June Hatch A Long

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

View attachment 1818541 I haven’t had time to catch up on post here, life has been insanely stressful with a family member in the hospital, my daughter surgery last week and my mom recovering from a stroke. They say things come in 3s, let’s hope that was it!

The eggs have been a nice small distraction for a few minutes each day. Today is lockdown!!! 4 out of 5 eggs were already wiggling like crazy. I don’t think the 5th will hatch. The breeder sent 2 extra, and it was longer and skinnier than I would want, but I put it in. It’s developing, but I don’t have too much hope for it.

Wow, that’s a lot to deal with! I hope that your family members all recover well. Good luck on your hatch! I was incubating shipped BCM eggs too, but am down to 2 on day 17. Fingers crossed for yours!!

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Thank you so much guys !!! I have a pic from when he was out when I last assisted, is that okay enough ? It was right before I put him back in so it wasn't long ago. You guys have really put my mind at ease, thank you so much ! I'll figure out how to attach the pics here in a minute

@HolyDuckBatman
Just last week I had to assist 2 goslings to hatch where the membrane was starting to dry out and darken as you can see in this first picture I did peel back some of the shell, careful to stay in the air cell at the rounded end of the egg, this makes it much easier to avoid the blood vessels.
In the second picture, they were much closer to being ready to hatch. I gently peeled back more shell to make it easier to apply the coconut oil with a q-tip, avoiding the nose so they could still breathe easily.
At one point I did accidentally make one bleed a little and like you, I just added a little pressure to stop the bleeding and they both hatched just fine!
Waterfowl take a very very very long time to hatch as we've been discussing a lot this month! lol

 

[CluckNDoodle]

View attachment 1818541 I haven’t had time to catch up on post here, life has been insanely stressful with a family member in the hospital, my daughter surgery last week and my mom recovering from a stroke. They say things come in 3s, let’s hope that was it!

The eggs have been a nice small distraction for a few minutes each day. Today is lockdown!!! 4 out of 5 eggs were already wiggling like crazy. I don’t think the 5th will hatch. The breeder sent 2 extra, and it was longer and skinnier than I would want, but I put it in. It’s developing, but I don’t have too much hope for it.

Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry to hear you're dealing with so much!
I hope your hatch goes well and you get lots of snuggles from those peeps!

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

I believe they are. They're being sold as straight run but I'm pretty sure the two out so far are girls. I'm moving them to the brooder this afternoon if slow poke isn't out yet. The membrane still has some veins on it so it just needs a little more time.

Nice! Our WH breeder told us that they would be autosexing, but they were not. Also turned out that they weren’t pure WH as half were white ducks! All
same type and great layers though. Here they were as big babies!

 

[HolyDuckBatman]

Okay the first pic is from around 3 am when I started to assist. The second before I made this post after gently moving it with a q tip. He didn't bleed until I got around the bottom of the air cell. I didn't intend to get that far down.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Okay the first pic is from around 3 am when I started to assist. The second before I made this post after gently moving it with a q tip. He didn't bleed until I got around the bottom of the air cell. I didn't intend to get that far down.

You wouldn't have been able to get as far as you did without him being close to being ready to hatch. I'd say he'll probably be ready by later this afternoon if not sooner. Ducks seem much better about keeping still while they're still absorbing their yolk sac. Once he's ready he will start kicking around more. Now it's just a matter of time!

 

[HolyDuckBatman]

@HolyDuckBatman
Just last week I had to assist 2 goslings to hatch where the membrane was starting to dry out and darken as you can see in this first picture I did peel back some of the shell, careful to stay in the air cell at the rounded end of the egg, this makes it much easier to avoid the blood vessels.
In the second picture, they were much closer to being ready to hatch. I gently peeled back more shell to make it easier to apply the coconut oil with a q-tip, avoiding the nose so they could still breathe easily.
At one point I did accidentally make one bleed a little and like you, I just added a little pressure to stop the bleeding and they both hatched just fine!
Waterfowl take a very very very long time to hatch as we've been discussing a lot this month! lol

View attachment 1818544
View attachment 1818545
View attachment 1818549

THANK YOU so much for telling me this & I am sooo glad that your babies are okay, & OMGGG they are sooooo adorable !!!

