Hatch Overdue....need advice!

[wife4life92]

I had 4 chicken, 3 duck, and 8 guinea eggs in my incubator which were all due to hatch this past Monday (I added the ducklings earlier so they'd all hatch together).

I had a 100% hatch rate for the chicks and ducklings. All hatched a day early on Easter and the third duckling hatched last night.

...BUT there are no signs of piping from the guineas. I bought them online and was starting to wonder about the fertility. I had a hard time candling them because of the dark shell (i just ordered a GOOD candler) but from the little I could tell, there was a good size "dark spot".

I decided to break one egg open to see if it was even alive or I got ripped off. THERE WAS A CHICK INSIDE and it's breathing, but not moving very much. I left half the shell intact and put it back in the incubator to see if it'll continue hatching on its own. This is our first hatch of guineas. The shell was VERY hard. Is that typical for guinea eggs? Or do I need to adjust the humidity? (I have a thermometer but not a humidity reading)


My question........should I break open the other eggs too? OR how much longer should I wait?
Someone please advise soon so I don't lose any!!!

 

[hinkjc]

You do know that guineas take 27-28 days to hatch? If you set them with your chicken eggs..they are not due for another week.

Jody

 

[wife4life92]

Thank you Jody! I am such an idiot!!! I knew that about ducklings, but not about Guineas!!! I will leave the rest of the eggs alone. Hopefully, they should be ok. I haven't changed the incubator settings (I also have 8 more ducklings on the way).

The little one I cracked open is still breathing a little and has the sack still intact, but I don't expect it to survive. I put a moist, warm rag right up around it hoping that will help sustain it, but I don't have high expectations. I'll at least give it a chance to live.

Thanks for your reply! You just saved my other seven guineas!!!

 

[hypnofrogstevie]

Wife4life,
This is off topic but is it typical for duck eggs to have hard shells? I manually pipped the air sack area and the chick is moving in the membrane but the shell was a bit hard. Is that ok or am I over reacting?

 

[hinkjc]

You're welcome W4L. I am glad I caught you before you cracked any more. How bad is that one cracked? Sometimes you can just wrap tape around the crack to hold the shell together until they get closer to hatch. Trust me..this has happened to lots of folks. Don't beat yourself up about it. Good luck with the rest of them. I hope they hatch well for you when they are due.

Jody

 

[wife4life92]

Quote:
Duck eggs are a little bit harder than chicken eggs, as evident when you crack them open for consumption. I don't have tons of experience but with my last two hatches, the ducks took a GOOD 24-30 hours to completely hatch after the first pip. The chicks seem to pip and zipper out MUCH faster. BUT....I think a low humidity could also contribute to a harder hatch because the membrane gets tougher.

I also wouldn't recommend manually pipping the eggs unless they are several days late. We did help this last duckling 24 hours after it had begun to pip on its own and wasn't making any further progress. I think there's some merit to letting them "struggle" out of the shell on their own, but it takes some discretion to know when they might need a little help.

That's my humble two cents. Good luck

 

[wife4life92]

Quote:
We had already taken the entire shell off, not expecting that the chick would even be alive. The membrane was torn in half, although the yolk sac remained completely intact. Once we saw it breathing, we immediately put it back in the incubator and tried to surround the chick with a warm, moist towel to sustain it. Unbelieveably, it survived for several hours! Unfortunately, it just couldn't hang on.

Thanks again

 

[hypnofrogstevie]

Thanks for the info

. I hope they will come out sometime tonight or tomorrow morning. I never hatched duck eggs before and I really hope they make it