Hands on hatching and help

[Poultator]

Question for those more experienced with 'hands on hatching'---how do I know if/when I should make an "artificial pip" or

"view hole"?​

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Question for those more experienced with 'hands on hatching'---how do I know if/when I should make an "artificial pip" or

"view hole"?​

I don't make pips. The chick must pip itself. If I were to, it would ONLY be in the instance that a chick has been internally pipped for over 24 hours w/o progressing. Poking holes in the air cell before an internal pip is useless in my opinion. Once they are pipped I am all for assisting at the right time if it needs it, but there's not much you can do until it's been pipped for a good 12-18 hours w/o risking bleed out of the chick or opening a chick that might not have finished absorbing the yolk.

 

[Poultator]

Thank you! I guess I am just a little nervous! It has been a while since I've incubated, and my incubator has given me nothing but grief this whole time.

 

[BigWeenMachine]

So, out of a total of 34 fertilized eggs that went into the incubator, this is what I hatched....Not a very successful hatch but we are happy to have 5 hatch after the bacterial outbreak. We have one blue runner that just hatched overnight; you can see it in the back behind our blue palm turkey that so far is fitting in just fine. Then 3 anconas. I was really hoping for a blue ancona but it looks like we have 2 blacks and then one that ended up being solid white so that's a lil disappointing. The lil ancona in the front right is the one that pipped out of the side of it's shell. It just hatched a few hours ago and I had to help him out. I had tried to help it yesterday and it bled a little so I stopped. Ended up getting shrink wrapped today and had a heck of a time peeling the membrane off it's poor lil wing. It also had part of the yolk hanging out it's belly for a while but after spraying it with vetericyn and giving it some sav a chick it seems to be doing okay so far.

I was going to order some more eggs but after this last debacle I almost think it would be more cost effective and easier to just order some more ancona ducklings and then try to hatch a bunch of my own eggs next spring that I know will be stronger.



Here are the rest of our babies from the local landscaping place and our first four babies that have gotten huge already. Can't wait for this winter storm to pass so they can go back outside. Supposed to be cold until Tuesday now, ugh.



Still have 4 runner ducks in the Lyon Bator and 9 in the Brinsea that I am hand turning. These are all on day 20 so hopefully they will still hatch. Have seen no bacterial infections in any of them yet. If I have a good success rate in the Brinsea then I may still decide to order some more ancona eggs to hand turn; I have heard the success rate is much better hand turning than with an auto turner.

 

[ultimatecluck]

So, out of a total of 34 fertilized eggs that went into the incubator, this is what I hatched....Not a very successful hatch but we are happy to have 5 hatch after the bacterial outbreak. We have one blue runner that just hatched overnight; you can see it in the back behind our blue palm turkey that so far is fitting in just fine. Then 3 anconas. I was really hoping for a blue ancona but it looks like we have 2 blacks and then one that ended up being solid white so that's a lil disappointing. The lil ancona in the front right is the one that pipped out of the side of it's shell. It just hatched a few hours ago and I had to help him out. I had tried to help it yesterday and it bled a little so I stopped. Ended up getting shrink wrapped today and had a heck of a time peeling the membrane off it's poor lil wing. It also had part of the yolk hanging out it's belly for a while but after spraying it with vetericyn and giving it some sav a chick it seems to be doing okay so far. I was going to order some more eggs but after this last debacle I almost think it would be more cost effective and easier to just order some more ancona ducklings and then try to hatch a bunch of my own eggs next spring that I know will be stronger. Here are the rest of our babies from the local landscaping place and our first four babies that have gotten huge already. Can't wait for this winter storm to pass so they can go back outside. Supposed to be cold until Tuesday now, ugh. Still have 4 runner ducks in the Lyon Bator and 9 in the Brinsea that I am hand turning. These are all on day 20 so hopefully they will still hatch. Have seen no bacterial infections in any of them yet. If I have a good success rate in the Brinsea then I may still decide to order some more ancona eggs to hand turn; I have heard the success rate is much better hand turning than with an auto turner.

THEY ARE DO CUTE IM GONNA DIE OF THE CUTENESS ITS KILLING ME ARGH And I agree that hand turning is much more successful

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Thank you! I guess I am just a little nervous! It has been a while since I've incubated, and my incubator has given me nothing but grief this whole time.

I never stop being nervous at hatch time.

So, out of a total of 34 fertilized eggs that went into the incubator, this is what I hatched....Not a very successful hatch but we are happy to have 5 hatch after the bacterial outbreak. We have one blue runner that just hatched overnight; you can see it in the back behind our blue palm turkey that so far is fitting in just fine. Then 3 anconas. I was really hoping for a blue ancona but it looks like we have 2 blacks and then one that ended up being solid white so that's a lil disappointing. The lil ancona in the front right is the one that pipped out of the side of it's shell. It just hatched a few hours ago and I had to help him out. I had tried to help it yesterday and it bled a little so I stopped. Ended up getting shrink wrapped today and had a heck of a time peeling the membrane off it's poor lil wing. It also had part of the yolk hanging out it's belly for a while but after spraying it with vetericyn and giving it some sav a chick it seems to be doing okay so far.

