Staggered hatch: **UPDATE** All finished. Final results on page 5

[critterranch]

yes first 10 ducks eggs start on monday lockdown. i am laying duck eggs on side. i already hand turning 3x

was thinking about doing chicken in cartons so the dont get kicked around by ducks. i am hand turning my chicken eggs too 3x on side. i am afraid to switch to cartons for hatching. you think switching my chick eggs to egg cartons would hurt my hatch? cause they are already on there side.

 

[Gypsy07]

Well, in my vast experience of ONE single carton hatch (LOL!) I think it shouldn't be a problem. My chicks that hatched today were rolled on their sides on turning rails for 17 days then stuck into a carton on day 18. And they hatched absolutely fine. In fact, this is the first hatch I've done where I've seen perfect pip n zips like everyone here always talks about. I still can't believe how tidy the whole hatch was. I've got four empty shells that look like boiled eggs I cut the tops off with a knife! I think I'm a carton convert now.

 

[Gypsy07]

Update: Okay, so now I have one egg on day 22, one egg on day 20 and six eggs on day 9. I've just heard faint peeping from the day 22 egg so I'm going to go out for a few hours and hopefully when I come back I'll find a pip. That egg's air sac looks fine but the one on day 20 looks like it's lost a bit too much moisture. I don't know how that happened though, as the humidity in there's been 80-85% for the whole of the last week!

I also just candled the six eggs on day 9 and I have got four that are definitely fertile, one I'm not sure about yet, and one that looks like it's got a blood ring round the whole circumference of the egg about halfway along it's length. Weird looking. I found it very hard to tell what I was looking at inside these eggs. I candled them at six days and couldn't make head nor tail of them. They've been in a carton being rocked back and forth for the last six days, and the different orientation (I usually set eggs on their sides on turning rails) definitely makes the inside of the egg look very different to what I'm used to seeing when I candle. The embryos seem to be further into the middle of the egg and harder to see. And the pointy ends of the eggs look like there's absolutely nothing in them at all. I think the yolk of the eggs has risen to the top and the white is at the bottom. I'm not sure if that's what happens. Can anyone enlighten me?

 

[Bobby Joe]

My first chicks are due on the 6th of feb. I cant make heads or tails of whats going on in any of them I looked at several examples of candeling pics but I cant see through the shell it may be that I'm old and cant see to good, anyway keep us posted hope all goes well with the next phase of hatching chicks

 

[Gypsy07]

Quote:
I think it's just something you get the hang of after a few hatches. Or after you get a super-bright candler!
If your eggs are any shade other than pure white, it can be hard to see through the shell. Marans must be a nightmare!

 

[Gypsy07]

Update: I heard peeping yesterday and assumed it was coming from the egg on day 22. Just looked in the bator this morning and realised it must actually have been the day 20 egg that was making the noises, as it has now pipped. Nothing yet from the older egg that is now on day 23. That's the egg I thought was looking good and the one that's just pipped was the one I was feeling a bit iffy about because of the huge air cell.

That just shows how much I know, eh?

I don't want to leave that other egg in there too long as I need to reduce the humidity as soon as I can for the other eggs that are now on day, um... Wait a minute. Day 10. Had to go check my notebook there. So as soon as the one that's just pipped has hatched, I'm going to float that other one and see what's what.

Edit: 90 minutes later: Wow, it's hatched already! Once it started zipping it blasted the whole way round in about ten minutes! It's wriggling around drying off now and peeping like mad. I floated the other one and - nothing. Candled really carefully, tapped the shell and looked for any movement and - nothing. Cracked the shell at the fat end and yup, it was definitely dead. On closer inspection, it was perfectly formed but not quite fully developed so I think it must have quit a few days ago. Oh well...

So I've grabbed out the extra water trays and I can now get my humidity back down to normal for the other six eggs in there.

I've also got another eight eggs I've collected in the last ten days or so and now I'm wondering if I should extend the 'experiment' a bit and set them too...

 

[Gypsy07]

I just put my 1 day old chick in with my four 5 day olds this morning. The little one looked really lonely and a bit downcast all by himself in the incubator but as soon as I put him in with the bigger chicks he perked up straight away. And happily, they all seem to be getting on fine. No picking on or pecking at all. Phew!

The newest one is top middle:

 

[critterranch]

they are cute i cant wait for mine. well i figured out my temp was too low by 2-3 degrees so all are piping and hatching late but everything else is good.
i opened incubator to turn eggs until every one was locked down.


here are lockdowns dates with egg count everyone is on there side no egg cartons.

jan 31 9 eggs duck into lockdown 3 hatched 3 pips my first pip was on feb 5 after everyone waslocked down.
feb 1 3 eggs duck 1 hatch 2 pips
feb2 2 eggs duck and 10 EE eggs 1 pip duck 2 pips for EE
feb 3 3 eggs duck no pips
feb 4 3 eggs cuckoo maran no pips

no strink wrapping from opening incubator
humdity is running 75 to 80 it spikes to 95 when they hatch then when they dry i take out and it stablizes to 75 80
yeah for my little giant still air!

pics will becoming later!

 

[critterranch]

update

lockdown dates
jan 31 9 eggs duck into lockdown 5 hatched 1 pips my first pip was on feb 5 after everyone waslocked down.
feb 1 3 eggs duck 3 hatched
feb2 2 eggs duck and 10 EE eggs 1 pip duck -3 pips for EE- 2 EE hatched
feb 3 3 eggs duck no pips
feb 4 3 eggs cuckoo maran no pips


8 fawn and white runner ducks- i have 4 ducks hatched from my known crested hen cant tell if they are crested yet maybe 2 crested so far

2 EE chicks and counting

 

[pdsavage]

Gratz on the hatches,mine are a no show so far...