JUNE - JULY HATCH-ALONG!!!!!!!

[Enigmius]

They can be early, especially if temperature were too high. However, if you don’t see internal pips in the other eggs then that’s probably not the case. When you candle, do you still see movement in this embryo? Are you planning to hatch on their sides or large end up? If you are hatching on their sides, then you can position this egg so that you can see the bruised area, in case it is pipping there. Other than keep a closer eye on this guy at lockdown, I don’t think that there is a lot that you can do at this point...

It was still moving, slowly. But then again all the ones that far along move a lot slower/less than the younger ones. Less room to move? Of course it is also a lot harder to see inside the egg now. I dunno. I am planning on hatching vertically. I know that in the wild, eggs hatch more horizontal than vertical, but it just makes logical sense to me. They were incubated vertically, and so it would seem that they would hatch better in that format since their spacial awareness developed in that manner. I'm just guessing Its all just a guess. Perhaps, if this one is malpositioned( if it is confirmed by someone here later), I might hatch this one on its side. But, I'll have to figure some way to support that area upward.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

It was still moving, slowly. But then again all the ones that far along move a lot slower/less than the younger ones. Less room to move? Of course it is also a lot harder to see inside the egg now. I dunno. I am planning on hatching vertically. I know that in the wild, eggs hatch more horizontal than vertical, but it just makes logical sense to me. They were incubated vertically, and so it would seem that they would hatch better in that format since their spacial awareness developed in that manner. I'm just guessing Its all just a guess. Perhaps, if this one is malpositioned( if it is confirmed by someone here later), I might hatch this one on its side. But, I'll have to figure some way to support that area upward.

We had this whole discussion in the June hatchalong about vertical vs horizontal position of hatch of duck eggs! It seemed to me that people have had luck/failures with both... I think though with a bruise on the narrow side me you might want to let that egg lay in a horizontal position... @CluckNDoodle , @LilyD (hope I remembered those right!) any thoughts?

 

[LilyD]

We had this whole discussion in the June hatchalong about vertical vs horizontal position of hatch of duck eggs! It seemed to me that people have had luck/failures with both... I think though with a bruise on the narrow side me you might want to let that egg lay in a horizontal position... @CluckNDoodle , @LilyD (hope I remembered those right!) any thoughts?

I agree a bruise towards the narrow end means that the chick is trying to pip the narrow end, hopefully laying it down will encourage it to change position and pip the other side instead. Fingers crossed they hatch okay. All you can do is watch and wait and assist if needed.

 

[Enigmius]

I agree a bruise towards the narrow end means that the chick is trying to pip the narrow end, hopefully laying it down will encourage it to change position and pip the other side instead. Fingers crossed they hatch okay. All you can do is watch and wait and assist if needed.

When you say, "hopefully laying it down will encourage it to change position and pip the other side instead", do you mean I should put it in a horizontal position with the bruise toward the floor of the incubator?
Also, should I try to move it into the lockdown-incubator now? And Should I intervene some how at some point if things don't go in a good direction?

 

[LilyD]

When you say, "hopefully laying it down will encourage it to change position and pip the other side instead", do you mean I should put it in a horizontal position with the bruise toward the floor of the incubator?
Also, should I try to move it into the lockdown-incubator now? And Should I intervene some how at some point if things don't go in a good direction?

No I would still have the bruised side facing up that way if they continue an external pip through that area you will be able to assist from there. I have had it happen both ways. Where they try the pip there and then flip and continue through the air cell and also had them zip and open the small end of the egg to get out. Sometimes if they pip through one of the major vessels it can cause to much bleeding and then they don't make it but if they pipped well chances are you can assist with making it an external pip if they can't and then wait while the vessels recede and they absorb them and the yolk and then either they will zip themselves or you can assist them in hatching the rest of the way if need be.

