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

[pete55]

Gofasterstripe (Nicky) - great news. Hang onto your hat its almost baby gosling time

 

[star2525]

Thanks for responding back to me Pete, I wish I had a better comprehension of all of this, I'm sure as I continue to do more hatches it will all sink in.

I do not want to use a Separate Hatcher, my friend sent me 2 Incubators that are Styrofoams with forced air fans, they do not keep a constant temperature that I feel safe enough to use, too afraid of spiking temperatures at this point, and my GQF 1202 Cabinet Incubator even though old is right on the money for temperature. I am so glad I added the Clear Door to it, really makes it nice to be able to see in.

I just looked in on the Cracked Eggs, the first one that I noticed has already made a hole the size of a dime, or penny, small coin, and I can see the Goslings bill and it breathing in the shell, no zipping, at this point, I did put water in the Pan and the humidity right now is about 60 percent, when I first started Incubating these first eggs I was told to keep the humidity at 60 to 65 percent, so I did that thru the first 10 days, then I ran accross the information on dry hatching, I am Northern compared to my friend which is very Southern and have the friend I mentioned earlier that uses the dry hatch method, which is also in another Northern state, actually next state over from me, and since this is my very first hatch I have been combing a wide variety of searches to even find pictures of Goose Eggs thru the Incubation process, and your pictures are the best of this process, so I hope someone will make this a sticky and put it in the files section of BYC for future reference, I only found one other in my searches and it did not show the detail as well as the pictures you have posted for the thread.

So tonight I need to take some of the eggs out that aren't good, and I will do that rapidly, more than likely grabbing 3 eggs at a time and candling, this should free up area for the 10 eggs that I know are all black to the aircells, and some of those eggs the aircells are slanted when I last candled, I was turning those eggs opposite of up in the tray and there was no way for them to move back as I had pipe in the trays with foam around it securing the egg in place, so I'm really glad I found this thread when I did and moved all the eggs down to the hatching tray, I put the pipe with foam in place as I didn't want the eggs bumping against the sides when they was being rocked back and forth, so all 29 eggs in the top tray was totally secured with no rolling at all. After I get done with taking the other eggs out I'll feel better knowing they have area to move enough to get themselves out. I'm just concerned about getting the humidity right for them to be able to hatch and me opening and closing that door messing up their hatch, that's my fear.

Victoria

 

[star2525]

I'm currently up 6 so far that I can see thru the window that are cracked, one I'm concerned about is near the back and the crack is not on the top or side of the egg, it's on the floor side of the egg, when I move these eggs out tonight should I when candling if I get one of the black eggs be looking for the shadows at the top of the aircell? The first one cracked now has a hole about the size of a nickel, and another one has a crack in the top then also in the side of its egg, I am just now starting to hear voices, very faint voices from them, like they are talking to each other.

Wish I could be here tomorrow but have to work until in the afternoon, so will have to definately have this set up for keeping the humidity to where it needs to be, also I do notice my temp going back and forth from 98 to 100 on the Walmart Temp/Hygrometer that I'm watching for humidity, I noticed that it also did this around 14 days if I remember right, outside GQF Thermometer says 99.5 or very close to that.

Victoria

 

[pete55]

Victoria - you're doing very well so dont worry

If the external pip is on the floor side then turn the egg so the pip is up and slightly to the right then its in its natural positon. Dont worry about opening and closing the door as the humidity will get back up. Just do your work then close the incubator up. Others may say dont open the incubator during lockdown but I do frequently when assistance or checking is required.

Your on course for a good hatch and the goslings are communicating to synchronise their hatch, all the signs are good

Wishing you the best of luck

Pete

 

[pete55]

DEWLAP UPDATE DAY 24.5
I've not taken pictures this evening as there's not much change in the eggs but both still ok. I did think I saw the slightest shadow on the back side of the air cell on the 2nd egg so hoping that when I come in from work tomorrow evening there's evidence of air cell enlargement and early shadows in the air cell.

