Help!!! I can get my call ducks to hatching day then they die. WHY

[Beautiful]

OK My Friends!!!... Hows your hatches going as of today?

 

[sherylreno]

I have 17 Welsh Harlequin's due to hatch next Thursday, lockdown on Monday. Let's hope I can get them to hatch. 4 of them are with a broody chicken hen, her first time doing this as it's mine as well having a hen hatch out ducks. I heard it was done several times before and I'll let everyone know how it goes next week. Her eggs are due the 27th and 28th of April.

 

[mcbirdlady]

ok today is day 25 i am putting the hole in them and locking them down. please wish me luck i have 6 eggs.

 

[carolynm]

How do you go about putting a hole in them. I have 12 due, 3 have hatched but the other nothing..they were moving yesterday. I think I need to take action. What do you use to make the hole? And how big do you make it? Pictures would be wonderful.

 

[fowllover]

ok today is day 25 i am putting the hole in them and locking them down. please wish me luck i have 6 eggs.

How did you come out with this? Did the hole help?

 

[Sweetfolly]

If you do put a hole in the eggs before you put them into lockdown, keep the humidity in the incubator as HIGH as you can get it! Putting a hole in the egg (which I do sometimes do with some of my Call eggs) too soon can cause the network of blood vessels in the inner membrane to actually dry up before they're absorbed into the body if the humidity in your incubator is too low. When I open an egg and I see that there are still blood vessels, I crank up the humidity and wrap them up in a wet cloth - then, I leave them alone for 12 - 24 hours, until I see that the blood vessels are absorbed. After that, you can take some more of the shell away and begin to very gently peel some of the membrane away. Again, don't do this too soon. If the yolk has not been absorbed yet, the duckling's navel is not healed over, and there will be an open hole in their abdomen!

When you do it right and have a healthy little baby hatch out into your hand, it makes you feel a bit like a successful surgeon.

Good luck!

 

[fowllover]

If you do put a hole in the eggs before you put them into lockdown, keep the humidity in the incubator as HIGH as you can get it! Putting a hole in the egg (which I do sometimes do with some of my Call eggs) too soon can cause the network of blood vessels in the inner membrane to actually dry up before they're absorbed into the body if the humidity in your incubator is too low. When I open an egg and I see that there are still blood vessels, I crank up the humidity and wrap them up in a wet cloth - then, I leave them alone for 12 - 24 hours, until I see that the blood vessels are absorbed. After that, you can take some more of the shell away and begin to very gently peel some of the membrane away. Again, don't do this too soon. If the yolk has not been absorbed yet, the duckling's navel is not healed over, and there will be an open hole in their abdomen!

When you do it right and have a healthy little baby hatch out into your hand, it makes you feel a bit like a successful surgeon.

Good luck!

Thanks for the info! Do you find it useful to wait closer to hatch day to do the hole? I know that opening the incubator during lockdown is a big tabu but it is a bit scary to me to put a hole on Day 23 (lockdown) Thoughts?

 

[Sweetfolly]

Thanks for the info! Do you find it useful to wait closer to hatch day to do the hole? I know that opening the incubator during lockdown is a big tabu but it is a bit scary to me to put a hole on Day 23 (lockdown) Thoughts?

I always wait until the duckling pips into the air cell before I put a small hole in the egg. I don't know if there's anything scientific in it, but I've found that putting a hole in the egg and exposing the duckling to that much oxygen too soon somehow interferes with the normal hatching process and they don't absorb their blood vessels or yolk correctly. I use an old redwood cabinet incubator with manual turning trays, and I stagger my hatches - so, there are eggs that are 1 week, 2 weeks, and 3 weeks into development in the top trays while the eggs in the bottom tray are hatching, so I have to open the incubator to turn the other eggs even during a hatch.

This is what works for me, with my Call ducks, in my climate, so it may not work for everyone. When I set the eggs in the incubator, I write down the approximate date that those eggs should go into "lockdown". On that day, I candle them. If I see that they're pipped into the air cell and moving around, I put them back and leave them alone to try to hatch on their own. I'll keep candling them twice a day until they either pip on their own, or, if they don't pip through the shell on their own after 3 days (the duckling has approx. 3 days of oxygen once it's in the air cell before it suffocates - and it's actually the beginning stages of suffocation that cause a chick or duckling;s neck to spasm and pip through the shell during a normal hatch, so you want to give them the chance to get to that point), I take a flat razor blade and very carefully bore a small air hole in the shell. After I make the air hole, I leave them alone for another day to give them a chance to hatch on their own. About 80% of my Call eggs hatch on their own, but I know I've saved a lot of them this spring since I've started this method of hatching. My incubator is in my basement, which is old and damp (our house was built in the 1930's), so opening the incubator during hatching doesn't bother me - the relative humidity outside of the incubator is high enough that it doesn't cause a problem.

Some of my eggs develop all the way to hatch but the ducklings never even break into the air cell. In my experience, there's nothing you can do to save these ducklings.

 

[aly998]

that exact thing has happend to my ducklings I really need some one to tell me whats wrong.why are they dying 2 days before they are born?

please tell me why!