It's Official...

[PeepsCA]

JL, when are your lock-down and hatch dates? I just put a few Guinea eggs in lockdown tonight since I had 2 pipped eggs...it's only day 24 tho. I also have another batch of Turkey eggs and 2 Peafowl eggs due for lockdown --- as soon as I see internal pips.

 

[JulieOK]

I had my first pip Saturday night, so I put them in lockdown. I could see the one that pipped pushing on the shell when I went to bed, but it was dead the next morning. When I did an "egg-topsy", it looked like the membrane shrink-wrapped him. The humidity in lockdown was high enough, what should I do next time?
It occured to me later that I couldn't be sure how long it had been pipped, so maybe I should have helped it the night before. I have been struggling to get some hatched, and this was my first, so it was really disappointing. Thoughts? I want to be better prepared next time.

 

[PeepsCA]

What was the RH in the incubator when you discovered the pip? And how big was the pip? Did you have the incubator open a long time adding water, taking out the turner, candling etc? If so the RH may have taken quite a while to recover and finally raise up to the higher % needed for hatching, and if it was a big open pip then that may have been why the membrane sucked down over the little guy and he wore himself out overnight, but it's hard to say. What kind of incubator are you using? Still air incubators sometimes take a long time to recover the RH from having the lid open... but forced air incubators can also dry out the membranes quickly, depending on the size of the pip

Next time you put eggs into lock-down you could be sure to lock them down before you have any external pips, and if you do have pips then I'd try giving the eggs a quick mist with a fine mist spray bottle (don't soak the eggs, just a quick misting is fine) then close the hatcher down and then cross your fingers that no more shrink wrapping happens

How many eggs do you have left in lock-down?

 

[JulieOK]

The RH in the incubator before I saw the pip was 55%, but I had taken the egg out before I noticed the pip because it was right on the number (argh!). It was only out of the incubator about a minute before I saw it, then I put it back in VERY quickly. I immediately put some wet sponges in there and brought the RH up within a few minutes to over 70%. It is a still air incubator, but I have a gauge sticking down in it, telling me the RH and temp.

The pip was not very large - all of the shell was still there, and the membrane was not visible. I watched him continue to push at it after I put him back, and he really looked like he was making progress to make it bigger.

The one thing I did notice once I opened it up, he was too big to have been able to turn around and finish the zip. I would probably have had to help him out anyway.

I have two more eggs in lockdown, but I cannot see any movement in them. Maybe they are too big to move too? What do you think I should do with them? Today is day 28.

Thank you for any suggestions!

 

[PeepsCA]

I don't think you did any harm to the egg since it was just a small pip (I move pipped eggs over to my hatcher all the time and they usually all hatch fine). IMO you did everything you could to get it to hatch on its own. It just sounds like the keet was not strong enough to hatch to me.... or maybe it was just so big it got itself tangled up in there and could not spin and zip the shell and he ran out of oxygen. Some eggs just do not hatch, no matter how hard we try to make sure everything goes perfectly.

Hmm, no movement in the other 2 eggs... are the air cells slanted? What's your temp been at for the incubation? I'd give them at least until day 30 before candling and checking again. Then give up if you see no sign of life and do eggtopsies on those too. Bummer that you only had 3 eggs to work with in the hatch.

Are these from your own birds (possibly pullet eggs?), or were they shipped eggs? Because sometimes pullet eggs and shipped eggs both can go thru their own set of struggles, if they even make it to the hatch/lockdown date...

 

[JulieOK]

These eggs are from my flock, which are all a year old - what does "pullet" mean? This is my first time to try to incubate eggs, and I got an incubator that had problems with temperature spikes a few weeks ago, so I cannot know for sure what temperature they were incubated at. It was 101.5 on the top of the eggs in the morning when I left for work and in the evening when I got back every day, but I now know it got hotter during the day. I have since replaced it with a Genesis - I am not taking chances any more!

I put a few eggs in each day as the hens were laying them, and these are the last three. I really did not think they would hatch, so I am really excited that the last one at least tried.

I worry that the other two are too big for the egg, and that might be why I don't see much movement... I know it is against all wise advice, but I would really like to try to help them... The air cell is slanted somewhat - the other keet was very big in the shell. How bad would it be if I peeked again???

 

[JulieOK]

Oh, and thank you for your help. It makes me feel better to hear what you think!

 

[perchie.girl]

These eggs are from my flock, which are all a year old - what does "pullet" mean? This is my first time to try to incubate eggs, and I got an incubator that had problems with temperature spikes a few weeks ago, so I cannot know for sure what temperature they were incubated at. It was 101.5 on the top of the eggs in the morning when I left for work and in the evening when I got back every day, but I now know it got hotter during the day. I have since replaced it with a Genesis - I am not taking chances any more!

I put a few eggs in each day as the hens were laying them, and these are the last three. I really did not think they would hatch, so I am really excited that the last one at least tried.

I worry that the other two are too big for the egg, and that might be why I don't see much movement... I know it is against all wise advice, but I would really like to try to help them... The air cell is slanted somewhat - the other keet was very big in the shell. How bad would it be if I peeked again???

Hi JulieOK... a Pullet in poultry is a bird that is jsut about ready to lay eggs or has just started to lay eggs. I believe they are called pullet till the eggs are full sized. many people dont think pullet eggs are firtile.... some arent but I hatched out three of four pullet eggs last year.

deb

 

[PeepsCA]

If by peeking again you mean candling the 2 remaining eggs... it shouldn't hurt, as long as they haven't pipped. If you are referring to opening up the eggs... I wouldn't recommend that. If the keet has not absorbed the blood supply in the membrane completely you can hit a vein and make the keet bleed out, and die. Your Hens' egg season still has a long ways to go before they'll be done laying or the year, so I'm sure you will collect more eggs and be flooded with keets soon (but just so you know it's a better idea to collect more eggs over a week to 10 days time and set them all at once so you don't end up with just one keet hatching, and being all alone).

And yah, by "pullet eggs" I was asking if the eggs were from any of your own Guineas Hens that were young first timers, laying their first eggs. Sometimes the eggs can be small and the keets can have a difficult time hatching. Not always, but I was trying to figure out what could have gone wrong. Sounds to me like temp spikes/fluctuations may be the cause of the hatching issues tho.

 

[JulieOK]

Thanks to both of you! I appreciate you explaining this stuff to me.

Yes, Peeps, you are right about the staggered hatch. I figured out the problems I had set up for myself by setting them every day, but by then, it was too late. I just had to wait to see how it turned out at that point.

I just set 42 more last Sunday - in my new Genesis - so I am hopeful they will turn out much better!