I was going to order some more eggs but after this last debacle I almost think it would be more cost effective and easier to just order some more ancona ducklings and then try to hatch a bunch of my own eggs next spring that I know will be stronger.



Here are the rest of our babies from the local landscaping place and our first four babies that have gotten huge already. Can't wait for this winter storm to pass so they can go back outside. Supposed to be cold until Tuesday now, ugh.



Still have 4 runner ducks in the Lyon Bator and 9 in the Brinsea that I am hand turning. These are all on day 20 so hopefully they will still hatch. Have seen no bacterial infections in any of them yet. If I have a good success rate in the Brinsea then I may still decide to order some more ancona eggs to hand turn; I have heard the success rate is much better hand turning than with an auto turner.

Congrats on the ones that did hatch and they are adorable!

 

[Ren2014]

So, out of a total of 34 fertilized eggs that went into the incubator, this is what I hatched....Not a very successful hatch but we are happy to have 5 hatch after the bacterial outbreak. We have one blue runner that just hatched overnight; you can see it in the back behind our blue palm turkey that so far is fitting in just fine. Then 3 anconas. I was really hoping for a blue ancona but it looks like we have 2 blacks and then one that ended up being solid white so that's a lil disappointing. The lil ancona in the front right is the one that pipped out of the side of it's shell. It just hatched a few hours ago and I had to help him out. I had tried to help it yesterday and it bled a little so I stopped. Ended up getting shrink wrapped today and had a heck of a time peeling the membrane off it's poor lil wing. It also had part of the yolk hanging out it's belly for a while but after spraying it with vetericyn and giving it some sav a chick it seems to be doing okay so far.

I was going to order some more eggs but after this last debacle I almost think it would be more cost effective and easier to just order some more ancona ducklings and then try to hatch a bunch of my own eggs next spring that I know will be stronger.



Here are the rest of our babies from the local landscaping place and our first four babies that have gotten huge already. Can't wait for this winter storm to pass so they can go back outside. Supposed to be cold until Tuesday now, ugh.



Still have 4 runner ducks in the Lyon Bator and 9 in the Brinsea that I am hand turning. These are all on day 20 so hopefully they will still hatch. Have seen no bacterial infections in any of them yet. If I have a good success rate in the Brinsea then I may still decide to order some more ancona eggs to hand turn; I have heard the success rate is much better hand turning than with an auto turner.

I never stop being nervous at hatch time.

Congrats on the ones that did hatch and they are adorable!

X2

 

[RubyNala97]

So, out of a total of 34 fertilized eggs that went into the incubator, this is what I hatched....Not a very successful hatch but we are happy to have 5 hatch after the bacterial outbreak. We have one blue runner that just hatched overnight; you can see it in the back behind our blue palm turkey that so far is fitting in just fine. Then 3 anconas. I was really hoping for a blue ancona but it looks like we have 2 blacks and then one that ended up being solid white so that's a lil disappointing. The lil ancona in the front right is the one that pipped out of the side of it's shell. It just hatched a few hours ago and I had to help him out. I had tried to help it yesterday and it bled a little so I stopped. Ended up getting shrink wrapped today and had a heck of a time peeling the membrane off it's poor lil wing. It also had part of the yolk hanging out it's belly for a while but after spraying it with vetericyn and giving it some sav a chick it seems to be doing okay so far. I was going to order some more eggs but after this last debacle I almost think it would be more cost effective and easier to just order some more ancona ducklings and then try to hatch a bunch of my own eggs next spring that I know will be stronger. Here are the rest of our babies from the local landscaping place and our first four babies that have gotten huge already. Can't wait for this winter storm to pass so they can go back outside. Supposed to be cold until Tuesday now, ugh. Still have 4 runner ducks in the Lyon Bator and 9 in the Brinsea that I am hand turning. These are all on day 20 so hopefully they will still hatch. Have seen no bacterial infections in any of them yet. If I have a good success rate in the Brinsea then I may still decide to order some more ancona eggs to hand turn; I have heard the success rate is much better hand turning than with an auto turner.

Congrats!! You've done an amazing job this season. They are beautiful!

 

[Blooie]

So cute~

 

[BigWeenMachine]

THEY ARE DO CUTE IM GONNA DIE OF THE CUTENESS ITS KILLING ME ARGH
And I agree that hand turning is much more successful

I never stop being nervous at hatch time.

Congrats on the ones that did hatch and they are adorable!

X2

Congrats!! You've done an amazing job this season. They are beautiful!

Thanks everyone. Couldn't have done it without everyone's help. It was a good learning experience now hopefully I can fix all my mistakes and have good hatches in the future!