Hands on hatching and help

[KeptSane]

It looks like you are candling from the small end in the picture. Try candling from the other end. It looks like you have a normal air cell for day 11, but it is hard to tell with the angle of the light.

I candled them from the other end. The air cell is there but it isn't all that defined but I do see it now. I feel like my humidity needs to be dropped down more so that I can get the right moisture loss. I really want this to be a successful hatch! I'm going to start a dry incubation so I can get a better loss and not drown my poor chicks! It really helped me notice the difference after I candled my new arrival of 38 Shipped Duck Eggs for hatching. I guess it will seem easier the more I candle and the more I try. Thank you for the advice of trying the other end.

 

[Wolfram81]

Hello.

Newbie here and you info is of great help and very reassuring. I seem to have missed the party but maybe someone's listening. I came here from another site where you wrote a great piece on incubating.

The issue I'm having is with humidity. This is my 1st time incubating CPQ from egg and I have brought a cheap 7 egg incubator. If however I get hooked (and my missus doesn't kill me 1st lol) I would be happy to buy a higher end model. I have salt tested my digital hydrometers aswell and use an external digital thermometer prob too.

I'm in Scotland too so always humid here anyway. So I have the temperature sussed and all looks good on that side BUT humidity fluctuations is driving my loopy. I filled the water trough as instructions (yes I agree ignore and look it up yourself) and humidity goes to 70ish (yay for lockdown). So I removed all water and humidity dropped to 15ish (boo for incubating?). I tried to only put 2 drops of water in and the humidity bumped upto 70ish again (literally that was the only water in there). After searching around the net I am no better off but your info has helped alot. I read that obviously the eggs once placed inside will also lose/ release moisture inside. So that being said. Would the eggs be OK if I was to put them in without water in the tray (monitored), then at lockdown put water in the tray OR place a few drops in every other day or 2 and hope it averages out during the whole period?

Any and all information will help.

Thank you.
Ralph.

 

[Grammie Has Chickens]

I have just had a very large, late hatching (day 24) chick that I did bit of assistance for hatching. Lot of issues with maintaining correct humidity in the incubator I used. After making the pip area large enough to expose the beak, I moved the membrane away from the beak and then applied coconut oil. The baby pushed itself completely out of the shell about 3 hours later. It still had a bit of unabsorbed yolk sac so I placed it in the bottom part of the shell in a cup, supporting it with paper towel. Little one was not happy with being restrained. Quite a feisty baby (I'm happy with that). There is not a lot of yolk left. I didn't examine 'belly button' as I wanted to get it quickly back into the incubator. If it manages to somehow get out of the cup, do I need to put it back in?

 

[Grammie Has Chickens]

I have just had a very large, late hatching (day 24) chick that I did bit of assistance for hatching. Lot of issues with maintaining correct humidity in the incubator I used. After making the pip area large enough to expose the beak, I moved the membrane away from the beak and then applied coconut oil. The baby pushed itself completely out of the shell about 3 hours later. It still had a bit of unabsorbed yolk sac so I placed it in the bottom part of the shell in a cup, supporting it with paper towel. Little one was not happy with being restrained. Quite a feisty baby (I'm happy with that). There is not a lot of yolk left. I didn't examine 'belly button' as I wanted to get it quickly back into the incubator. If it manages to somehow get out of the cup, do I need to put it back in?

An update...baby absorbed most of yolk sac in a couple of hours. I put her in a paper towel lined small container in the incubator to keep her from walking around too much as she has curled toes. We are going to put booties / casts on her to correct this. I can't believe she made it so late! I'm saying she, but time will tell!

 

[AngeJD]

Hello all, I know it's late but hoping someone is around to reassure me. First time incubating.

I set 6 call duck eggs from my own flock very early on March 29, basically March 28 since it was around midnight. 2 were yolkers on day 7.

The plan was to put them in lockdown yesterday (April 21) but when I candled them, I noticed one egg had internally pipped already on day 24, and yes, I was religious with temp and humidity. Since they're calls, I didn't want to take any chances, and made a safety hole and put it back in. The other 3 eggs had shadowing but no internal pips, so I put them into lockdown a day early.

I went to check on the one with the safety hole yesterday morning, and it was tapping and peeping. I candled the others, and 2 more internally pipped, so again I put in safety holes. The last egg is still shadowing.

It's been over 24 hours now since I put the safety hole in the first egg, and still no external pip. Incubator is at 65-70% and temp is around 98.5-99F (I put them in a farm innovators 4250 for lockdown, and that thing is ridiculous for temp...I had to crank it to 106F to get my 3 extra thermometers to reach 98.5F!).