 

[LilyD]

The only one thing that is always true is that they don't read the books we have on egg hatching lol. Had quite a few that have pipped wrong or hatched weird in general. You have to take each case as they occur for sure.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Granite eggs huh! I thought about stones in the empty slots for eggs but am afraid that all of that weight would stress the turner... I even thought of buying a couple dozen table eggs, but I guess I’d have to replace them every week for fear they’d go bad...

The granite eggs I use are small, I want to say they were sold as 1.5-2"? I originally bought some 3" eggs which were much too large and heavy...my daughter absconded with those and is making a "dragon egg nest" lol, kids.
This is a picture of a couple of the jade eggs in the nest box with the chicken eggs, they really seem to like laying in the boxes that have the natural stone eggs, lol. They're also much easier to clean than the porcelain ones because of the polished surface.

Did you all know that there is another June July hatch along going???

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/june-to-july-hatch-a-long.1318338/

LOL! No! I didn't know that! When I asked about it this is the one I found first.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Hi all! New month, new hatch-a-long! (sorry this is a long post)

This month I will only have one hatch, but it'll be a big one. 40 muscovy duck eggs are due the 8th. I've had THE worst luck with the ducks this year, many late deaths.

I've identified 2 problems: insufficient turning since I put them small-end-down. This time they're on their side, and an additional 180 degree manual turn each day. 2nd problem I noticed when I first candled the eggs. The bottom tray had 5 undeveloped eggs, while the top had none. All duck eggs have been incubated in the bottom tray. I've swapped them twice a day from day 7.

I found this article: Artificial Incubation of Muscovy Ducks (pdf link at the bottom) that found a correlation between egg size/shape and late deaths. The late deaths in this experiment were smaller and lighter than the normal hatches. I decided to put that to the test and measured all my eggs.

View attachment 1830142
The average egg is about 6,6 cm long and 70 grams.
(L on the side means small air bubble. (smal = narrow, rund = round, spiss = pointy))
I also marked their air bubbles, which are a bit small for my liking.
View attachment 1830143

So now I'll wait and see...

I look forward to hearing about your findings! Good luck with your hatch!

 

[CluckNDoodle]

I'm holding off till Tuesday to see if I get any more hatches, but right now it's not looking good, I set 30 eggs total, lost 3 to breakage and now have just 7 chirping little loud mouths, that's what about a 25% hatch rate? I'm going to have to blame it on operator error and un-fertile eggs, I've got 6 that I am 99.9 percent sure aren't fertile. But the best thing, the 7 that are here are doing fine, eating on their own and you can hear them down the block..lol.

I'm sorry you didn't have a great hatch rate but I'm happy that the chicks that have hatched so far are healthy!

@Mixed flock enthusiast , it's hard to know what went wrong, but I'm glad to hear that your two that hatched are doing well. my first hatch was a 6 out of 6, the next few were 5 out of 6, the final for the small incubator before it got put up for a while was a 3 out of 6, this one so far has been dismal. I've got 6 in the small incubator, no signs of hatching, had 21 in the big one, 7 have hatched, 6 at least I am sure are un-fertile. 2 more I have questions about, but the remaining looked just fine when I put them on lock down. So I don't know..

If it makes you feel any better I've been doing small batch hatches since February and I've had great hatch rates until June. I wonder if it has something to do with the actual hens being under heat stress before laying the eggs? I'm about to find out because it was in the mid to high 90s for the 3 days that the eggs I'm currently incubating were collected!

View attachment 1830880
The coturnix quail hatch rate is already MUCH better than my previous bobwhite quail hatch rate!!!
Also!! Both of my muscovies pipped! I can finally breath a small sigh of relief. They’re still kicking! Still trying!

So exciting to hear that your hatch is going so well!!

I guess we need some bad luck to keep us humble...

I didn't want to be humbled! lol! I liked my great hatch rates!
July is going to turn around for us! It has to! June was just too sad!

 

[two j farm]

I guess my broody hen was smarter then I thought. She kicked the 2 eggs out that I added. Nope not sitting on this she said lol.