 

[jolenesdad]

Ugh, I’m not feeling the love on shipped eggs right now! Yours look alive at least! I couldn’t see into these BCM well enough to tell if they were developing in layers like that, but I do seem to recall someone else talking about this issue in shipped eggs. I’ve been practicing on candling dark eggs and can finally get a good idea of what I’m looking for, at least this late in development. So, I decided to re-candle the eggs tonight, day 17, ahead of broody placement tomorrow. Of the 12 shipped eggs I set, only ONE looks good with one questionable (embryo filled the shell but no movement). Of our own OE eggs, I think that one is DIS, leaving five. I pulled the BCM eggs that are clearly not filled with a 17 day baby out and examined closely with the high intensity light. All have dead embryos, some quite small and some that were maybe midway through. I’m really pretty sad about the whole shipped eggs thing (first time with shipped eggs).

Boooooooo. Late quitters are the worst and why I’m questioning shipped eggs. This time I’ve got 16 shipped eggs and I’m almost at lockdown and I feel like I’ll be lucky to get 4 or 5 out. That’s too sad that they are so far along!

Hugs!!! Crossing fingers for what’s left?

Woke up to two babies!! The third is still hanging out. Plus side, looks like two girls so far. I did a time lapse video for my friends daughter so she could see. She came yesterday and left probably 30 minutes before the first one hatched.

YAY!!!!!!

I got the second one out of the shell. So two out of 34. Blah.

Great job, sorry for the hatch overall....

Great time lapse video! Adorable ducklings! Are yours autosexing? I understand that a lot of WH breeders no longer select for that trait.

I don’t get why they would have stopped! Disappointing for sure.

View attachment 1818541 I haven’t had time to catch up on post here, life has been insanely stressful with a family member in the hospital, my daughter surgery last week and my mom recovering from a stroke. They say things come in 3s, let’s hope that was it!

The eggs have been a nice small distraction for a few minutes each day. Today is lockdown!!! 4 out of 5 eggs were already wiggling like crazy. I don’t think the 5th will hatch. The breeder sent 2 extra, and it was longer and skinnier than I would want, but I put it in. It’s developing, but I don’t have too much hope for it.

Same here! What a WEEK.and I don’t know if I’ve hit three yet. Ugh! I’m SO GLAD we have this thread with babies popping out EVERYWHERE!!!

Okay the first pic is from around 3 am when I started to assist. The second before I made this post after gently moving it with a q tip. He didn't bleed until I got around the bottom of the air cell. I didn't intend to get that far down.

You’re doing great with all the information and experience you have. Give it your best shot and what will be will be. Good luck!!! (And it’s looking good!)

 

[jolenesdad]

@jolenesdad , I love your videos. What kind of set up are you using for your candling? I've got a sad dyi job, a heat lamp/work lamp base, a bright led and a roll of tp around that, I set the eggs on top and just move them around. Some I can see veining, others just a tiny dot and others nothing.

Thanks!

I use my iPhone and take a video or Live Photo. Then I use a free app called GIPHY CAM to make a gif so that I can just upload it like a photo here instead of using YouTube. It works great because you can make a 5 second clip on a gif. It does reduce some quality but it’s quick, and it loops!

For candling I use two lights. One of the candlers with a base, like 25.00 on Amazon, and then I use a magic fly flashlight candler WITH a cord. The corded lights are brighter than battery lights. It was 15.00 on Amazon.

The additional light from the bottom PLUS the light from the top makes all the difference.

If you have any light leaking in your setup cover it with electrical tape. Then add a flashlight to the other Side of the egg. If you have any kind of like ace bandage or wrap (vet wrap is great) you can wrap it around the top of the flashlight to focus the light, prevent light leaks, and, make it soft for the egg. Does that make sense? I have a photo somewhere of what I used to use before the magicfly if you want.

Oh! Also... this is how I take the photos while using two hands. It’s a paper cup I cut a holder into. It’s the cheapest and best tripod ever.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

THANK YOU so much for telling me this & I am sooo glad that your babies are okay, & OMGGG they are sooooo adorable !!!

Thanks! And I'm happy I was able to give you a little peace of mind. I hope the rest of your hatch goes smoothly for you and your sweet little ducky!