Dewlap Exhibition Toulouse-Incubation Diary with Pics! Hatch Day!!!

[star2525]

Hi!

I have a few questions as this is my first time at Incubating and I'm incubating Sebastopol Geese eggs, hope I don't ask too many questions that seem like stupid questions.

I'm using a Cabinet Incubator GQF 1202, using a flashlight with a lense the size of a quarter for candling, I am not 100 percent sure on the eggs I candled, Pete's pictures really help me to see better visually, I just found this thread today, I goofed from what I've saw and hope I didn't mess them up too bad, I have 10 eggs for sure that are black, I left the other eggs in the Incubator just incase I'm wrong on them,

 

[star2525]

Continuing with my questions,

Just wondering if it will hurt leaving the eggs in that may not be good? I don't think I can remove them now, wish I had found this thread a couple of days ago.

Made another mistake too, forgot about stopping the turner at day 25, and had them in the automataic turner and turned them end for end daily, I just quit that yesterday when I discovered I should have stopped sooner, so moved all eggs down to the hatching tray, after seeing Pete's thread I know that I have about 15 eggs in the hatching tray that should have been removed, I just checked my eggs tonight and see that I have 4 eggs so far that have small cracks starting in them. I saw the mention of lock down, when you do lock down and I assume that is what I should be doing now, I do not open the Incubator again until the hatch is over? Also I would like to know if I shut all the vents? I still have one vent at the top that I have kept 1/2 open all thru the incubation process.

Really appreciate the advice. And Thank You.

Victoria

 

[gofasterstripe]

Quote:

Congratulations on your baby, you can stop sweating now. Cant wait to see photos.
As for mine...I have 1 pip so far out of the 4 so thats me now in Lockdown.
How long from pip to hatch did yours take. Im probably looking at Sunday or Monday for mine to be all out if my guesstimate is right.

 

[pete55]

Hi Everyone

At work at the moment so I'll have to be quick.

Well lets hear it for Lisa and her new baby Dewlap Gosling - CONGRATULATIONS Mom

Well done on getting baby safely into the world -I know we're all looking forward to seeing the pics

Thank you again for the compliments, I did chuckle at being called the Gosling King

As for your Southern accent well I'd just love to hear it

Nicky - you're on your way as they start to pip. I would think the other 3 should be internally pipped and you should be able to hear them 'clicking' as the breathe in and out. All very exciting new

Victoria - DONT PANIC The eggs have not been harmed by turning them too long. Once you see a crack or internal pip then time for lockdown. Place them in their natural postion (I've mentioned how to do this earlier in this thread) and then increase the humidity to 65-75%

Leaving the infertile eggs will be ok but if your nose detects any rotten egg smell the get them out FAST. Not only are they decomposing but also giving off a sulphur gas which can affect the other eggs.

Pete

 

[star2525]

I have a friend that does the dry hatch method with his Geese eggs and he adds no water whatsoever to his hatch, he said he did that before and the goslings drowned in their shells, could that be possibly because the eggs weren't positioned at the 25 degree angle for hatch and just left laying on their sides? or could it be they weren't internally pipped before the water was added? or could it be they weren't showing external pipping before adding the water? And if they've only been at a 20 percent humidity what level of humidity is safe for hatching? I know on my Incubator when Bone Dry it is 20 percent and imagine his is also close to that. My friend says that he adds dry sponges or a piece of cloth to remove the humidity, he also doesn't mist the eggs or cool them down during incubating, possibly this is the difference in the method of incubating

Hope this isn't a dumb question.

I have other eggs outside under Geese, they are not at the same stage as these eggs in my Incubator, they are behind in time by about a week, I took a hygromether/thermometer outside and put it into their nest and left it there overnight and then went back out and got it, it read 65 percent humidity in the nest, I am noticing how the 3 Geese manage their eggs, The Goose setting will stand, another goose will reach in and move the eggs all around the nest, then the Goose standing sits back down, and both of the other Geese start packing down and nesting material close to the setting Goose, it's a real concerted effort of teamwork going on that I'm seeing. I also imagine that when I go to get goslings from them it's going to be like fighting Tigers. I let them set some of their own eggs because here at this time of year we can have some major storms that take out power and wanted to make sure I had a back up plan in case the power was out for any length of time, storms coming thru this area today and again tomorrow.

