Hands on hatching and help

[WildHens]

Well, I just checked my Muscovy egg again. Before, there was sometimes movement if I tapped the wall near the egg or moved the incubator slightly (this egg is the only one in there). But a lot of the time there was no movement for a while. Now - there is a regular in/out movement, like breathing. I can't hear any cheeping or tapping but I guess it would only be making that kind of a movement if it had pipped and was breathing air?

Separately, I had to cull one of my 2 turkey poults today. . She was wobbly on her feet from the start and somehow today the skin had split over her ankle joint and there was exposed joint. The doctor in me said that would be a huge infection risk and it'd never heal, plus it would be super sore, so she's gone off to chicky heaven. So sad. Anyone else ever have that?

Oh wow..sorry about your poult..that sounds bad :'( I've never had turkeys tho, so am zero help there. But my boxer had a growth on her leg and she bumped it romping or something one day and did the same thing ..you could see tendons and everything.. it took almost 3 months to heal and she still has a nasty scar..it had her so down that she spent 4 days not moving and I thought we were gonna lose her. If it was that hard on a 100 lb dog, I'm sure it was worse on a little bird

But it sounds like your ducklings are about ready..that's usually what I see when they've started shadowing and are almost ready to (or just did) internally pip ♡♡♡

 

[WildHens]

Oh you don't have to go to all that trouble! I'm just curious if some of the older ones actually hatch!
By the time I get around to setting, I've had enough fresher eggs that I've never tried older ones. I am glad to hear that fertility seems better. I had a few weeks where it wasn't great with them.

Oh I'm doing it just for "fun".. lol.. figure if anything, I will learn nothing and it will all be totally random.. on the up side, maybe I'll see a definite age where they fail to hatch, hatch weaker, etc..

 

[Ravynscroft]

I don't mind at all. I've heard several times that duck eggs are always dirty. And I can see why considering I clean the brooder 2-3 times a day!! I wanted to ask you, at what age can I put a couple feeder fish in the tub for the duck to eat them? And a quick cute story...my son had a friend over last night and of course they wanted to play with the duckling. So we all sat on the floor and he's so used to kids I didn't think he'd even notice that one of the kids was a new person. Well, boy did he notice! He ran and buried his head in my arm when the little boy tried to pet him...twice! He really must know us each individually! It was so cute.

Usually my ducks lay in the shavings in the house so they're fine, but if they don't lay until they're in the yard they either dig a fresh hole (damp dirt/mulch) or lay in the mud next to the water... :/

I'd get some little Red Wiggler worms to start him with first, just make sure you give him some grit... I ususlly wait til they're half to kostly feathered before trying the fish... that way they can swim longer after them and you don't have to cut it short if he gets too waterlogged...


Yes, they absolutely recognize momma and their flock compared to an intruder... they are extremely intelligent and you can train them too...

Oh you don't have to go to all that trouble! I'm just curious if some of the older ones actually hatch!
By the time I get around to setting, I've had enough fresher eggs that I've never tried older ones. I am glad to hear that fertility seems better. I had a few weeks where it wasn't great with them.

I've hatched a 3 week old egg at set time before... and I have a 2 week old shipped egg developing now... the more humid it is where you are, the smaller the air cell stays and viability time increases...

 

[WildHens]

I've hatched a 3 week old egg at set time before... and I have a 2 week old shipped egg developing now... the more humid it is where you are, the smaller the air cell stays and viability time increases...

Hopefully that helps on our end..I know when I ship eggs, I put the entire carton inside a zip lock bag to keep the eggs from loosing as much moisture. But in my and WVs neck of the woods, it's done nothing but rain for a month, so humidity should play in our favor ♡

 

[Ravynscroft]

Hopefully that helps on our end..I know when I ship eggs, I put the entire carton inside a zip lock bag to keep the eggs from loosing as much moisture. But in my and WVs neck of the woods, it's done nothing but rain for a month, so humidity should play in our favor ♡

Humidity here was 91% last week... I feel your agony...

 

[WildHens]

Humidity here was 91% last week... I feel your agony...

I haven't even checked ours but I'd say we're very close to 100% just a 10 min sprinkle is enough for the creek to start rising again

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Looking for advice. I'm new to the group. I've been following, but I just now joined to post. I have an early baby. Pipped 24hrs ago. Not much progress and she's quiet. I've kept the humidity up. Using the HDD 7 egg incubator. Today is day 21.4 eggs in the bator. Do I provide assistance to the early bird? Adding more water perks her back up? She is pipped through the top side of the broad end, through the air sac. I'm torn on helping. I just pulled away the little bits she had broken loose and rubbed water on the shell.

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I missed this earlier. I usually start an assist after 24 hours. I won't say that it's neccessary all the time, because usually starting is all I accomplish because I run into veining and have to stop and give them more time, and a good share of the time the finish on their own, but I am more comfortable knowing that they haven't progressed because I still see veining than because they've grown too weak or are stuck from drying out. Figure out your comfort level and go from there.

