CHICKS Wet? Sticky? Stuck? I wrote this when discussing some things about call ducks this mornin... sharing here.
There are two types of sticky chicks
Sticky embryos (embryos may be smeared with egg contents / yolk residual present) (yellow jelly/jello or other fluids)
HOWEVER, a green and gray tinted fluid can be caused from osteomylitis or meconium)
causes: any/all combination of the following:
high average incubation humidity
low incubation temperature
lack of sufficient ventilation
too many drafts of outside air in the hatcher
BREED ISSUES: Always avoid cross breeding in breeds that carry lethal genes.
are we aware of Lethal genes for this breed of duck Rav?
Embryos sticking or adhering to shell
causes: in any/all combination of the following:
Low incubation humidity (especially during hatching)
Excessive ventilation~ reduce rate but maintain minimum air exchange to prevent suffocation of embryos.
To confuse you a bit more, the amount of water that a chick has in its own tissues (not the albumen) has been shown to increase during incubation under perfect conditions;
however, rate of egg water loss is found to have no effect on embryonic water, how could this be if we get big wet chicks from high humidity? Makes you think outside the box, perhaps it is in fact LOW TEMPS not the hearsay on humidity? Although AGAIN combination is usually the factor.
TEMPERATURE: Changes in temps during incubation result in losses. Incubation temperature is one the most critical factors during embryo development, AGAIN studies have shown the optimum temperature is more 99.9. NOT FORGETTING that also its optimal to drop in temps during hatch, as I suggest in my article
Hatching Eggs 101 in the lower day 18 section. So it may be worth a shot for you, and I am not clear on your temps or calibration, Hammond found that a bit higher incubation temps increase chick initial body weight believe it or not, at the higher temp 99.9 the higher the rate of egg water loss in the first 16 days of incubation. What I have found is when I incubate at a slightly elevated temp 100 to 100.5
calibrated I have much cleaner hatches. They found that its the opposite with low temps, body weight of chicks were less. Then you get into the additional factors of adding low high temps with humidity and ventilation.... Best we can do is work these areas to achieve absolute and relative weights. IN KNOWING THAT and then factor in that EACH EGG & breeds are different in age, air cell size, genetics etc.
The Cuticle removal in hatching eggs as a means to reduce weight loss: Has actually been found to increase embryo weight during incubation and has direct relationship between rate of egg water loss, embryonic metabolism, and growth during incubation. But that warning of contamination is there if you dont follow cleaning procedures correctly. Chlorine treated eggs were not altered either. So with all that it is found that cuticle removal can be an effective method for increasing growth and egg weight loss.
that's just how it goes sometimes. But I had a freaking blast.
how are you feeling now though....