I'd like to remove those other eggs now, I know it would give the 10 eggs that I know are correct more area to move around in the hatching tray, right now it's a little constricted for movement because of the other eggs also in the tray, I'd have to do that tonight when its dark, in order to know which eggs should for sure need to be removed, I'm thinking instead of pulling the whole tray out that it would be safer to remove the eggs one at a time and quickly candle them, the 4 that have cracks in them I wouldn't need to even touch those, after removing the bad eggs should I mist the eggs in the Incubator to get the humidity back up the quickest?

Victoria

 

[Cottage Rose]

Great information Pete! THANKS MUCH!

We had Bassetts years ago.
My husband hunted rabbits with them.
I really miss them...great dogs!

 

[Cottage Rose]

Would like to add one thing...
people often ask... how does it work with Sebastopols (incubating, hatching etc.)
Just want to say, it all works the same no matter what breed you have.

 

[pete55]

Thank you Cottage Rose

You are absolutely correct - the principles of incubation and hatching apply to almost all species. We hatched poulrty, rheas, parrots and they all followed the same process

The only variables were optimum temperature and incubation period

 

[gofasterstripe]

I now have 3 pips. the big egg is yet too. The 1st pipper has zipped along the top of the shell. I hope to have a fuzzy by morning.

 

[pete55]

Victoria - I think you'll find that the eggs incubated by your goose will have far better weight loss than those in the incubator. Candle all the eggs tonight and no need to rush them back into the warmth or even mist them. Your 4 with external pips should be placed in a separate hatcher with a Relative Humidity of 65-75% and stop turning.

All the other eggs should be incubated at a low humidity. I run our incubator dry and this results in a 25-30% humidity. For Dewlaps thats not often low enough and is supplemented by daily cooling for 15 minutes and a light misting. Relative Humidity does depend on your local environment and location. Somebody in the cold North could have a humidity of 20% when running dry. However thier friend who lives in Georgia with the same incubator also runs dry but cannot get below 50% humidity! Does that help explain things?

Also your friends chicks did not drown. This opinion of chicks drowning is, in my opinion FALSE! Chicks that have never internally pipped do not drown in the excess liquid, their lungs have never ever inflated as they failed to breathe from the air cell. In most cases, chicks lie in the egg with their beak pointing towards their tail. As the hatching process draws near, they begin using their hatching muscle (on the back of their head) to draw their head up and to the right, the tip of the beak lying adjacent to the air cell membrane. The change in position can be seen as shadows in the air cell and a distinct change in shape of the air cell as it dips down sharply on one side.

Now the chick is ready to draw its first breath after its pierces the air cell. This is the point to stop turning the egg as the chick has manouvred into its natural hatching position. Place the egg on a flat surface and it always rolls one side up. Put a cross on the top to mark the position and then dont turn again! If the chick has not lost sufficient moisture from the egg then it is often found that 'dead in shell' occurs at this point, the almost mature chick fails to make it to the hatching position. The chick and the egg's cardio-vascular system both begin to fail resulting in death. It is the chicks heart that has to pump the blood throughout its own body and all the blood vessels of the egg. It is my belief that the whole system is overloaded with fluid and the chicks heart is unable to cope with this excess workload. In a sense the chick is going into heart failure as the volume of blood and serous fluid is too high a load. Their bodies appear bulky and overloaded in fluid. That is why moisture loss is so vital to sucessful hatching.

Hope that helps explain things a lot

Of course there are exceptions to this general rule, for example breech chicks that never internally pip but externally pip at the wrong end. What Im trying to get over is that these are vigourous chicks that probably have ideal moisture loss and therefore cope with adverse conditions. The aim being to produce a vigourous gosling that is capable of undergoing huge physical and physiological changes required for sucessful hatching

I hope the above doesnt make me sound like Im preaching as Im simply trying to help by sharing my knowledge and opinions

Pete