Swan egg hopes for a newbie

[Megaputz]

My aunt dropped off 6 swan eggs in the spring. Her friend, the owner of a golf course wanted the birds on the lake. They were there as eye candy for the patrons so he didn't want them sitting on and defending the nest. They smelled off but I gave them a try. All duds. The mating pair layed a second clutch. The owner called and she went and picked the eggs up right away. That was June 28th. It's day 15 so I candled the eggs with my LED flashlight. To my delight I can see veins and the embryos are moving in 4 of the eggs. Number 5 is a dud.
Four viable swan eggs so far. There are also 1 peafowl, 7 bantam chickens, 11 pekin ducks in there. Up to yesterday there were 3 pheasant eggs.

The pekin and bantam are off of cragslist.
The peafowl is from my aunt. Of the 5 peafowl she gave me 4 were duds and the last one piped upside down and died in the shell.
The three pheasant eggs... those are from some guy I met who asked me to hatch a couple of dozen eggs. He only brought 3 eggs, one was covered in mud. I haven't seen or heard from him in a month. One of the peasants hatched. Two of them were duds.
I have hatched about 50 chicks from eggs with the Little Giant incubater.

Since I bought the LG in Febuary the poor thing has been in continuous operation. Temperature has been a steady ~100f with humidity at 60-70% Eggs get turned 3-4 times a day. Also have a 3" PC fan running off a 5v cell phone charger which makes it a 'forced air' incubator. Pealite is used for bedding.
Really considering an automated turner... With the swan eggs in there and so close to the end of the season. Next spring

Any tips on the swan, duck and peafowl eggs? If I put the swan eggs in on June 28th at 5PM, I stop turning them on July 30th? take eggs out every night for 15 minutes. Mist eggs with warm water before placing them back in incubator.

The amount of dirt/mud on the duck and bantam eggs is concerning. I'm worried about the developing embryo getting enough air or infection killing it. They went in incubator in the 8th of June.
To what level can you clean them? I don't want to scratch the egg shell damaging or clogging the poor's.
Before Febuary I had never hatched. Chickens are easy. It's the more exotic stuff that worries me.

The pheasent. I only have 1. It's too late to order them and they are exspensive. Not really sure what to do with a single bird. Have had chickens as a kid and for the last three years. I only just started raising ducks. Hear good things about pheasents but it's so small... Not sure what to do with it outside of a pet. Anyone have a clue about it's breed? I put it in on June 14th 6pm and it hatched July 11 ~9pm. So, 27 day incubation.

 

[RussianChickens]

Clean them with a dry towel or paper towel. Get as much dirt off as you can that way before trying anything else

 

[Megaputz]

Thinking 'ringneck' for the little pheasant. Tan/brown eggs. Can't get over how small the chick is. I'm ordering netting to put over the 40'x50' run. At the moment the run is roughly 35'x25' but am in the process of enlarging it. Coop is 16'x8'

At the moment I have 18 cornish X chickens, 7 barred rock chickens, 2 araucana chickens, 4 indian runner ducks, 2 muscovy, 2 mallard ducks, 2 rouen ducks, 2 khaki campbell ducks.
Will the pheasant be alright with them once it's a little bigger? Or should it stay seperated. The cornish X are going to be gone in a few weeks.

Opened the incubator this morning to an off smell. My heart sank... thought at first one of the swan eggs had turned. Fortunately it was one of the muddy pekin duck eggs. The one next to the peafowl egg. No developing embryo or veins seen during eggtopsy. It is only day 6 for the pekin duck eggs...
I wiped off some of the dry mud. If two or three of the pekin hatch I'll be pleased. I'll know in a few days if any are viable when they are far enough along to candle.

The swan and peafowl... I do not intend on keeping. They are a toss up. If I didn't try to incubate them they would have been thrown in the trash. My aunt and cousin raise swans and peafowl. I'm just incubating for the experience. If they live my aunt will be taking custody.
Their peafowl are young and don't brood. My aunts swans did lay 5 eggs and brooded but after 50 days she abandoned them. We sniffed and candled... eggtopsy, the eggs were all duds. My aunts mating pair is old, she got them in 1995 as cygnets. They have not had a successful hatch in three years.

