Really interesting article

[JaeG]

I found this article about Perinatal Acoustic Communication in Birds. I was trying to find out if there was any benefit in talking to my Muscovy eggs as they incubate. It seems that communication is more important between the developing chicks than between the chicks and the parent bird/s, with bonding between chicks and parent/s happening in the days after hatch rather than before (in the species studied). But it's really amazing how chicks communicate to co-ordinate their hatch.

Just thought I'd share it.

https://openornithologyjournal.com/contents/volumes/V3/TOOENIJ-3-141/TOOENIJ-3-141.pdf

 

[MGG]

Wow, that is really interesting. Thanks. I did once have 2 clutches of mallard eggs in my incubator that were exactly 10 days apart. On the older embryo's 27th day 3 of them hatched. (I have this all documented because it so baffled me) It was the younger embryo's 17th day. When I wok up the next morning I removed the 3 hatched ducklings. I saw that there were no external pips, so I thought I'd do a quick candle. I know my eggs were all dated too. I was watching the darker green mallard eggs rock. (the others were a bit rounder and lighter, both clutches were from different birds.) Suddenly I noticed one of the light eggs rock. I picked it up and candled it and it had internally pipped! Most of the other light ones had too. Just a few days before when I candled they had matched the 14 day on the incubation chart perfectly. I couldn't believe how quickly they had filled that shell. The next day 2 younger ones hatched along with the rest of the older ones. The day after that all the rest of the young ones hatched. When I looked in there in the morning my face looked like this Here are some pics that I took. I set 9 eggs from each hen. Ignore the 3 chicken eggs, I had just set them in the last pic, and was manually turning them. In the last pic, the light egg under the ducklings bill has an external pip, and the one right in front of the thermometer does too. All the other light ones were internally pipped in that pic.

 

[JaeG]

Wow, that is really interesting. Thanks. I did once have 2 clutches of mallard eggs in my incubator that were exactly 10 days apart. On the older embryo's 27th day 3 of them hatched. (I have this all documented because it so baffled me) It was the younger embryo's 17th day. When I wok up the next morning I removed the 3 hatched ducklings. I saw that there were no external pips, so I thought I'd do a quick candle. I know my eggs were all dated too. I was watching the darker green mallard eggs rock. (the others were a bit rounder and lighter, both clutches were from different birds.) Suddenly I noticed one of the light eggs rock. I picked it up and candled it and it had internally pipped! Most of the other light ones had too. Just a few days before when I candled they had matched the 14 day on the incubation chart perfectly. I couldn't believe how quickly they had filled that shell. The next day 2 younger ones hatched along with the rest of the older ones. The day after that all the rest of the young ones hatched. When I looked in there in the morning my face looked like this Here are some pics that I took. I set 9 eggs from each hen. Ignore the 3 chicken eggs, I had just set them in the last pic, and was manually turning them. In the last pic, the light egg under the ducklings bill has an external pip, and the one right in front of the thermometer does too. All the other light ones were internally pipped in that pic.
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Wow - that is incredible! That's so amazing to see that play out in real life. The amount of development those younger ones squeezed into just a couple of days! Just - wow!

 

[Buckeye Amy]

I love articles like this! How interesting! Thanks for sharing.

 

[MGG]

Wow - that is incredible! That's so amazing to see that play out in real life. The amount of development those younger ones squeezed into just a couple of days! Just - wow!

I had to pick my jaw up off the floor, lol. It was so incredible. Thanks for providing that info to back it up, it helped me understand it. They must have been clicking away in there