Did my day 14 candling last night, and overall am feeling more and more optimistic that Katie will get her Silkies! Eggs are so dark I can't really make out any detail in them anymore, and most of the dancing inside the eggs has stopped - although if I held an egg perfectly still and waited a couple of seconds I could see subtle shifts in the shadowing on the inside at times.

Air cells are always going to be my nemesis I think. First eggs I tried to hatch I had every variety of bad air cells you can name. And they all had one thing in common....they were large. Large and floating, large and loose, large and saddled......and some had more than one issue. We only managed to get 3 chicks out of 39 eggs. Not so good! This time around there were eggs shipped from @RubyNala97 that were so fresh the air cells were invisible - couldn't even see them! The air cells in those we could see were small. Out of 16 eggs, 4 had air cells (on day 7 candling) that were loose on one side, just a very small area, so I put them in carton compartments and within a few days they were firmed back up - the only way to tell which ones they were was by the dotted line where they were loose. Someone, (and I wish I could remember who to give proper credit) suggested that when tracing the air cells, make the line solid where the cell was solid and dotted where it was loose).

I kept my humidity at the 40-45% recommended by @RubyNala97 . Amy also incubates her Silkie eggs a little higher as well. When I candled last night the cells still look kinda small to me....but are they really or am I just used to seeing huge cells because of my first shipped eggs? I dunno. I do see changes in the lines, so maybe I'll just keep a sharp eye on them and reduce the humidity a bit, to between 35 and 40%.

Note: Candling has been invaluable to me. Re the comparison between candling and ultrasounds, my daughter had cancer when she was expecting her daughter. She found out when she went in for her first exam and refused to allow them to end the pregnancy to treat her. She had ultra sounds every week to monitor Little Diane's progress and keep an eye on the size of the tumor. Not one ill effect on the baby or my daughter. We knew our special little Kendra would be born with Spina Bifida, so my daughter-in-law had ultrasounds every week for 7 weeks, then twice a week for the last month of her pregnancy. Again, no ill effects for mom or baby, and without that ability to closely monitor both babies we could have had totally different outcomes with them both. All I'm sayin'.

That is great!!! I did run lower a couple days because I was worried too. But I averaged more around 45% overall.

I had u/s with both of my pregnancies.. both of my kids were just fine ♡♡
They were wrong on my daughters gender, but that's nothing..
If it weren't for an u/s, I would have never known that my son had bled internally and had calcification on his adrenal glands..
The ONLY way I could see candling hurting an egg (well, okay 2 ways) would be to candle with dirty hands.. or to drop the egg in the process. . If you medical grade gloves during candling..it will solve both issues

The gloves will keep anything from transferring from gross hands to the eggs and the material gives your fingers a better grip..
That being said, my 6 year old has grabbed more than a few of my eggs with less than clean hands and they still hatched perfect little chicks. .eggs are pretty hardy.. I'd say the number one reason for failed hatches that people overlook is breeder quality. .

I had 3 extra sonos because of being higher risk for down's syndrom with my son. When they mentioned an extra screening test, I wasn't on board in the beginning because it didn't matter, this was my child and I would deal with any disabilities he might be born with. I was just elated I was going to be a mom. BUT they made a good point. I live in a hick town with a joke of a hospital and if there was an issue that would cause special needs at labor and delivery they send me to a larger hospital with a better neonatal department. That made sense. The extra sonos I didn't mind, cause my son was bashful and wouldn't show what he was...lol So it gave me the opportunity to find out before he was born. (It did take 2 extra sonos and 4 techs to convince me I was having a boy not a girl though...lol) However, thankfully my son was healthy and even though labor and delivery was he double hockey sticks, everything turned out all right at the end.

Breeder quality, yes, and I know I get preachy with this, but high humidity during incubation is what I see most often.

I don't mind at all. I've heard several times that duck eggs are always dirty. And I can see why considering I clean the brooder 2-3 times a day!! I wanted to ask you, at what age can I put a couple feeder fish in the tub for the duck to eat them? And a quick cute story...my son had a friend over last night and of course they wanted to play with the duckling. So we all sat on the floor and he's so used to kids I didn't think he'd even notice that one of the kids was a new person. Well, boy did he notice! He ran and buried his head in my arm when the little boy tried to pet him...twice! He really must know us each individually! It was so cute.
You and Amy will get along great!!

Can you post a pic? That's a really over due egg, right? There's nothing you can really do at this point but wait. Can you still see veins in the membrane? Some people will break the membrane and pull the beak out but that's something that I've never done successfully and is extremely risky.
If I were you, I would probably give it a few more hours. Since its early and the first egg I would probably not intervene until it passed the 30 hour mark. But that's just me. You have to decide when you feel it's necessary to intervene. Are these local or shipped?
You never know what eggs have been through when you buy from strangers. How did the air cells look? What breed were they? I hope you at least get a few more!

