September Hatch-A-Long

[Red Star Rob]

Hey all, I'm a late joiner to this hatch a long. I have 20 duck eggs on day 26 of 28. I had a terrible first hatch with only one survivor...I later worked out I had my temp too low

fast forward to last night where 20 eggs all with good growth and excellent air cells, I was egg-cited!! This morning, the power went off, after half an hour the temp was below 90 and I made a call to the power company. Advice that the outage was expected to be fixed in 3 hours had me rushin around to fire up the old wood oven and get those eggs in the warming oven. Did it, got them up to temp and relaxed...only to come back five minutes later to find the temp up to 110. OMG! After a few curses suitable for children's ears I cooled the eggs back to temp and had to leave them to drive the kids to school, about 20 mins. When I got home they were about 105 and the power was back on! Candled and 7 were pipped internally and tapping, one was quackling. Not sure what is going to happen to this hatch but I have my fingers toes and tail crossed....my 5yo has labelled me the duck killer from the previous hatch, **** it, I was so looking forward to be able to clear my name with this hatch?!

Crossing my fingers for you. Internal pipping is a good sign!

 

[Red Star Rob]

I have an Ethel too, she is a 3 yr old Dominique hen... she's my favorite.

LOL...Think I'll have to name one of my chicks Ethel now....

 

[KendyF]

Phew! I'm not alone! I know that incubating is different and it's probably a poor substitute for a good broody and I'm definitely no where near an expert but I had a broody hen last year that set 3 clutches of 18-22 and every day when I'd go out to feed she'd come out and eat for a good 15 minutes or more, even while they were hatching. We only lost 1 each time but she was a Welsummer, not a big hen, and covering all those, I don't know how she hatched as many as she did! So far I've only opened that bator a hand full of times since lockdown and I'm pretty stealthy about it so the temps only dropped to 99 each time, and I've let the temp come back up for a few hours in between. I probably would have been more diligent about it but of my 10 eggs only 4 were about on pace for hatching today, another 2 should have another 3 days on them then the others are 2-3 days behind them even though they got set at the same time. I'm guessing there's a temperature gap towards the center of my bator where the fan is (as well as the vents) and next time I'll rotate them around and see if I can close that gap.

Usually with incubation, it isn't temp, but humidity you are loosing with opening. I do it too. However a couple of hatches ago I had a big problem with shrink wrapped chicks and have decided to go back to trying to keep my hands out of there..... We will see.

 

[Red Star Rob]

Just started Day 20. Any ever candle at this time...before any pips happen? I know not to change the orientation of or tilt the egg but they are upright in the carton and it would not be hard to keep them upright to candle. People talk about seeing internal pips so they must be candling. I can't take it....I'm TOO CURIOUS....

 

[Y N dottes]

I've been thinking the same thing also, and I am on day 20. But I've decided to just wait it out.

 

[Red Star Rob]

I've been thinking the same thing also, and I am on day 20.  But I've decided to just wait it out.

We're hatching buddies!

I'm going to wait as well....at least until tomorrow..

 

[Mamasaurus]

Just started Day 20.  Any ever candle at this time...before any pips happen?  I know not to change the orientation of or tilt the egg but they are upright in the carton and it would not be hard to keep them upright to candle.  People talk about seeing internal pips so they must be candling.  I can't take it....I'm TOO CURIOUS....  :yiipchick

I candled before setting for lockdown, and already had pips. This morning after power outage I just wanted to know they were alive! And more had pipped despite their woeful morning, but we still have 2 1/2 days to go till hatch day. I wouldn't have touched if not for the power going out...lifting the lid does not help the batch but I have seen people all over their eggs during hatch on YouTube!! My first hatch I had 6 dead in shell, this could have been my meddling with lifting the lid, or it could have been the low temp, either way I'm just sitting on my hands this time!! . Only one day to go! How exciting!!!!!!!

 

[Mamasaurus]

Crossing my fingers for you.  Internal pipping is a good sign!  

Thank you! All extra crossed fingers are most appreciated

 

[Mamasaurus]

Crazy morning!!  Hopefully the eggs didn't get a chance to cool or heat up to much!!  Good to hear you have internal pipping!!

OMG! I hope you are right!!!! I didn't think of the temp inside the egg as such...maybe there's more hope than I thought . The eggs themselves never got too cold or hot, so maybe I can relax. Meh, whatever happens, happens!

I was soooo mad this morning because this hatch was perfectly timed for hatch day on the first day of school holidays. Two weeks for the kids to mother the ducklings! I really felt like screaming this morning

 

[Mamasaurus]

You know, I can SO see where the saying "don't count your chickens before they hatch" came from!