Day 29 Toulouse eggs...... when to add a safety hole...

[Yorkshire Coop]

I just checked the eggs and I have 2 external pips!

 

[dianneS]

I just checked the eggs and I have 2 external pips!

How exciting! Keep us posted!

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

So I have 4 external pips now. 3 are all good and the first 2 are making progress the 3 a little behind.
Now the fourth has externally pipped in the last 2 hours and is malpositioned, ugh!

@Miss Lydia I proceed with this just as a malpositioned chicken as in the fact this will take longer due to it missing its internal pip stage out?

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

I've got three goslings hatched now but I've had to finish the zip for the last two as they just could not get through the shell and got stuck zipping To be quite honest this hatch of goslings is driving me mad as I don't like interfering and opening the incubator all the time. I've had to put a safety air hole in number 5 as it had internally pipped but there was no external pip. Number 4 has pipped at the wrong end so that will more than likely need help and number 6 is doing nothing, no draw down of air cell and I can't see any movement so I think it will be a late death for that one.

 

[dianneS]

Fortunately for me, I didn't have to interfere with my first incubator hatch. They hatched quickly on their own. The two eggs that were hatched by broody banty hens, on the other hand, took a really long time to hatch after they pipped externally. It was hard not to interfere, but I didn't, and they hatched just fine on their own.

I discovered that my geese have started a second nest and two girls and one male are working to keep both nests warm! They have around 30 eggs altogether! Oh no, we're not having 40+ birds! So last night I went out with a flashlight and candled all of the eggs in the new nest, 14 total, and they had not begun to show any development yet so I took them all. I'll let them have the original nest but not a whole new nest. I guess I'll be donning the gauntlet gloves and gathering eggs daily. I didn't get attacked last night since it was dark.

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Wow your geese are really going for it on the eggs front That's an awful lot of eggs! Good luck with the daily collecting of them, I'd be worried of collecting on a night even! Adult geese still spook me!

This is being such a strange hatch Number 5 has finally done its external pip But number 4 has been pushing at its malpositioned external pip and seems to have caught a vein. I can see a spot of blood on a piece of the cracked shell

 

[dianneS]

Wow your geese are really going for it on the eggs front That's an awful lot of eggs! Good luck with the daily collecting of them, I'd be worried of collecting on a night even! Adult geese still spook me!

This is being such a strange hatch Number 5 has finally done its external pip But number 4 has been pushing at its malpositioned external pip and seems to have caught a vein. I can see a spot of blood on a piece of the cracked shell

It was actually easy collecting at night, I shined the flashlight in the girl's faces, they couldn't see me. Wow, their feathers on their undersides, and those white butt feathers are amazingly soft and fluffy!!!

I had a few of mine (both incubator and broody hatch) look rather bloody too. The membrane looked like there was too much blood, at least compared to chicken eggs. They all hatched successfully and were healthy.

Keeping my fingers crossed that you have a good and healthy hatch!

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

There really is something about soft feathers

It's the fact it's pipped at the wrong end straight into a fully functioning vascular system that is bothering me I quickly got some paper towel on it to stop the bleeding and I'm keeping my fingers crossed it does not start pushing or poking around again and set the bleed off again before it as absorbed it all

I moved the first 2 to the brooder and #1 is my new best friend It's such a sweetie and I'm in love already!

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Hatch is over, phew! 5/6 from lockdown have hatched. #6 was dead in shell and never internally pipped.
The Fluffy 5! They are extremely busy making a filthy mess of the brooder!
The malpositioned one is much smaller than the others (the one sat down) but seems to be doing ok for now. Still finding it's feet but I'm so pleased it has lasted this long. I didn't hold out much hope for it when it had just hatched especially as it was difficult and I had to help it out as it could not even start a zip. It's umbilical area looks a bit Got some antsiseptic on it and it's drying up nicely so I'm hoping it will be ok

 

[dianneS]

5 out of 6 is a great hatch rate! Did you do the turning cooling and misting every day? I didn't. I turned the eggs and gave a few squirts with the water bottle but I never cooled mine.

I just turned my three out in the grass in a pen all night with no heat lamp. They survived! They love the grass.

My big geese are on to me now, they won't let me collect any more eggs. They yell for back up as soon as they see me and I'm surrounded in a matter of seconds! I did manage to snatch two out of 11 eggs and took them inside to candle. They weren't showing much development yet, so I got rid of them. I don't need 11 more birds!! So now they have nine eggs and two girls are sitting on them full time, occasionally joined by a third male who helped build the nest. I'll let them have nine eggs, but I'm hoping that they don't all hatch. I've already got ten birds!

How is your littlest one doing now?