June Hatch A Long

[CluckNDoodle]

My broody is on day 18. I wonder, do they stop turning the eggs? Do they stay on the nest and not leave? I guess I will find out. Meanwhile I am preparing a pen within the coop for her and the chicks. She is pretty low in the pecking order and also a bantam amongst large hens, so I want to help her keep the babies safe.

They will still get up but they don't dry out their environment like a heating element does and so far I've never seen a dry membrane on a chick under my broodies.
They also don't turn the eggs like we do. They gently reposition them for better contact under their bodies but they have a perfect little environment under their bodies exactly as nature intended for hatching chicks so I try not to question it too much, lol! So excited for you! Can't wait to see peep pictures!

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Im in! Just got a new incubator from a friend and 2 dozen fertile chicken eggs + 3 from my own flock. im setting them tonight!! All mixed breeds and the ones from my flock would be platinum sussex cross blacktailed buff pekin bantam.

Welcome!

 

[jolenesdad]

I was ready for her today.

Yessssssss. How were the eggs coming along??

Im in! Just got a new incubator from a friend and 2 dozen fertile chicken eggs + 3 from my own flock. im setting them tonight!! All mixed breeds and the ones from my flock would be platinum sussex cross blacktailed buff pekin bantam.

Welcome! Can’t wait to watch your progress!!!

My broody is on day 18. I wonder, do they stop turning the eggs? Do they stay on the nest and not leave? I guess I will find out. Meanwhile I am preparing a pen within the coop for her and the chicks. She is pretty low in the pecking order and also a bantam amongst large hens, so I want to help her keep the babies safe.

I think that’s a fabulous idea. It makes me nervous when a broody has to protect her chicks on her own, but of course most do super well. Never hurts to be prepared!



@Kris5902 how are the last eggs this morning? I’m sorry the end has been a bit stressful. There are SO many things that can happen and go wrong in incubation, and we always have to remember that Mother Nature is one of the biggest cullers of them all, especially at hatch and at birth for animals.

Whatever we choose to do, the energy and intentions are from the best spot, and what else could the chicks ask for?

 

[jolenesdad]

Ugh I’m also having major @LilyD feed withdrawals this morning!

But so cool you have a clip up!!! Memories. ;-)

 

[LilyD]

Okay.... questions. If anyone knows...

I’m thankful for all of these situations presenting themselves and want to make sure I learn as much as I can from them all! It’s part of what gives me confidence in hatching is participating in something like this so if my own things go wrong I can learn from them and feel like there was a greater purpose for the future. Forgive any dumb questions, please.

Siblings..... so were they set at the same time?

Is it possible to know what could cause the first six or so to have pipped so many days before? And pipped before the yolks were absorbed? Was it their size? Can something happen to cause such drastic growth that they would need to pip the shell but not technically be ready like temp or genetics or ?

And why would these two not have been affected in the same way?

These eggs were given to me with the Momma ducks and I am assuming that she was already broody and sitting at the time. I picked up ducks for my niece from two different locations one came to me with 6 duck eggs and a chicken egg all from one Momma.

The other set of eggs came from two ducks one was 2 years and one was 9 months. I got 6 eggs from her and then one was laid in the car on the way home. I believe the last two eggs in that batch had not been sat upon at all. Of those eggs all but 4 were early quitters with blood rings. Two of those were the yellow ducks that internally pipped but didn't have energy to get out of the egg.

I have had unusually high humidity due to an almost solid month of rain. Even without water the incubator stayed above 50 for humidity the entire incubation. I believe that higher humidity had something to do with the unusual high amount of growth in the chicks that did pip internally. Let's face it they were monsters but I am also thinking that they were incubated by the Momma duck before I got them as they all hatched about 2 days early.

In order for them to be able to absorb the yolk they have to externally pip the egg and begin breathing which signals their bodies to start absorbing and once that is done to begin the zipping process. Because these chicks were so big they couldn't externally pip so instead internally did. I waited 24 hours and then did the safety hole and they started absorbing. It is not unusual for ducks to take 24-48 hours to completely absorb their yolk sac and veins. They are just slow to hatch in general and to actually start moving around once out of the egg as well.

My guess on the yellow chicks is that they were all from the other mothers and were not incubated they internally pipped last night. Unfortunately one did so through a major vein and did not make it. The other I made a safety hole in last night before bed and it was dead this morning. Also the little yellow duck in the brooder was also gone this morning I believe they were all from the same duck and drake.

