Need some hatching buddies - Hatching May 24-28

[Cynthia12]

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Congrats! I don't have ducks, but the more I see of those cute little baby duck beaks!..they are so cute! I wish I had room for ducks now.

 

[Stevenson]

Well, it's official. I have 20 eggs left in the incubator. I looked at the questionable eggs tonight (day 15/16) and they were either clear or had blood rings. Lets hope that I am successful with the 20!

 

[fifelakelooper]

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Just keep your fingers crossed!! It will be interesting to see how we do...I have 15 left in the incubator now.

 

[Stevenson]

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Just keep your fingers crossed!! It will be interesting to see how we do...I have 15 left in the incubator now.

Well, I just candled the so-called "good" 20 eggs...and I had one Dominique quitter....the rest are looking great. So I guess I am rooting for the 19 now!

 

[dretd]

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I will root with you! Are you going to candle one last time before lockdown? I was pretty disappointed with my first candling with most of the ones I really wanted (Orpingtons including the green egg ones) looking questionable so I am chicken to candle them again. I can't take disappointment twice so I decided that I'm only going to candle at lockdown.

 

[Stevenson]

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I will root with you! Are you going to candle one last time before lockdown? I was pretty disappointed with my first candling with most of the ones I really wanted (Orpingtons including the green egg ones) looking questionable so I am chicken to candle them again. I can't take disappointment twice so I decided that I'm only going to candle at lockdown.

Nope, no more candling for me. I will be placing my eggs on lockdown on Monday night. I guess I will probably look one more time at the bad egg and then take it out...but I am done candling. They are on their own! I really hope that all 19 will hatch...my hatch percentage still won't be great...but that's better than I suppose it could have been!

 

[hennypenny99]

I start lockdown Monday night. I candled last night and wish I had just left them alone. I had two questionable eggs I was watching. They weren't full like the rest of the eggs. Over half of the egg was still clear and there was only one small black strip accross the center of the egg that I mistook for bacteria. NEVER AGAIN will I break open an egg that I thought was bad. It was awful, I killed a baby silkie.

It was at 15 days incubation and it already had feathers but the yolk was two or three times the size of the chick. Is that normal or was it not developing right? It was incredibly tiny but it looked very developed. It had a clear bump on its head, that may have been it's crest but it was very large, as large as the chicks head. Is is possible that this chick started developing later than the others? I feel sick about it. It's hard to feel as excited and happy as I was before knowing that I killed one of my babies. I hope the others all hatch.

 

[Chickiebabyfluff]

Hennypenny, tht happened to me once.......so i know exactly how you are feeling.....i am not experienced enough to say if it was normal or not ... im sure someone that knows more about such things will read your post and comment.....

Wishing you good luck with the rest of your hatch!!

 

[mandelyn]

That's happened to me before to, so now my new rule is to candle at day 7, only toss totally clear eggs. Check again before lockdown, and remove any that don't show chicks darkening the egg up.

Last time I hatched eggs, my temp was too low, and they were super late. 28 days for CHICKENS. I went to break into an egg, and decided to teach my husband how to do it if he ever needed to help a chick, so he had to be real careful. I thought the eggs were quitters and would have just busted them open just to see. I even waited until day 25 just to be safe! When husband got through the membrane, it moved, and bled. What?!? We quickly got it back in and resumed lockdown, and ended up with 2 chicks.

Worse hatch of my life! NONE of the Wheaten Penedesenca came out or even developed. From the same seller, I requested the extras be Golden Lakenvelder, got 4 of them, and 3 hatched. Same box, same shipping, 75% on the bonus eggs, nothing out of what I paid for. The late arrivals were Blue/Black/Splash Marans, 24 total eggs from those. 2 chicks, both pullets at laying age now, one black, one splash. Scored 1 boy and 2 girls from the Lakenvelders. The Marans, I ordered 12, she sent 12 extra, I was crazy excited. But I used the stupid thermometer that came with the incubator and it read wrong, too low.

Upgraded to a digital one with a hydrometer, and switched to ducks. The first duck eggs I found from "wild" domestic Pekins and GIANT domestic Mallards. Great fertility! Have all 3 ducklings that I set in the brooder now.

Ordered some Saxony eggs when I found the first egg, in case I didn't find anymore on the pond shore just laying around, and on the off chance it hatched, so it would have friends.

Most traumatic shipping incident ever! Of the 6 eggs, 3 were badly BROKEN, not just a simple crack on the corner egg, but basically smashed and leaking. One other had a broken yolk, very interesting to see when candling. I'd never seen anything like it before. The remaining 2, had dislodged airsacs. I set them anyways. Both are in lockdown, surprise surprise! New eggs to replace the broken ones will be here next week, we decided to finish the hatch to avoid a stagger.

The seller of the duck eggs, the best seller I have ever worked with. I asked her if she did anything "different" with her ducks to get that kind of viability. With how shaken up those eggs were, I honestly didn't expect the last two to do anything, let alone make it to lockdown. Turns out she adds vitamins to their feed for that purpose. The feed is centered around making excellent hatching eggs. Huh, I didn't know you could do that! When candling, the shells were as perfect as those from the "wild" with a forage based diet.

 

[wowmanacat]

I candled last night day 15 or 16 depending how you count. All my eggs were looking good and moving. I have also been having really bad stores for over 24 hours now and they are to be here for 2 to 3 more days. So far the power has stayed on but you never know with storms in Ar. With all the rain I am going to have to keep the babies in the house since my hen house is flooded at this time from all the rain, and will most likely be that way for days.