hatching problems please Help!!!

[taraann81]

I htink people routinely help calls to hatch(because of their small beaks I think). I have read that they have a very difficult time and very often need help. I'm sure others will chime in but you might just be having breed difficulties. Oh also, I've never hatched calls in particular but I have hatched alot of 'scovies and a few mallards and I keep my humidity aroun 72 (70-75) is what I shoot for. Why are you trying to get it over 75?

 

[tia]

How are things going? Did anymore hatch? I know people sometimes say don't help them, but I did last time. I had one that had pipped but wasn't making a lot of progress. You could tell it was very strong though. I took a q-tip and moistened the membrane area around the hole, and broke off the shell that was not attached to anything. I put the egg back in the incubator and when I came back it had hatched.

 

[bossynbella]

It looks like the first egg has progressed a little bit there seems to be two more pips in line with the first but going up the egg instead of around. The other two look about the same so far. How long can we wait to help? Our incubator does not do well with opening it alot.
melissa

 

[CorralitosSunflower]

I would keep waiting. My ducks ranged in one to two full days from the initial pip to actually hatching out. I went to bed with just a little bit of cracked shell and woke up to fully hatched babies

Hope these precious ones make it

 

[Bird Brain]

I have one that started on the shell last night. Now the hole is no bigger than a dime. And still I wait...

 

[bossynbella]

It looks like the first egg has progressed a little bit there seems to be two more pips in line with the first but going up the egg instead of around. The other two look about the same so far. How long can we wait to help? Our incubator does not do well with opening it alot.
melissa

 

[CorralitosSunflower]

If they have cracked the shell than I would wait until morning before assessing the situation again. They will be able to breath which is the biggest concern for "healthy" babies dying in shell because they got stuck or other various circumstances. Now, your hatches have been different but I would still wait. These ducklings are really early and I am unsure how they would fair in the world right now. I would keep checking maybe every 6 hrs (as quickly as possible) to see if you can hear them inside. As long as you can hear them wait. If one goes quiet for more than a couple minutes after listening, I would slowly start to help it hatch. There are more detailed instructions on how to do this in the incubating and hatching eggs forum which I strongly recommend reading before starting any of this. It is a sticky post so it should be at the top of the forum. You can also tell if a baby is alive in the shell by placing it in a bowl of warm water and looking very closely for movement, it shows up in the water much more readily than just staring at the egg and waiting. Keep us updated

 

[cawooduck]

If your incubating at 95 degrees, you more than likely are not incubating anything. If you are incubating at 99.5, that is fine. Believe it or not a degree or two makes a big difference i incubation time. I had quail eggs in the incubator at a higher temp than normal, about 1 degree higher, they hatched two days early.

As for humidity, 65-70% is perfect, if you reach 80% or higher, you may actually drown the chick/duckling in the egg. The biggest part about incubation, which is hard to do, even with me, is to be patient and observant from the outside. When they start pipping they will get out most of the time. If has been a couple days since pipping and there is no progress, chip some of the shell away and look, more than likely its a dry membrane that prevented it from turning around. I chip away some shell very carefully and then wet the membrane with a q-tip, then i use the q-tip to brush back the membrane away from the duckling. I will usually chip away enough of the shell and membrane that i can hold the egg upside down about 1/2" off the bottom of the incubator and the duckling starts to drop out of the egg, then i place the egg and duckling back on the floor of the incubator and let it work the rest of the way out, this method has worked very well for me. I did learn the hardway ONCE, i pulled the duckling completely out of the egg which in turn ruptured the blood vessels and i basically bled the baby out, that sucked.

 

[Bird Brain]

Help if they need it. I didnt and lost that one duck. He was fine last time I checked, zipping away. But he had been pipping fo 24 hours at that point and took him a while to start the zipping and I just found him quiet. he was gone.

now I have one lonley duck. I dont think the other two have anything in them. Looks like they quit a few days ago but will wait and see.

 

[CorralitosSunflower]

I am so sorry. It is so strange that your having such a hard time, I feel like there has to be some part of the puzzle missing that none of us can think of