I've been checking through the window, and the egg with the first safety hole isn't wobbling much anymore...even though it's technically day 25 and a day early, do I need to start opening up the shell where the air sac is and start an assist, or leave it? I've looked at all the articles...and most suggest assisting if no progress made from external pip. Since these are calls, I know they have difficulty making the external pip and almost always need assisted hatching. I'm just nervous and wary because it's my first hatch, and it's a day early from hatch day....don't want to prematurely assist but at the same time, 24 hours from safety hole without external pip is bad, right?

Please help!

 

[arora2deepak]

I don't help near as much as you guys, but I will occasionally. Just different hatching styles.

 

[LynnaePB]

Hello all, I know it's late but hoping someone is around to reassure me. First time incubating.

I set 6 call duck eggs from my own flock very early on March 29, basically March 28 since it was around midnight. 2 were yolkers on day 7.

The plan was to put them in lockdown yesterday (April 21) but when I candled them, I noticed one egg had internally pipped already on day 24, and yes, I was religious with temp and humidity. Since they're calls, I didn't want to take any chances, and made a safety hole and put it back in. The other 3 eggs had shadowing but no internal pips, so I put them into lockdown a day early.

I went to check on the one with the safety hole yesterday morning, and it was tapping and peeping. I candled the others, and 2 more internally pipped, so again I put in safety holes. The last egg is still shadowing.

It's been over 24 hours now since I put the safety hole in the first egg, and still no external pip. Incubator is at 65-70% and temp is around 98.5-99F (I put them in a farm innovators 4250 for lockdown, and that thing is ridiculous for temp...I had to crank it to 106F to get my 3 extra thermometers to reach 98.5F!).

I've been checking through the window, and the egg with the first safety hole isn't wobbling much anymore...even though it's technically day 25 and a day early, do I need to start opening up the shell where the air sac is and start an assist, or leave it? I've looked at all the articles...and most suggest assisting if no progress made from external pip. Since these are calls, I know they have difficulty making the external pip and almost always need assisted hatching. I'm just nervous and wary because it's my first hatch, and it's a day early from hatch day....don't want to prematurely assist but at the same time, 24 hours from safety hole without external pip is bad, right?

Please help!

I don't have experience with ducks or calls myself but I have heard they do tend to take longer to hatch than chickens. I probably wouldn't worry too much yet. Seeing that calls often have trouble hatching the safety holes were probably a good idea.

Another thing to remember is when you make a safety hole it changes the timeline of when they will make their own external pip since the safety hole acts as that external pip for them. When I add safety holes to my silkie eggs often they won't break any shell themselves until they are very close to hatching. Sometimes it happens a couple hours before they are ready to zip and other times they do it at the time they are ready to zip and not before.

Since they have the safety holes acting as an external pip I'd probably give them at least 48 hours after internal pip before proceeding with further assistance. Not moving around much at this point is probably fine. Once they have externally pipped (or I've added a safety hole) my silkies usually go through a fairly quiet period of resting and only really ramp up movement again when they get close to zipping. Hopefully your little guys are fine and just resting and working on getting used to using their lungs and absorbing yolk/blood vessels.

If you really feel like something might be wrong you can always widen the safety hole a bit so you can more closely monitor how the blood vessel absorption is going and watch how the baby is doing more easily. If you do this just make sure to keep the membrane from drying out too much. If you decide to use coconut oil to moisten the membrane be careful to reapply it frequently. I've had a bad experience with coconut oil hardening the membrane in the past so avoid using it myself. I've heard something like Neosporin without pain relief can be good as well, I haven't tried it yet but I'd feel better using it than coconut oil.

Good luck with your little calls!

 

[AngeJD]

I lost one in shell this morning and had to assist with all the other 3. One hadn't made an internal pip and was shrinkwrapped, so I made a little tear in the membrane and all 3 have their heads out and are in the bator resting and hopefully will finish the job themselves. The one that was shrinkwrapped was positioned with Bill tucked under its feet, so I did have to help a little by maneuvering its head out so it could breathe. It's been about 4 hours now since their heads were out, checked and no yolk left so here's hoping!

Here's the link to my video of them in the bator!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CN-fdQFh16a/?igshid=163evwz1pujxp

 

[LynnaePB]

I lost one in shell this morning and had to assist with all the other 3. One hadn't made an internal pip and was shrinkwrapped, so I made a little tear in the membrane and all 3 have their heads out and are in the bator resting and hopefully will finish the job themselves. The one that was shrinkwrapped was positioned with Bill tucked under its feet, so I did have to help a little by maneuvering its head out so it could breathe. It's been about 4 hours now since their heads were out, checked and no yolk left so here's hoping!

Here's the link to my video of them in the bator!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CN-fdQFh16a/?igshid=163evwz1pujxp

Aww I am so sorry to hear you lost one!

That is great you were able to help the others and they already have their yolk absorbed. Their breathing looks nice and steady so that is a good sign.

Good luck, I hope all the remaining little ones pull through for you!

 

[AngeJD]

Update...lost 2 now. Other two are doing well. Guess a 50% hatch rate for calls really is spot on