Peafowl eggs and candling reposted here

[Garden Peas]

Oh dear, so you can't actually see inside very well?

 

[Gruber12]

well i can when I lift the lid :S

 

[Garden Peas]

well i can when I lift the lid :S

Sigh, but you don't want to be doing that very often, it can harm the hatching.

So best to keep listening for chirping. It looks as though the lid is translucent, so maybe you can tell when major things happen, like chicks make it out of the shell?

I'm just thinking about how to track progress if you can't see if anything is pipped or progressing without lifting the lid.

@DylansMom & @casportpony , what do you think? Did you see the incubator photo? How often can he safely peek in by lifting the lid?

Edited to add: both of my incubators have view windows, so I haven't ever tried it when I couldn't see the eggs...

 

[Garden Peas]

And, yikes, oh my goodness, where is the heater and how much room is there between the top of your pea eggs and the top of the bator? Pea chicks are surprisingly tall when they hatch and stand up... I'm wondering if there is enough headroom in that thing, and whether they might burn their heads on the heater?

Do you have some kind of brooder for them?

Also, I've had a couple go careening crazily around after hatching, bowling all the other eggs... so moving them to a brooder worked better for me as long as I had unhatched eggs, so they didn't injure the others.

 

[Gruber12]

theres two trays, one you put the eggs in and when they hatch you remove it so they have alot more room rto move around in, the heater is a airforced one thats in the top 1/4 of the lid



Havent heard any more chirping yet

 

[Gruber12]

 

[DylansMom]

Sigh, but you don't want to be doing that very often, it can harm the hatching.

So best to keep listening for chirping. It looks as though the lid is translucent, so maybe you can tell when major things happen, like chicks make it out of the shell?

I'm just thinking about how to track progress if you can't see if anything is pipped or progressing without lifting the lid.

@DylansMom & @casportpony , what do you think? Did you see the incubator photo? How often can he safely peek in by lifting the lid?

Edited to add: both of my incubators have view windows, so I haven't ever tried it when I couldn't see the eggs...

I have a little octagonal plastic thing that I use as a hatcher, it looks like it would be very similar. One of the great things about the little plastic cheapo, is you can get the humidity very high(70-75%) very quickly, just add plenty of moistened paper towels. The fan is so powerful for such a little unit it evaporates the water from the paper towels and gets it in the air super quick. What this means is I can open the thing and when I close it the humidity goes back up really fast. I am in mine at least once every hour during hatching. I have only ever had 1 chick that got really stuck and that one was in with several others that did not, I think it had to do with that individual chick/egg. I track progress by reaching in and pulling the egg/s out give them a once over maybe moisten the membrane and then put them back in, so my lid gets lifted a lot with no issues.

 

[Gruber12]

dam anxiety is kicking up :S

 

[DylansMom]

dam anxiety is kicking up :S

Do you have a good strong flashlight or candler now? If so you should be able to tell if they have made the internal pip into the air sac. If they do not make that internal pip themselves I do not recommend trying to intervene, it generally does not work out well, the one that I helped that did survive had some brain damage and vision problems, probably due to oxygen deprivation. If they do make the internal pip themselves I will help if they need it. Once they start chirping I will give them 24 hrs to make the external pip in the shell, if they don't do that within 24 hrs. I will put a small air hole in the shell over the air space so they do not suffocate. Once they have made that hole in the shell or you have made it I give them another 24 hrs to start unzipping before I start helping with that.

Making the air hole


PS, Don't panic. There are lots of folks on here that can talk you thru this, and hopefully all will be well.

 

[Garden Peas]

@DylansMom said all that better than I could
It sounds like you can safely lift the lid fairly often to check your eggs...have you looked to see if any have pipped yet?
If an egg is chirping, you know the chick has made the internal pip, and needs an air opening within 24 hours or it will run out of oxygen inside the shell.
If you end up having to make the little air hole, make sure that it is not blocked by the membrane that is attached to the shell, it can flap across the opening and block the air.
There is another membrane on the bottom of the air sac, that one is full of blood vessels and must not be touched until the blood has gone into the bird and the membrane has drained.
Hope things are working out for you... It must be just barely Sunday there now.Good luck!