Hatching questions galore!

[rosa1347]

I have been through the forums and read a ton of posts. the problem is i don't feel like my direct and or spacific questions get answered given how general alot of the stickies are so i hope you all won't be irritated if this is a repetitive info grab.

first let me say my little peepers started coming a day early!

we went camping the night before last and when i came hom around 3 pm yesterday, i had one egg where i could hear the baby and could see the beak, and then one pipped clearly.

as of this morning my little one is still trying to make his or her way out of the egg but i have all my eggs showing pipping! 9 for 9!!!! Today is day 18.


so i had a few questions because i know assisted hatching is a gamble.

Should i be concerned that the membrane looks brown? my humidity is at 64-69 and my temp is at 99 degrees. and although he's made some progress from when he's started, he's only expanded his little pip hole by a little bit and the exposed membrane you see is a very muddy brown color. you can tell he wants out tho lol

How long roughly do they take to come out of their eggs fully? i've seen video's where its just a matter of 20 minutes and others that take an hour but i didn't know if its ok that the little one has taken so long and has not come out yet? and if the others will also?

If the temprature rises will it kill the chicks? it went up to 100 yesterday due to the exessive heat wave and that was with the ac running a room away so it raised a degree the while i was gone. is this good or bad? should i raise it or leave it where i have it?

how long after they hatch can i handle them? i know i have to have the brooder ready, that is not a problem but was hoping to get them to imprint on me and i'm so egar to love on them! i figured i'd ask now lol


Thank you all so much for your time and responses and of course i won't get upset if you refer me to thread links, its helpfull on the same

 

[UniqueQuail]

OK. Lots of questions. Let me give my opinion on my limited experience of 3 hatches.like you, I've read a lot of bad things about assisted hatches, but I have assisted with hatches with no problems. You just need to make sure to not be too eager. As long as you leave around 12 hours from piping that should be plenty time for yolk to absorb and blood to be absorbed. Saying that.... You may very well loose chicks at this stage. Its common for chicks to fail to zip and they die in the process. This isn't completely avoidable so be prepared. But if you feel you've left them piping long enough then, Yeh I would assist.

No I wouldn't be worried about membrane colour really. As long as chick is peeping.

Asking how long they take, is like asking how long human labour takes. They can start and stop, and have a nap. I've never had the patients or luck to see a while hatch with work etc but may wife and kids watched one that took 5 minutes. But by there description I think that it had already zipped. That is what can take longer than pushing out.

Small temp spikes are unavoidable. Open incy as little as you can but they are hardy little birds. Dont worry about what you can't control. Leave incy as is and let the weather be what it is.

You can handle them whenever you like. Just don't let them cool. They will have heat from your hand anyway so not too much of a prob. Just remember they sleep little and often when young so handle them for short intervals so they can eat drink and sleep. I wouldn't say they imprint like intelligent birds like parrots but certainly hand feeding will teach them where food comes from. They are really stupid birds. That's why I love them tbh.....

Thanks I covered everything....

Hope it helps

 

[rosa1347]

OK. Lots of questions. Let me give my opinion on my limited experience of 3 hatches.like you, I've read a lot of bad things about assisted hatches, but I have assisted with hatches with no problems. You just need to make sure to not be too eager. As long as you leave around 12 hours from piping that should be plenty time for yolk to absorb and blood to be absorbed. Saying that.... You may very well loose chicks at this stage. Its common for chicks to fail to zip and they die in the process. This isn't completely avoidable so be prepared. But if you feel you've left them piping long enough then, Yeh I would assist.

No I wouldn't be worried about membrane colour really. As long as chick is peeping.

Asking how long they take, is like asking how long human labour takes. They can start and stop, and have a nap. I've never had the patients or luck to see a while hatch with work etc but may wife and kids watched one that took 5 minutes. But by there description I think that it had already zipped. That is what can take longer than pushing out.

Small temp spikes are unavoidable. Open incy as little as you can but they are hardy little birds. Dont worry about what you can't control. Leave incy as is and let the weather be what it is.