The one in the brooder seemed like she was struggling to breathe although she was moving and did make an attempt to drink when I offered her water last night. My guess is that the eggs from that pairing (Drake to Duck) were not good. Those ducks are now with a blue drake so we will see if they hatch better the next hatch. They were also in a very dirty area as well and were among the very dirty eggs that were in the incubator so there is possible that contamination got to the inside of the egg since the shells are porous. These are guesses on my part I marked the eggs as to which ducks they came from. Those that were yellow and didn't seem fully developed (smaller and less color were all from the same ducks and drake).

There were two that were from the first batch of eggs but I believe that those were fully developed and quit during the hatch. So all in all I started with 13 eggs from two sources 7 were first batch 6 were second. I had a total of three that didn't develop at all which took me down to 10 of those 10 one was a late quitter and stopped moving around day 22 I went in to lock down with 5 from the first batch and 4 from the second batch of eggs. The first batch I hatched out 3 total ducks that are doing well now.

Second batch I had 4 total that did internally pip but weren't ready to I think raising the humidity made them internally pip early and they had not finished developing totally. Fingers crossed with changing out the drake that is being used with these girls and improving where they are living and laying their eggs that we will get better hatch results. We currently have 10 eggs under the duck that was broody before we bought her. She broke and then went broody again a few days later and was allowed to make a nest and we filled it with a combination of the 4 total ducks eggs.

I will also re-calibrate my incubators just to be safe and make sure my temps are accurate as higher temps can cause them to grow to fast which we saw in the three that did hatch and the two quitters from that batch of eggs.

 

[LilyD]

Ugh I’m also having major @LilyD feed withdrawals this morning!

But so cool you have a clip up!!! Memories. ;-)

Camera is on it's way scheduled to arrive today I'll try to get it set up once I get home

Missing my duckies too this morning. The three that survived are very active and are trying already to clime the walls of the brooder and get into everything.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Ugh I’m also having major @LilyD feed withdrawals this morning!

But so cool you have a clip up!!! Memories. ;-)

You and me both! I wasn't sure what to do with myself this morning without duckies to watch with my coffee, lol!

I candled my 4 goose eggs this morning and they are REALLY filling their eggs!! Tomorrow is lockdown! I don't think I'm going to hand turn them all the way over anymore and just leave the IncuView to do the 1/4 turn until the end of tomorrow. My first time hatching goslings and my first hatch in the IncuView Incubator!

 

[LilyD]

Ok, got home and as I worried I lost the shrink wrapped egg I oiled, the oil dried on, Husband didn’t re oil it, he was worried to open the incubator. And the poor thing was basically shellacked in place. Of my 7 remaining Marans eggs, from my probably too young but I tried anyway pullet, two are good, chirping and alive. One is shrink wrapped much like the last chick... not internally pipped yet... but with a dried out inner membrane. It’s my fault, I know. I have oiled it... it’s still very much alive, humidity and temp returning to 70% and good... how often will I need to re oil this chick? Is there anything else I should do?

You can see it’s still alive but I can’t see the beak at all... it looks much like the first one did. I’m almost done here, down to my last three eggs, the others all quit, not especially early but not particularly late. Considering how young mama is I’m not as surprised by this.

I did it about every 6 hours I had much the same issue yesterday with my husband not really doing anything and I think had I not been at work and could have intervened earlier the little yellow chick that was all hatched might have been okay. Not really sure but I always beat myself up when I lose them.

 

[LilyD]

Would not use Saran wrap personally. I can think of too many things that could go wrong with it...

No because in essense that would smother the egg since the saran wrap isn't porous like the egg shell.

 

[jolenesdad]

In order for them to be able to absorb the yolk they have to externally pip the egg and begin breathing which signals their bodies to start absorbing and once that is done to begin the zipping process.

Holy %#{* I cannot believe I missed this memo I’m so glad I asked these questions and was here for this chat.

So on ones that have internally pipped... but not externally... are they not technically breathing oxygen yet? Is this a 24 hour window you will allow them to stay there before making a safety hole?

Also, does the safety hole and the oxygen then signal to them to start absorbing the yolk?

Thank you so much for taking the time for these explanations. Wow.

Okay so also, super cool, they were probably developing, and continued to even with a pause and transport to you.