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

[Amykins]

. You'll be a great duckling mum...
What names did you pick?

Wanna name my chicks? I haven't named them yet as I struggle to tell the buffies apart, but the the BRs are all different...

Wobbles if a boy, Marmalade if a girl. ^-^ Lockdown began yesterday but I could have sworn when I did the final candling to mark the air cell, I saw it tap against the cell membrane!

As for your own babies, I'd feel a bit guilty naming them but it's also way too tempting to give suggestions! I like other animal names like "Socks" and "Fido" just for the irony, hehe!

 

[ashem0]

Duckling diapers!!

Had never heard of them till you wrote that... then I googled it and realised you were serious!

I guess this means your planing on keeping them inside Amykins?

 

[loopy12]

Wobbles if a boy, Marmalade if a girl. ^-^ Lockdown began yesterday but I could have sworn when I did the final candling to mark the air cell, I saw it tap against the cell membrane!

As for your own babies, I'd feel a bit guilty naming them but it's also way too tempting to give suggestions! I like other animal names like "Socks" and "Fido" just for the irony, hehe!

Marmalade...awww...

 

[comptonsgonecountry]

Wow, looks like there's a lot of hatching action going on here! Congrats to everyone. Keep the pictures coming

 

[Alaskan]

OK, a third egg pip, I managed to mostly sleep all night

but no more chicks!!

So, I read the "assisting hatch" article.....and I just don't know.

My favorite egg....I now notice in the pictures of my chick #1 that it had a tiny pip crack even way back then.

Last night, the humidity had dropped a bit (to about 60%), so I caved.......

I opened the incubator to add some HOT (see, I can learn) and very wet paper towels to a corner where the chick wouldn't get them, let two sons hold the already hatched chick, AND I took out my favorite egg (so, if this egg hatches, maybe I should name it "favorite" or "precious"

) and then popped off the tiny pip egg piece that the chick had already broken, just so that I could SEE if the beak was there and it was alive.

It was alive....I haven't looked closely yet this morning, because I wanted to read the "assisted hatch" article first.

So....... that means that I am getting close to the pip being there for 24 hours!!!!!

WHAT TO DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

 

[loopy12]

When you popped the bit of shell off did you peep inside? Did it look shrink wrapped?
60% wasn't a problem in itself. Its likely you will now need to help now though. 24 hours is long for a chick pip (but not for a duck which I used to find was 12-36 hours easily). So yes...you probably need to cautiously proceed to help.

 

[Alaskan]

The membranes look like they should.....and the chick is moving....but not with the strong thrusting movements of chick #1, which makes me wonder if it is malpositioned and so can't trust correctly.

So I am relatively sure the chick is not shrink wrapped or anything like that.....I think it must be a malpositioning where he just can't get enough force to push hard enough.

OK...I am going to get some "equipment" and very very carefully look at "my precious" a bit more closely.

I am just SO SUPER VERY much want to avoid the nastiness of a not-ready chick.

BUT, since I think he has been pipped for 24 hours...I a gonna go poke.

Wish me luck.

 

[Alaskan]

Ooh!!!

In the hour or so I was away from the incubator "my precious" started to zip!!!

 

[loopy12]

Excellent, that's what we like to hear!
Its such a fine line to judge.
Is it out now?

 

[Alaskan]

Ooh!!!

In the hour or so I was away from the incubator "my precious" started to zip!!!

NO! Not yet out!

Also, it only managed to unzip one inch, so I do think he is just in there wrong, or maybe he is 'shrink wrapped'

Also, after all that time with some of the membrane exposed, the exposed membrane turned a bit yellowish. My RH is at 70.

So, I went ahead and gently removed a line of shell all the way around....like he would have done had he unzipped himself. The entire time I did it, I moistened the membrane, there wasn't a single sign of blood or capillaries. So, I do think he is 'done' and just having trouble getting out.

I wrapped him in a moist warm paper towel and back into the incubator.

I am thinking another three or four hours and if he still isn't out I will try removing some of the membrane.


But, now the question......does that mean everyone else will be stuck? I have three other pips now, just sitting there. OK, they are peeping on occasion, but no other zipping.

That leaves three other eggs that haven't done anything at all yet. I very gently picked up the eggs that have no pips, without rotating them, and gently tapped on the air sack end, no peep. I would guess that means they haven't pipped into the airspace yet.