It takes ducklings a long time to hatch so keep updating and hopefully soon you'll have some ducklings to love on.

@LittleLakesFarm also maybe @WVduckchick can give you some pointers..

 

[LittleLakesFarm]

I had to open the lid again last night because the water was empty again

. I will have to remember to put extra water in the base of the incubator during lockdown for my next hatch.
I hear lots of chirps today and 2 of them have pipped externally!

Last night when candling, I saw that one of them that had pipped internally but now it is not doing anything. No wiggles or external pip yet. Seeing as I have poked air holes in the air sac a few days ago, I don't see anything I can do to help so I am just waiting.

I have never had a hatch take this long before! We are on day day 6 of lockdown! Maybe it is because of my new incubator or because it is late in the season? I hope they all 3 make it. I am worried the most about the one who has pipped internally but not yet externally.

Thank you for all of your support. This has been a rough one.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I had to open the lid again last night because the water was empty again

. I will have to remember to put extra water in the base of the incubator during lockdown for my next hatch.
I hear lots of chirps today and 2 of them have pipped externally!

Last night when candling, I saw that one of them that had pipped internally but now it is not doing anything. No wiggles or external pip yet. Seeing as I have poked air holes in the air sac a few days ago, I don't see anything I can do to help so I am just waiting.

I have never had a hatch take this long before! We are on day day 6 of lockdown! Maybe it is because of my new incubator or because it is late in the season? I hope they all 3 make it. I am worried the most about the one who has pipped internally but not yet externally.

Thank you for all of your support. This has been a rough one.

Lots of chirps is good news... Hopefully the lil one that has pipped internally will start making progress. Since you pipped the air sac did you look to see if the membrane had dried out on that one? Where is @RavynFallen she is another expert on hatching.