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

[CluckNDoodle]

So, I have multiple sets of guinea eggs... Many under broody guineas. It’s hard to count days there, but June 9 was the first day that I noted hens stayed in the nest overnight, so June 10 was day 1. Today then is now day 27, and guineas should take 26-28 days, but who knows since those eggs get swapped around so much with more recently laid eggs! No action there. Guinea moms are not acting like chickens do when they have internal pips. No egg chat that I can hear and not stuck right to eggs.

On the other hand, I have six incuabtor eggs left. They should be at Day 21, and I did candle when setting and saw no development. I just candled the incubator eggs, and they are full of keet with large air cells that might already be drawn down. I even saw one keet pressing against the membrane into the air cell! Not an internal pip but sure seems close! Incubator keets often hatch on the earlier end, though mine hatched on day 28-29 last year. I was planning lockdown at day 24 (Monday), but with the keet pressing against the air cell, should I lock them down early???

I would probably lockdown early. A few extra days of lockdown won't hurt them!

I got DUCKLINGS!! The grey one beat Mr. Yellow to it by minutes.
@Mixed flock enthusiast These are Muscovies, yeah! Even longer to wait than "regular" ducks!

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Mr. Yellow who, incidentally, happen to be yellow... Really hoping this is a girl so I can keep her!
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Aww! Congrats on the duckies! They're so worth the wait!

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

I got DUCKLINGS!! The grey one beat Mr. Yellow to it by minutes.
@Mixed flock enthusiast These are Muscovies, yeah! Even longer to wait than "regular" ducks!

View attachment 1836322

Mr. Yellow who, incidentally, happen to be yellow... Really hoping this is a girl so I can keep her!
View attachment 1836323

Oh how adorable! Congratulations on your beautiful little ducklings!!!!!

 

[Enigmius]

I got DUCKLINGS!! The grey one beat Mr. Yellow to it by minutes.
@Mixed flock enthusiast These are Muscovies, yeah! Even longer to wait than "regular" ducks!

View attachment 1836322

Mr. Yellow who, incidentally, happen to be yellow... Really hoping this is a girl so I can keep her!
View attachment 1836323

Dawwww! So cute! Congrats on your two new birbs!

 

[Enigmius]

Well, we are drinking and eating today!! And they have been running in and out from the heat plate.
Poor duckling that I helped still has a bit of dried yolk on its back. I was hoping the other ducklings would have helped pick it off. Do I need to clean it off, or will it eventually fall off on its own? If I need to intervene, what is the best way to do that?
Another egg is externally pipped, and another is internally pipped.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Well, we are drinking and eating today!! And they have been running in and out from the heat plate.
Poor duckling that I helped still has a bit of dried yolk on its back. I was hoping the other ducklings would have helped pick it off. Do I need to clean it off, or will it eventually fall off on its own? If I need to intervene, what is the best way to do that?
Another egg is externally pipped, and another is internally pipped.

Wow, they are so ADORABLE!!!

 

[AquaDuck]

Well, we are drinking and eating today!! And they have been running in and out from the heat plate.
Poor duckling that I helped still has a bit of dried yolk on its back. I was hoping the other ducklings would have helped pick it off. Do I need to clean it off, or will it eventually fall off on its own? If I need to intervene, what is the best way to do that?
Another egg is externally pipped, and another is internally pipped.

Adorable!
The goop is part membrane, part hardened albumen. It'll break and crumble if you use your fingers, pretty easy to get off but it can pinch and pull the down. The other ducklings will eventually pull it off too.

 

[Cerise1924]

I had such a hard time candling BCM eggs too! We’ve had several broody hatches this year, one completely incubated by a broody that went wonderfully, and one set incubated by us then put under broody at day 18. The all broody incubated set did so much better!!!

Glad our broody hatch did so well! That's reassuring to know. Congrats on your BCM chicks! What breed is your broody?

 

[Cerise1924]

Well, we are drinking and eating today!! And they have been running in and out from the heat plate.
Poor duckling that I helped still has a bit of dried yolk on its back. I was hoping the other ducklings would have helped pick it off. Do I need to clean it off, or will it eventually fall off on its own? If I need to intervene, what is the best way to do that?
Another egg is externally pipped, and another is internally pipped.

Oh, my goodness! The cuteness! I love that sound of little ducklings peeping. We grew up with ducks as pets when I was a child.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Glad our broody hatch did so well! That's reassuring to know. Congrats on your BCM chicks! What breed is your broody?

Unfortunately not one of our shipped BCM eggs hatched, and we did poorly with our own olive eggers too. Incubator problems... The broody that hatched all 12 eggs placed under her was a BCM and an awesome mom!

 

[AquaDuck]

Unfortunately not one of our shipped BCM eggs hatched, and we did poorly with our own olive eggers too. Incubator problems... The broody that hatched all 12 eggs placed under her was a BCM and an awesome mom!

Ugh, that's tough luck with the shipped ones! Especially when it's a mechanical malfunction. Good that the broody came through and does a good job!