Setting eggs today...20th May...anyone else?

[loopy12]

Amykins: for the most part, when I've seen lots of dark bits in an egg when candling, like blobby granular bits almost, its normally because the blood vessels have broken down - I guess its like blood clots, or because there's some bacterial invasion going on. Sometimes I've seen a couple of blobs and the chick/duckling has been fine in the end, other times, particularly if there were lots of dark bits and I could no longer see a network of blood vessels, then its been a bad sign and the embryo was either already dead or on its way out. The fact that you say it looks less full also makes me think it could be failing. Are its movements slow or just infrequent but still jerky? The jerky movements are healthier. Could you take a photo, so I'm sure we're talking about the same thing? Keep it in for now, hope for best and check again in a few days...

 

[Amykins]

I'm absolutely heartbroken since I know this is all my fault - the sudden heat wave forced me to move the incubator downstairs, but then it got too cold for them...I killed it. I killed my baby.

 

[loopy12]

You don't know that for sure, and it might yet be ok. Take a picture of candling it - I could be talking about something different.

And the cold may be unrelated - I've had powercuts during incubation that had no detrimental effect on hatching.

 

[loopy12]

Can you see any blood vessels still?

As long as it still moving, its obviously still alive...

 

[ashem0]

Oh Amykins... that's really upsetting, and when you've only got 2 eggies in there they're especially precious.

Have you taken it out or left it in there?

It is really hard to keep the bator environment stable for so long, especially when 'life' interferes with things like black-outs, accidents and of course mother nature with changes in weather! You were doing the right thing by the eggs according to the 'rules of incubating'! Don't beat your self up too much.

At my end, I was dealing with 2 different hatch dates, something I will never do again. I lost 3 chicks which I think could have been healthy if I'd known a few more facts about them. And at one stage my bator was dry possibly for 2 days!! I freaked! But it is a huge learning curve for me, and next time I will know more and hopefully be able to produce a better hatch. In fact I've had to learn super quick because the next lot are going to hatch hopefully in 6 days.

How is the other egg doing?

 

[loopy12]

I just heard weird noises outside the window...mad panic and overactive imagination conjuring up visions of my hens being chicken-napped even though they were shut in...so went outside and saw something longer and lower than a cat shoot up the driveway making weird shrieky noises...did a head count in both hen houses and turning away from shutting them in heard a rustle. Swung around with the torch and came face to face (well 5 feet away anyway) with what I am pretty sure was a very large mink...it froze, we stared at each other then it shot down a hole by the fence. So...that's where my goose eggs have been disappearing to. Surprised how big it was - body was around two feet long, plus tail. I think the noises were two of them having an argument. Shudder. Think its time to reinforce the chicken run...and shut them in well before dark. Am a bit shaken up. Not as much as my hens though I should think. One of my hens is recovering from leg mites (all 4 hens had them when I got them from a local farm - I wasn't very pleased, but the other 3 were less affected) and refuses to go in the hen house at night right now as it has a steep ramp and she's quite wobbly so she has a little bundle of straw under the hen house she hobbles into. She must've been able to see and hear and smell the nasty creatures...

 

[Amykins]

This is the egg...it looks like the veins are deteriorating, but there's still movement in the egg. It's as if the embryo is still fighting for life in there. I couldn't help but burst into tears looking at it. The other egg is too dark to see but I did see a similar black splotch in it as well. I can't see anything in that egg at all, but it's too early for it to be full of duckling so I'm really, really fearing the worst right now.

 

[ZielinskiFarm]

This is the egg...it looks like the veins are deteriorating, but there's still movement in the egg. It's as if the embryo is still fighting for life in there. I couldn't help but burst into tears looking at it. The other egg is too dark to see but I did see a similar black splotch in it as well. I can't see anything in that egg at all, but it's too early for it to be full of duckling so I'm really, really fearing the worst right now.

so sorry!

I'm not experienced enough with candling to know if the egg is ok or not, but I hope it is!!!

 

[loopy12]

I think it looks like some of the blood vessels have had a bleed, but there are still blood vessels there, and you can still see movement so there's still hope for it certainly. Please don't cry...there's a good chance it was nothing to do with anything you did or didn't do. Its just nature. Do you know how fresh they were? What kind of ducks are they? Try to leave it for 24-48 hours then check it again. Hang in there...there may be healthy blood vessels on the other side of the yolk you can't see. There's still hope for the little duck...

 

[Amykins]

I'm not holding out hope, Loopy. I don't see how it can survive without the large allantoic vein. The eggs were from a very reputable Call Duck breeder here in WA and the eggs were only one day old when I set them. He's got a 90% fertility rate and nearly that for his hatch rate, so I know it had nothing to do with the quality of the eggs themselves. It was all my fault.