Also very pleased as an egg from our other Buff female is definitely fertile but has taken 6 days incubation to be certain

Pete

 

[star2525]

I have this Incubator in a back bedroom of my Trailer and the floor is vinyl, thank goodness, I've been setting here at the Computer most of the day and checking the Incubator when I'm not here, all of a sudden I hear one of my Geese real close, well my Ex-Husband went out and brought my Audrey Overton Goose inside and she can hear the goslings, didn't even know that she was inside until I heard her, these are the first Geeses eggs, the second set or eggs they would have sat on are in with the Geese outside, pretty sure if I had left nature take its course these eggs would have been too old to be viable, I collected 30 some eggs from them as their first eggs and this is that hatch, I have another 10 also riding in the same Incubator 2 shelves up that I put in on the 7th, I briefly candled the 10 of those and saw 2 for sure that had the blood spiders in them, so after I get done with this hatch I'll check those eggs too. I marked all of the eggs I saw from each group of Geese they came from and some when I saw which Goose laid the egg I also marked that on the egg shell at the small end of the egg, so I should know which group of Geese had better fertility and be able to identify my pure for White Geese out of the matings, I have one Goose that I got this past summer that from all appearances would be considered a grey, she's all grey on her back and front with a few white feathers in the back and the underbody has white feathering, so am guessing this to be a Grey Goose, As Audrey is quacking and hearing the goslings the goslings are also hearing her and one just completely broke out of its egg after she started talking, and the rest are starting to move around more now too. I think I'll keep Audrey inside for a little while longer them hearing her is helping them to come out. So far one is completely out and it's not the first one I saw cracked.

Victoria

 

[Cottage Rose]

Quote:
I've never heard this kind of stuff before.
VERY interesting!

 

[star2525]

I went ahead and reached in and moved the egg that was facing the floor with its opening, so its right side up now, I briefly misted the eggs to keep the humidity from falling, the first gosling out managed to get itself over the back of the hatching tray and it'll have to stay there if it can't get itself back into the tray, not pulling the hatching tray out now with the rest of them needing the humidity to hatch, a second one just popped out, this eggs insides has a slight bit of yellowy color and a small trace of blood, so don't know if that is something to be concerned about or not, its currently resting in the hatching tray, another egg looks like its real close to coming out too, I'll be glad when it gets dark and I can get some of these eggs out I should have removed previously, so glad for Pete's pictures. I could not find good pictures of eggs anywhere that I looked for Goose eggs on the Internet, I found pictures of eggs opened up showing what the goslings themselves looked like at different stages of Incubation day wise, but nothing as good as the pictures Pete put in this thread, his pictures are as clear as a bell, wish I had saw them sooner I would not have left all the eggs in that I did, I did the Water Test and got rid of any that sank and I noticed almost all of the ones that was black when I did that test wiggled in the water and floated at the aircell level. Other than that I really wasn't able to visually find anything I could identify with, I should have researched for books about the Sebastopols that would have helped alot I'm sure. I'm glad for my very first hatch of anything that I do have at least 2 goslings out and hopefully more to come.

Really appreciate all the helpful information.

Victoria

 

[star2525]

Hey Pete,

Hope you can help me on this one, I just took out the bad eggs and candled the black eggs that are not externally pipped yet or internally pipped, I don't like the size of the aircells, not big enough in them, I took them out of the Incubator and am leaving them to cool for about 15 minutes to see if the aircells will change in size, one looks like its angled enough just not internally pipped, one egg looked like it was internally pipped, I could see the slight shadow of what appeared to be the beak in the aircell, but not externally pipped and I have that particular egg back in with the ones that are externally pipped. Im right now at about 50 percent humidity last I looked, I did not spray any of the eggs after I took them out and put them back in.

How many times can I remove the eggs that the aircells need to dry down more on? and how often? like every 2 hours for 15 minutes or what sort of a time frame should I shoot for? I also marked the aircells with pencil like was done previously in the thread to see or keep track of how much more they dry down. I know you said a hatcher and I can't trust them to keep correct temperature and particularlly not while I'm away at work tomorrow until the mid afternoon, so trying to figure out just exactly what to do for the eggs that need to dry down more.

Also I'm up to 3 hatched out now, the third one that hatched had a sort of string attached to it that is attached to a small amount of tissue about the size of a pencil head eraser, should I be doing anything to the string that is attached? it's real thin, and I can see where it attaches to the body of the gosling, I'm guessing this would be like a navel.

Sorry so many questions, first time out.

Victoria

 

[star2525]

I am just wondering if it would hurt to take the ones out with the aircells not dryed down enough for more than once a day, I know I mentioned earlier that I had placed a thermometer/hygrometer in their nest and went back out and got it the next day while the geese was still on the nest and it said 65 percent humidity, the temperature it registered was 94 degrees, at first I thought I must have been mistaken, then I went back and reread your post 63, I think it was, so I'm now wondering if the lower temperature would also contribute to helping the eggs dry down more and if removing them for 15 minutes a couple of times a day might help.

Victoria