You can handle them whenever you like. Just don't let them cool. They will have heat from your hand anyway so not too much of a prob. Just remember they sleep little and often when young so handle them for short intervals so they can eat drink and sleep. I wouldn't say they imprint like intelligent birds like parrots but certainly hand feeding will teach them where food comes from. They are really stupid birds. That's why I love them tbh.....

Thanks I covered everything....

Hope it helps

I keep checking back on him/her, and as of 3 pm which is in about 15 minutes from now, it will be a full 24 hours to when i found him/her pipped and so far he or she has not pregressed past where he was last night so i was concerned. when i talk to them they all start peeping and wiggling, even the ones who haven't quite started to zip yet so i think i might help him out and see how the rest do on their own. thank you so much for the info and input. just didn't wanna harm by helping him for sure, but also didn't want to mess up anything by letting the temp flux like that.

 

[ChickenLegs13]

The humidity is a bit lower than I like it. At this point, without opening the bator, I'd use a funnel and dump a cup of warm water thru the vent plug holes.
So it's been almost 24 hours; yeah that's waay too long. Mine pop out like popcorn popping. He's probably stuck in the shell and can't turn. If it looks like the membrane is forming itself around his beak, nose and face then he's shrink wrapped. If you open the bator to help him you're endangering the rest of the eggs that's pipping. I use a pair of needle pointed tweezers and nibble a zip line around the shell then set it back in the bator, usually the chick can get out then. If he's real dried out & stuck you might have to dab at the membrane with a warm wet papertowel to soften and unstick it so he can escape the shell. When he finally comes out, if he has small pieces of membrane or shell stuck to his fuzz, don't stress him more by trying to peel it all off. It will come off on it's own.
The temp fluctation you mentioned is not big enough to cause any harm. 99.5* - 100.5* is normal anyway.

 

[rosa1347]

The humidity is a bit lower than I like it. At this point, without opening the bator, I'd use a funnel and dump a cup of warm water thru the vent plug holes.
So it's been almost 24 hours; yeah that's waay too long. Mine pop out like popcorn popping. He's probably stuck in the shell and can't turn. If it looks like the membrane is forming itself around his beak, nose and face then he's shrink wrapped. If you open the bator to help him you're endangering the rest of the eggs that's pipping. I use a pair of needle pointed tweezers and nibble a zip line around the shell then set it back in the bator, usually the chick can get out then. If he's real dried out & stuck you might have to dab at the membrane with a warm wet papertowel to soften and unstick it so he can escape the shell. When he finally comes out, if he has small pieces of membrane or shell stuck to his fuzz, don't stress him more by trying to peel it all off. It will come off on it's own.
The temp fluctation you mentioned is not big enough to cause any harm. 99.5* - 100.5* is normal anyway.

I realized he pipped at the wrong end, got on it, and realized why he dried out and why he was weak. he pipped through a blood vein! i got the shell off, the membrane was like leather and i realized that the veins were black. he was stuck. right now he's doing well but i don't know how well he's going to do, i added water, more are hatching i have 3 so far! so i really really hop he makes it to the brooder. such beautiful babies!

 

[hoekzema1]

I am trying to hatch my first ostrich egg. But i really need to know is it normal for my ostrich egg to be leaking fluid through the egg?

 

[rosa1347]

I am trying to hatch my first ostrich egg. But i really need to know is it normal for my ostrich egg to be leaking fluid through the egg?

oh wow thats a big bird! is it cracked at all? i only did coturnix quail this time around and when i was a the start of incubation, the smaller cracks would leak after a couple days of incubation. but its a bigger egg and a different bird so i'm not sure. you might candle it to see if you can see and embryo.

 

[lomine]

I am trying to hatch my first ostrich egg. But i really need to know is it normal for my ostrich egg to be leaking fluid through the egg?

That doesn't sound right but i know nothing about ostrich. I suggest you start a post in this section https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/49/ostriches-emu-rheas

 

[birdeo]

If anyone has an oozer /leaker like that from any kind of egg throw it out asap...'lest you want to end up possibly trying to clean your incubator up from a stink-bomb going off in it.