Can't get over the difference in growth between chickens and ducks. The ducks are almost twice the size even though the chicks have a weeks head start.

 

[Russianbeast101]

The pheasant chick you have is a lady Amherst pheasant.

 

[Megaputz]

The pheasant chick you have is a lady Amherst pheasant.

Oh cool, thank you. Little bugger is already starting to fly. My son named it 'Tiny Wing'. At this point it's a pet. Still no word from the guy who dropped off the eggs. She is growing though. It kinda works out. At least the peafowl will have company if/when it hatches. The parents are Indian... have to get pictures. The father is gorgeous.
Her next to dud egg




Candled the eggs again last night to weed out duds. Really disappointing and exciting.

Peafowl got it's last turn this morning. Still movement in there. Due any day now.

Two viable pekin duck eggs out of eleven.... all the rest were clear. Well, except that one that went stinky after a couple of days.

Two viable bantam eggs out of seven.... again, rest were clear and duds. Don't even know what I'd do with bantam chicks. If it comes to it...

Three of the swan eggs are definitely still viable. Can see movement inside. The fourth egg... the shell is really thick. Can barely see the veins and below that, just black. Veins seem to have a redish tint but no movement. No smell in incubator or from eggs. Still hoping. Hoping it doesn't go stinky. I'll wait a week and try again.





Having been turning eggs for almost six months now... So thankful the season is over or almost over. Has been a fun learning experience but frankly I'm tired of turning eggs every 3-4 hours or making arrangements for others to turn them.

 

[Russianbeast101]

I got eggs off eBay and only one hatched so its by itself like yours and its about the same size and age

 

[Megaputz]

OMG!!! I went to turn the swan eggs and I thought I heard chirping. Not the pheasant.... muffled. I tapped on the egg and put my ear to it. Another muffled chirp came from the egg!!! I was so surprised I almost dropped the egg! I grabbed the flashlight and turned off the lights. The chick had broken through the membrane. I can see it's beak. I candled the other three and two were internal pips and chirping too! They started their internal pip! Third one... not sure. It's the dark egg with the thick shell. The one with the green shell on the far left in the picture.

I put the eggs in the incubator on the 28th of June. This is way too early. I wasn't due to stop turning until July 30th. The momma swan must have been sitting on the eggs and the embryo's somehow survived the hour drive here. Wow, first time I'm happy it was 90* out. I may have killed or injured them turning so much after lockdown. I placed them so the membrane is in the proper position and I'm turning the humidity up.

Really hope they make it. Know I'm not supposed to help them but I'm a nervous wreck now. Too soon, so soon. In the morning they could be out of dead or it could be another day. So afraid to call and tell them the chicks didn't make it. Three would be awesome. Oh that fourth egg! Please little guys make it. This is so, can't stand the waiting. The dark egg... the air sack is smaller. I'm worried. Have been treating it like the others but shell is thicker and it's not losing moisture as fast as it should be. The others are about where they should be but the difference is noticeable.
Hope to have pictures of cygnet's soon

 

[Megaputz]

 

[Russianbeast101]

Hope they hatch!!!!!

 

[Megaputz]

Two are dead. Candled and no movement or chirping.... broke the eggs open for eggtopsy.
Couldn't see the head or beak on one. Chipped away the shell and the beak was an inch below the membrane.


The other chick was in the correct position but dd not internally pip. Suffocated.

The egg that piped last night. It's making headway.


The dark egg... I can hear chirping coming from it now. I can't candle it to see where the beak is. Most I can do is wait. Maybe put a pinhole in at the top of the egg for air. So worried it will suffocate like the other two. I wish he would have told me she had been brooding. These guys are two weeks early. I'm sure turning them every 3 hours screwed up their ability to position themselves in the egg. The one chick was perfectly formed. I couldn't bring myself to pull the second chick out.

Still a good chance for two of the chicks. Time will tell....