New Incubation Questions

[R2elk]

So can one of you clarify, IS that "shrink wrapping" or the normal form fitting etc suppose to be that way? I didn't think that papery white was supposed to be diff to get out of, and *shrink wrap" was the outer membrane and brown.

In my experience the outer membrane is white and is very tough. The inner membrane is translucent and is the one that causes shrink wrapping when it dries out.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

So can one of you clarify, IS that "shrink wrapping" or the normal form fitting etc suppose to be that way? I didn't think that papery white was supposed to be diff to get out of, and *shrink wrap" was the outer membrane and brown.

Yes, it's normal for the inner membrane to touch the chick and be white and papery. It becomes translucent in areas where moisture comes in contact with it. It will be stiff and usually darkened when it's shrink wrapping.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

I've been wondering - and kind of hoping- that's it. I don't know what happens with the quality/viability toward the end of season, either. He told me one had stopped laying.
I was concerned by the smaller eggs that lost more weight faster,ended up losing more than 13% and I *think* shrink-wrapped. I say *think* bc I know there are 2 membranes, and if I understood correctly, the inner one is supposed to be papery white and form fitting. But only one had managed to get it's beak through before giving up. Several DIS died right before lockdown, but as you said, they were small. Even candling them I could see they weren't filling up the egg.
By all means, I'm a rookie and make mistakes, but this has been - rough. Whatever I decide to do, will definitely be via recommended sources.

I know how sad and devastating it is to expect all of these happy fluffy keets and get a bunch of DIS eggs instead! That was most of my hatching luck this year. I had mounds of eggs where candling showed that they had died late in development. I opened some to check my candling assessment but then stopped because it was just too sad to see those still, almost fully developed little bodies. I ended up digging a hole, piling all of the eggs in, filling it in and saying a little prayer that they hadn’t suffered. Bleh. The only good thing about this hatching experience was that I became pretty confident that I could identify a dead in shell embryo by candling…

Anyway, let’s both hope for a much better 2022 hatching year! I think I know what my problem was and have bought a new turner to correct it. I won’t know for sure though until I try to hatch some eggs with it in the spring.

I really hope your little one does well. I hope you can get it introduced to your other guineas as this one will be so imprinted on you! I’m attaching pics of Victor. He was my lavender Singleton who hatched two weeks after the next in age keet (Viceroy) and she was weeks younger than the rest! I put Victor and Viceroy in a partitioned cage next to the older keets. Victor got his name for his determination to join the older keets, no matter what. I put them out in the coop when Victor was only a week old, and still so tiny, but he escaped his partitioned cage and joined the big keets. He was hiding amongst them when I tried to grab him to separate him again, so I ended up leaving them all together. He did well and has earned his name many times over. That’s him on the top of the coop. After Bruiser was deposed this past summer, Victor became flock leader. He’s kind of a jerk, TBH… Anyway, when your keet gets a little older, maybe you can figure out a way to let it know it’s a guinea rather than a human!

 

[CluckNDoodle]

These pictures are examples of assisted hatches that I've done but you can see the inner and outer membrane before and after applying ointment.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

These pictures are examples of assisted hatches that I've done but you can see the inner and outer membrane before and after applying ointment.

View attachment 2893168View attachment 2893169View attachment 2893170View attachment 2893171

Great pictures! When mine have been shrink wrapped, that inner membrane also became sticky and stuck to the keet…

 

[CluckNDoodle]

These pictures are examples of assisted hatches that I've done but you can see the inner and outer membrane before and after applying ointment.

View attachment 2893168View attachment 2893169View attachment 2893170View attachment 2893171

I should note, these are all healthy looking membranes and NOT shrink-wrapped. These assists were due to malpositions.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Great pictures! When mine have been shrink wrapped, that inner membrane also became sticky and stuck to the keet…

I'm digging through old pictures but it doesn't look like I have any shrink wrapped.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

I have one!! Not the best pictures but this turkey wasn't able to tear the membrane because it was dry and stiff. Not entirely shrink wrapped because it was still able to rotate to zip, just wasn't able to tear that last little bit. It's the closest picture I have to showing the brownish coloring though.

 

[Sydney65]

I have one!! Not the best pictures but this turkey wasn't able to tear the membrane because it was dry and stiff. Not entirely shrink wrapped because it was still able to rotate to zip, just wasn't able to tear that last little bit. It's the closest picture I have to showing the brownish coloring though.

View attachment 2893179

These pictures are examples of assisted hatches that I've done but you can see the inner and outer membrane before and after applying ointment.

View attachment 2893168View attachment 2893169View attachment 2893170View attachment 2893171

I have one!! Not the best pictures but this turkey wasn't able to tear the membrane because it was dry and stiff. Not entirely shrink wrapped because it was still able to rotate to zip, just wasn't able to tear that last little bit. It's the closest picture I have to showing the brownish coloring though.

View attachment 2893179

So they weren't brown, they just didn't break through before they died.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

I have one!! Not the best pictures but this turkey wasn't able to tear the membrane because it was dry and stiff. Not entirely shrink wrapped because it was still able to rotate to zip, just wasn't able to tear that last little bit. It's the closest picture I have to showing the brownish coloring though.

View attachment 2893179

Well I hope I don’t have the opportunity to get some pictures, but I’ll try to remember if I have any more… My shrink wraps have been broody guinea hatched eggs. My last two batches ove the last two years were hatched by the same hen, Welch. She’s a fantastic setter, but when the keets started hatching last year, she acted completely freaked out by the hatching eggs - she was off and on the eggs constantly. About a quarter of her keets were shrink wrapped like this, and I lost them all. This year, I figured she would now understand and properly lock herself down on the hatching eggs… nope! She wasn’t as bad about it as last year but still off and on at the beginning. I think one of the first eggs that hatched ended up shrink wrapped, but I didn’t know until she got off the nest two days later (the problem with broody hatches) so again lost that keet. The membrane was dark and hard, and stuck to the keet in multiple areas. The keet was still alive so I released it and put it in the incubator, but I guess it had exhausted itself trying to get out as it passed a few hours later.