Blooie, post a pic of the traced air cells. If there's not much growth on the 14th day, I usually wait one more day and recheck and a lot of times they look good by then. If not, drop your humidity a little and recheck in a few days. How many are still going?

Duck story-adorable!!!! Dying laughing at the "getting along" remark! lol

So my hatch is almost over. I did an experiment with this hatch to compare results to my last hatch. Both batches were my own eggs, in the octagon 20. Similar temps and humidity on both. First set was put into the rails and I used the cradle. 15/20 hatched. This time I did not use the rails or the cradle. (I suspected that they were not getting turned sufficiently since they are small eggs and kept slipping to the side in the rails). I laid the eggs down with an "x" and "o"'and hand turned 5xday. So far 27/29 are hatched and number 28 is internally pipped. Very thick, dark shell and it's been internally pipped since yesterday. So if no progress by this evening I'm going to make a safety hole. Number 29 looks like it quit day 19-ish. I'm happier with these results. I'll get some pics today.

That is excellent!!!!

Quick question...I realize this is not the right thread...but I also have a broody hatching chicks right now and they just hatched this morning and they are leaving the nest and venturing into the coop. I found two of them in the coop. One was a foot away and the other was 2 feet away from mom. But there is a lip on the nest box and they can't get back under mom. I'm planning on moving them and her but not all the eggs are done hatching. Shouldn't they stay under her at this point?!?

This is the right thread for everything except being hands off or preaching at people for being hands on!!!! lol

The ducks can't get out of shell they don't break the shell. Why would I put a hole in a egg that didn't open buy itself. Wouldn't I be making it worse it wasn't ready or not going to hatch any way you put it. You don't help in Wild. They do it on there own or the mother helps correct. My understanding of it.

This is a HANDS ON THREAD. Maybe you've mistakenly decided to take part in a thread that you are not aligned with. For one, we are talking about artificial incubation. While we strive to make our hatches mimick nature, it is not the wild. We create environments and situations that eggs in a natural setting would not have to deal with through ignorance, accidents and human error. Some of us believe that because of this, we have the responsibility to do what we can when we can to help the chick, and yes, sometimes we are able to give the chicks a chance that they wouldn't have without assistance. And your comment 'they do it on their own or the mother helps'..... we have replaced ourselves as the "mother" since there isn't a hen mother during artificial incubation.

They are not in the wild..they are hatching in artificial incubation. . And if not using quotes, at least state a name to whom you are replying. .no one can follow who's being told what

xs 2

Or we may both snap and get the whole thread shut down

Ain't that the truth!!

Okay, I'll do that this evening when I turn and it's darker so I can candle and take a couple of pictures. You sitting down? Out of the 16 you sent me, 1 had a blood ring, and I broke one the first day. I have a total of 14 that are still going strong!! Yep, 14!!! Ain't that exciting??? As of Day 12 there were dancing embryos in every single egg! Hard to tell now, because as I said the eggs are now mostly dark inside. But I am so sure that we are going to get a good hatch this time!

So glad I took the chance and ordered eggs from you! After the dismal results before I thought I was done and never trying it again. You made the entire process so easy, and you, Amy, and so many others have been so patient with me while I worked up the courage to try one more hatch. Now, what the heck am I going to with 14 Silkies???

I am soooooo glad you did too!!!! and I was going to say..... you're going to love em, and cuddle em......

Yay♡♡♡ and you're gonna love them, and cuddle them and hold them like a little baby..lol.. you can NEVER have too many baby Silkies ♡♡

and she beat me to it!!!! lol

Well, I just checked my Muscovy egg again. Before, there was sometimes movement if I tapped the wall near the egg or moved the incubator slightly (this egg is the only one in there). But a lot of the time there was no movement for a while. Now - there is a regular in/out movement, like breathing. I can't hear any cheeping or tapping but I guess it would only be making that kind of a movement if it had pipped and was breathing air?

Separately, I had to cull one of my 2 turkey poults today.

. She was wobbly on her feet from the start and somehow today the skin had split over her ankle joint and there was exposed joint. The doctor in me said that would be a huge infection risk and it'd never heal, plus it would be super sore, so she's gone off to chicky heaven. So sad. Anyone else ever have that?

That's a good sign you can see it breathing!!! Sorry about the turkey. I'm turkey ignorant.

Well I can't speak here any. More everything's a fight. Well I have to say something to keep my accounts going. I sorry it's not what you want. I do things thAt work for me. If I see something and it's similar to me I might say something to my case. I haven't got duck eggs to hatch yet. I still trying. I may do things differently it's ok.

Just FYI, you're account stays active whether you talk or not, I know this cause I myself had to take a long break from BYC or risk getting thrown out for not keeping my mouth shut....
And yes, it really does help when you quote who you or what you are addressing.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

@WildHens you're killing me!!!!!

LMAO!

 

[WildHens]

Sorry
Was tired of blood dripping off my tongue...

 

[WVduckchick]

Yall are both killin me.