Michigan

[Ooopsy_daisy]

For yokes that do not get absorbed. Crazy Chicken Fever told me about this and it does work. When you get a chick as such, take a paper towel and wet it with warm water and wrap the body from under the wings down ..then get a zip lock bag and zip the chicks body in it up to the neck..leave a little room so they dont thrash around to much while in the zip lock. Ive found while sucking up the yoke they sleep a good part of the time anyway so its not to hard on them.

Leave them in the incubator and rewet the paper towel if need be. My chicks all sucked them up withing 8-12 hours and were running around like nothing ever happened. If I wouldnt have done it with 4 chicks last month, I wouldnt believe it works. But it does. Please try this and let me know your outcome.

 

[wyliefarms]

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That is great information!

 

[sevenchickens]

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That is really interesting. If I'm ever in need again I will try it. Today is the official hatch day for the Muscovies, no pip, no peeps, my gut is telling me they didn't make it. I'll give them a few more days of wishful thinking.

 

[zephyrcreek]

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I know your pain. I lost 4 gosling eggs this week. They never absorbed their yolks. I am fairly sure that humidity was the main problem in my hatch. I do great for chickens, but it does not want to maintain over 60%. It's a constant battle. I recently read where someone used cloth baby diapers soaked in water to add humidity. I think I will try that next time.

I'm sorry to hear about your goose eggs. What do you try to keep your humidity at for waterfowl? I kept the humidity at 65% I'd let it go down to 55% then add water to bring it back up. A similar approach has been very successful with chickens (50-55% drop to 45%) should I have kept my humidity more constant? Or higher? There are so many different opinions when it comes to hatching it is all so confusing...

Waterfowl should be kept at 60-70% during incubation, and 80% in lockdown. I think waterfowl is much more sensitive to humidity than chicks. Remember momma duck/goose gets up to eat and drink 1x a day, she will also swim/play in water at this time and then go back to nest. I also think that the humidity is much more important in shipped eggs. Shipping seems to such the moisture out of eggs. Think about how dry your hands get if you have to handle cardboard all day. Dry and chapped! Those humidity levels are even more important with damaged air sacks. The damage air sacks seem to "collapse" as the egg looses moisture. If the egg looses more moisture than it should there is little room for the young duck/goose to move around or obtain position to hatch. The membrane also is too tough for the little ones to break. I'm fairly sure this is what happened to my goslings. They were shipped eggs, and once I opened them up you could see how the membranes had seperated and collapsed around them.

Muscovies take 35 days, so I would wait until at least 39-40 before calling it quites.

 

[sevenchickens]

Zephyr Creek- Thank you so much for the advice. If I try to artificially incubate the Muscovies again I will keep that in mind and be more careful with the humidity.


I just wanted to post a reminder to all with young kids and young ducks, chickens etc... Watch the heat lamp. My girls were playing with the duckling before dance today and then as usual we went rushing out of the house because we were running late, well the top didn't get put on correctly. When we got home I thought, hmm... our neighbor must be burning something, when I opened the front door I found it was our house! The front room was full of smoke, the heat lamp was sitting right on the shavings, melted hole through the container, on to the rug, scorching the hardwood floors beneath. Fortunately no flames but if I'd been just a few more minutes, I hate to think of what would have happened. I know accidents happen and I'm kicking myself that I didn't check it. Amazingly the two ducklings and two chicks are fine!! I was so thankful for that and that my house isn't a pile of ashes.

 

[Huston's Happy Hens]

7 chicks - Praise the LORD for the outcome! Just a reminder to us all to check and double ck - We had a space heater in the basement w/the newbies going during the day when we were both at work - I couldn't help but be concerned.....2 wks later, chicks (from Opa) are all doing fine and the surrogate broody is being a great mom and taking care of everyone just fine! In fact we took them all outside yesterday for a romp in Broody Hall....night all -

 

[Mom 2em All]

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OH THANK GOD YOU CAME HOME WHEN YOU DID!! I bet you are so shook up..I had that happen similarly when my kid set the lizards ceramic heat emitter down on the linoleum floor...came in the house to smoke and melted floor.

My hatch is over. I have one baby that pipped then got shrink wrapped- I worked his head out- it was completely completely stuck to the side of the egg/membrane, liquid was surrounding its beak, and very close to the nostrils like it was going to drown. It is very weak and quite bloody. The body is still in the egg, and I dont expect it to make it.
I candled then opened the rest of the eggs. All of them except for two had perfectly formed babies inside- feathered and beautiful and dead. Two had gone bad before this stage. The eggs with the formed babies had SO much liquid inside that I feel they drowned in the shell. None of them were in the air space- I am very confused about humidity now. I would guess that the babies had too much humidity. Literally, the liquid poured out of the shells. Very very tough membranes. Poor little duckies. I am heartbroken.
I have one other egg, that I poked open that the duckling has not broken through the membrane. I saw movement there, and put the egg back. I am so sad about the outcome- so, if anyone has any insight on the humidity- is it possible that it was too low, then too high? The other way around? I am so frustrated.
I still have my two pet store ducklings- whatever breed they are and I am so smitten with them, they follow me everywhere. But the 'scovy eggs have really made me sad. I thought for sure between sevenchickens and I, we would end up with more than enough babies for us both.

 

[Opa]

Sevenchicks, I was sure glad to read that you didn't come home to a disaster. I know sometimes Hope thinks I'm nuts but I constantly checking temperatures. Of course I worry about keeping things warm enough for the chicks but more concerned about fire. As a retired fire captain I know all to well how horrendous a house fire can be.

Nancy, I glad that the broody has worked out for you. Sure does make life much easier with a momma doing the babysitting.

 

[sevenchickens]

Thank you for all the prayers. I apparently need them lately! I just hope that my story will remind someone else to be a little bit more careful and hopefully avoid a real tragedy.

Mom2emall- Sorry to hear about your ducklings too. It is so amazing that we both had the same outcome. (I sent you a PM)

 

[Hillbilly Hen]

I have to stay up late tonight. Tomorrow I have to go to the neurologist for a three and half hour test. I am not allowed to have more than five hours of sleep and worse than that I am not allowed my usual morning tea, no caffiene at all. Sounds like I might be a little crabby tomorrow.