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

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

OK. I'm just going cross my fingers and leave the bird in there. I'll keep an eye on it. Sorry for all the anxiety..new duck-dad and all. I mean I've have ducks, but they were mail order. I've never tried to hatch before. I appreciate everyone's help, experience, and patience. lol

It’s all good, and it’s confusing trying to sort things out. Congratulations on you first duckling!!!

 

[Enigmius]

It’s all good, and it’s confusing trying to sort things out. Congratulations on you first duckling!!!

Thank you. The egg that eternally pipped(next to the one that hatched today) last night is now being zipped. And another egg is now externally pipped. I'm super excited.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

OK. I'm just going cross my fingers and leave the bird in there. I'll keep an eye on it. Sorry for all the anxiety..new duck-dad and all. I mean I've have ducks, but they were mail order. I've never tried to hatch before. I appreciate everyone's help, experience, and patience. lol

We've all been there! I still get anxious when I see anything out of the norm on hatch day and I've hatched a lot of chicks. Lol

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Thank you. The egg that eternally pipped(next to the one that hatched today) last night is now being zipped. And another egg is now externally pipped. I'm super excited.

 

[Enigmius]

The swamp-thing finally fell off. Bird is quite active, pecking at things inside the lock-down incubator, stretching, and trying to stand for a few seconds. Yawns a lot, which is cute.

 

[AquaDuck]

Wow! So are you thinking sticky chick due to high humidity? Best of luck with the hatch!!!

There's a lot of small air cells in this batch, so definitely a lack of evaporation. Humidity's been 40-50%, so not overly terrible...

Luckily Mr. Yellow is the only one with issues so far. Here he's showing off his beak. Maybe he'll make an appearance tomorrow?

 

[CluckNDoodle]

There's a lot of small air cells in this batch, so definitely a lack of evaporation. Humidity's been 40-50%, so not overly terrible...

Luckily Mr. Yellow is the only one with issues so far. Here he's showing off his beak. Maybe he'll make an appearance tomorrow?
View attachment 1834658

If you're concerned you could always poke a small safety hole so you know it's getting oxygen.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

There's a lot of small air cells in this batch, so definitely a lack of evaporation. Humidity's been 40-50%, so not overly terrible...

Luckily Mr. Yellow is the only one with issues so far. Here he's showing off his beak. Maybe he'll make an appearance tomorrow?
View attachment 1834658

So close!!!

 

[AquaDuck]

If you're concerned you could always poke a small safety hole so you know it's getting oxygen.

My biggest death toll with duck eggs are dead-in-shells that have internally pipped but not externally. Frustrating when they die, just a pip away from life... So this time I'm going preventive and stick a needle in every single air cell when I see they've internally pipped. Seeing as there's 40 eggs, it's gonna be hectic in a few days. Haha!

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

@Mixed flock enthusiast , might sound crazy or dumb, but I am wondering if you couldn't take some kinda grass type product and use it for a screen, then set up a game camera or such where you can watch them without intruding on what they consider their personal space. I watch these camera's where they are filming a wild hawk. It's cool, you ought to be able to get something where it sends the pictures to your phone. Possibly that would help you catch it before all of them meet a untimely fate. I'm not as unhappy with the final tally, once I saw the "count" it's at least 45%. Everything I've read says if you can get at least a 40% you are doing good, I will admit to being jaded with a 80% or better. Incubators are turned off, going to be cleaned and put away today. Wait for my Ebay eggs to come in, decide what other kinds I want to hatch. I'm suppose to pick up some NN Bresse mixes this month and I am going to check out some NN Chicks today, There is a Roo in the one's I am picking up and I want him to have a harem, rather than just 2 girls. This is the little guy I had to rescue yesterday, that was fun, my hands were shaking, he was squirming. But we did it. He currently looks like one of those guys from the 50's with his feathers slicked back.

Following your excellent suggestion, I got a remote camera and set it up as best I could without being super disruptive of the guineas. I was still ridiculously disruptive and stressed them out, so I’m leaving the camera like this for now. It gives a great shot of Concord’s nest in the foreground (screen shot of live feed) , but the ones due to hatch are the ones way in the background, where you can’t really see anything but a nervous guineas head. I just put the camera up as is, with a loud drill, and moved it three times... and finally bailed! I hope I can try again tomorrow because I don’t want to stress these girls out any more than I have. No live streaming from me! My video game obsessed son is already complaining about the bandwidth I’m taking up with this camera!