Hands on hatching and help

[ronott1]

Thanks for the response, the chick actually died a while after I posted. I did attempt to get it out but I couldn't without making it bleed. It had yellow liquid foaming out of its beak and the hole in the shell..ruptured yolk I'm assuming?

That is likely. The sticky goo is an indication that the chick did not absorb the liquid and yolk well. Shipping stress can cause this along with temperature being off in the incubator. It is a sign of a lack of vigor.

What can happen is that the liquid goo suffocates the chick. How is the rest of the hatch going?

 

[peepers93]

That is likely. The sticky goo is an indication that the chick did not absorb the liquid and yolk well. Shipping stress can cause this along with temperature being off in the incubator. It is a sign of a lack of vigor.

What can happen is that the liquid goo suffocates the chick. How is the rest of the hatch going?

Out of 16 eggs that made it to lockdown, 10 have hatched so far. 6 of the eggs were picked up locally, they've all hatched (Silkies). The other 10 were shipped Cream Legbar eggs. So far 4 of them have hatched and one is in the process of hatching now. The chick that died was a CL. The last four haven't pipped yet. Today is day 21, so I'm hoping they'll start soon. These guys were shipped from pretty far away and came with messed up air cells. I originally had 20 of them but only half made it to lockdown, so this has been a fairly disappointing hatch..if these last four hatch I'll be much happier needless to say.

 

[Redhead Rae]

These guys were shipped from pretty far away and came with messed up air cells. I originally had 20 of them but only half made it to lockdown, so this has been a fairly disappointing hatch..if these last four hatch I'll be much happier needless to say.

From what I understand, that is SOP for hatching shipped eggs. A lot, if not most of them, don't make it to hatching and even at hatch, some still have issues.

 

[peepers93]

From what I understand, that is SOP for hatching shipped eggs. A lot, if not most of them, don't make it to hatching and even at hatch, some still have issues.

That's definitely how it seems to be going. But I'm going to order a few more CL eggs from someone much closer to me, so hopefully the shorter shipping time/distance will work out better.

 

[Anabariful]

Can someone help me out please?

So, I have a Brinsea Mini Advance incubator and I usually do dry incubations with no added water till lockdown. Out of my several shipped egg hatches, my hatch rate is all over the place:

1st hatch: 6/7 Silkies hatched flawlessly. 1 died at lockdown.

2nd hatch: 4/6 Silver Appleyard ducklings hatch but a few needed assistance. 2 died at lockdown.

3rd hatch: 2 Silkies hatched out of 6 but all ended up dying. 4 died at lockdown.

4th hatch: 2 Silkies hatched yesterday and 3 died at lockdown. 1 that hatched has a deformed leg.

I know shipped eggs are a gamble. I was just curious if I was doing something wrong. Here is my process:

Pick up shipped eggs at post office and let them sit for 24 hours. Check and mark air cells, incubate at 99.5 degrees with automatic egg turner set for every 90 minutes, and auto cooling for 60 minutes once a day. Re-candle and mark air cells at day 7, day 14, and day 18. Lockdown: stop turning, keep cooling once a day for 60 minutes, decrease temp to 98.5 on days 19/20, decrease temperature again on day 21 to 98.0. Do not open incubator at all unless humidity dips below 60%. It's usually 60-70% during lockdown and 20-30% during regular incubation.

I have eggs that look great all the way up to lockdown. The air cells look perfect! Then I check them on day 23 if there is no external pip, and the air cell will have dipped really low, even with the humidity increase and the chick will be fully formed but dead, or will hatch and die shorty after? Is this normal or am I doing something wrong?? I must be doing something wrong.

 

[Anabariful]

This is one of the dead ones and an example of the air cell dipping really low during lockdown. What can I do to fix this or is this just a normal fatality with incubation?

Line 1: day 1
Line 2: day 7
Line 3: day 14
Line 4: day 18 (last line with the x to mark the lowest part of the air cell where the chick is "most likely" to pip)

 

[WVduckchick]

@Anabariful personally, I'd stop doing the cool-down when you increase humidity. Actually, i never do a cool-down, because i candle often. 60 minutes daily seems like a long time to me. Even my broody hens don't stay off the nest that long each day.

I also don't lower the temp those last few days.

Also, although i love Brinsea incubators, i would still double check the temp and humidity readings against verified meters. I have 2 Octagons (one digital, one analog) and i have to set the temp on 100.7 to maintain 99.5-100. They do require calibration.

 

[Anabariful]

@Anabariful personally, I'd stop doing the cool-down when you increase humidity. Actually, i never do a cool-down, because i candle often. 60 minutes daily seems like a long time to me. Even my broody hens don't stay off the nest that long each day.

I also don't lower the temp those last few days.

Also, although i love Brinsea incubators, i would still double check the temp and humidity readings against verified meters. I have 2 Octagons (one digital, one analog) and i have to set the temp on 100.7 to maintain 99.5-100. They do require calibration.

Thank you!!

 

[WVduckchick]

Thank you!!

Sure!
One other thing i thought about, when I had silkies, those eggs seemed to like a little higher humidity than any of my other eggs. Hopefully Amy or someone else that hatches more silkies will chime in, but that's my vague recollection. So a small sponge might not be a bad idea for you. (don't change too many things at one time though, making it hard to know what helped and what didn't.)

Duck eggs vary also, mine were always very dense shells, so lower humidity worked.

 

[ronott1]

Can someone help me out please?

So, I have a Brinsea Mini Advance incubator and I usually do dry incubations with no added water till lockdown. Out of my several shipped egg hatches, my hatch rate is all over the place:

1st hatch: 6/7 Silkies hatched flawlessly. 1 died at lockdown.

2nd hatch: 4/6 Silver Appleyard ducklings hatch but a few needed assistance. 2 died at lockdown.

3rd hatch: 2 Silkies hatched out of 6 but all ended up dying. 4 died at lockdown.

4th hatch: 2 Silkies hatched yesterday and 3 died at lockdown. 1 that hatched has a deformed leg.

I know shipped eggs are a gamble. I was just curious if I was doing something wrong. Here is my process:

Pick up shipped eggs at post office and let them sit for 24 hours. Check and mark air cells, incubate at 99.5 degrees with automatic egg turner set for every 90 minutes, and auto cooling for 60 minutes once a day. Re-candle and mark air cells at day 7, day 14, and day 18. Lockdown: stop turning, keep cooling once a day for 60 minutes, decrease temp to 98.5 on days 19/20, decrease temperature again on day 21 to 98.0. Do not open incubator at all unless humidity dips below 60%. It's usually 60-70% during lockdown and 20-30% during regular incubation.

I have eggs that look great all the way up to lockdown. The air cells look perfect! Then I check them on day 23 if there is no external pip, and the air cell will have dipped really low, even with the humidity increase and the chick will be fully formed but dead, or will hatch and die shorty after? Is this normal or am I doing something wrong?? I must be doing something wrong.

If the air cells are bad, do not turn the eggs for the first couple of days.
You are hatching silkies and they seem to do better with a bit more humidity than you are using for the first 18 days. Try 34 to 40%.

Cool down cycle is not supposed to start until day 8 to 18. Since the brinsea has it built in, use it! It has been shown through studies to increase hatch rates and hatchability.

You are doing well! Many claim that it is hard to get shipped silkies eggs to hatch.