Set eggs 4/6, EDD 4/27 & 4/28...wanna hatch with me??

[juniper8209]

I have ten babies!!!! Lots more pipped and zipping too!

I know they all have that nasty yellow gunk when they hatch, but one that hatched a few minutes ago had green nasty gunk. Is that normal? Or could it be a sign of something wrong? He's still all wet and tumbling all over the place, but seems to be normally formed. Should I be concerned?

 

[ChickyLaura]

I wonder if that green stuff is poop? I don't know, just wondering.

 

[jophoto]

We have 11 out of 14... I'll wait another day or two for the last 3 - two are pipped, but no other action on them.

One of my babes was shrink-wrapped even though the humidity was 65 to 70% the entire hatch time (was very slow after zipping, and was sitting over a vent in the 'bator). I actually saved the poor little thing by spraying some warm water in, while quickly taking him out... I hope I didn't ruin the last 3 by doing so, but I had to do something - he had been stuck for 14 hours, shrinkwrapped all but his little beak sticking out.

This is my first hatch, so 11/14 I think is pretty dang good. I'm not giving up on the last 3 but, I had no idea I would get such a hatch when I have no experience doing this at all. I used the hovabator 1588 and pretty much did a dry hatch, last 3 days humidity at 65% (and an added note - I candled almost every day because I'm a freak...

)

 

[ChickyLaura]

Jeez! I'm jealous! 11/14 is great, especially for a first hatch! I'm just not able to incubate. I've pretty much made up my mind.

 

[Morag]

When I left for work this morning I had 2 chicks and 2 more pips, just came home to 5 chicks and another pip! yipee

I'm hooked! Just trying to figure how to upload photos

 

[TXmom]

Congrats...

Yes,we need PICS!

 

[clothdiaperingmom]

Hi all. Have internet again. YAY!!! TOday is supposed to be hatch day, but no pips yet. Im down to 5 in lockdown out of the 31 that were mailed to me. And 9 out of the 15 the local guy gave me. Im surprised any made it this far, and assuming they might be a couple days late as my bator was off AGAIN another day and temp got down to 64.

Here are some pics of the goose finally!! Just hatched

Dry

 

[Sweetfolly]

Quote:
Well, your hatch was all done with before I read that! Ducklings never seem to hatch "normally". I always have a few hatch too early, a bunch hatch right on time, and a few hatch late. A lot of the time, the very first eggs to pip early are the last to actually hatch!

I'm having a terrible hatch right now.

Last week, I put a bunch of bantam eggs in the incubator with my Indian Runner duck eggs that are due tomorrow. It must have caused a temperature spike as the eggs warmed up or something (the incubator has been running for over two months straight and has had four successful hatches, and the Brinsea Spot Check thermometer verifies that the temperature is correct and stable right now), because when I went to put the Runner eggs into lockdown on Sunday, two had already pipped!

They were completely and totally shrink-wrapped - I incubate my duck eggs at a very low humidity, and they're not meant to start hatching until I get them in the hatcher where the humidity's 70% or higher. I tried wetting down the membranes with warm water, but there was no way they were going to get themselves unstuck. I helped the first two hatch - the first one is all dry and fluffy and was creating havoc in the incubator, so now it's hanging out with my two 5-day-old Bantam Cochin chicks until some more ducklings are dry and fluffy:

There's one more hatched in the incubator, drying off (that one still had a bit of yolk left, but it was struggling so hard to get out of the shell that it had actually cut its little bill on the eggshell, and when I chipped the eggshell away to keep it from hurting itself, it popped out of the egg). Two have pipped and I chipped away nice air holes for them - they're shrink-wrapped too, but they're not quite ready for help yet. The rest of the eggs might be a loss. Two I suspect died before ever pipping into the air cell - they looked funny when I went to put them into lockdown. The last two look like they either died sometime late last week, or are three or four days behind the rest of the eggs developmentally (which may be the case, because they were older eggs when I set them, and I've found that older eggs develop more slowly and hatch later than my fresher eggs), so I'll leave them until this weekend, just in case.

Congrats to all the rest of you who are having phenomenal hatches! 11 out of 14 is great, jophoto!

 

[wyo-helpmeet]

The pics are beautiful!

 

[bearz]

We have pips! Its only day 20 and as ds was heading out the door he said he thought he heard cheeps this morning. I thought it was wishful thinking but I just shined a light in there and 3 RIRs, all in the same carton, are pipped! And all in almost the exact same spot on the shell.

I can't wait to see what is out by tonight! I think I like this hatching in the carton thing.