Kiokio
In the Brooder
- Jun 14, 2016
- 10
- 0
- 12
Ok, may 16 I got a call about a nesting pair of wild swans. The male was attacked and killed by a dog and the female who had been incubating 3 eggs, left the nest and wouldn't return. On arrival it was decided to remove the eggs and attempt to artificially incubate them.
When I got home, I found that my rcom 20 pro was broken so I started up my tlc 4 brooder, 37.5. On candling all 3 eggs were fertile and alive. To me, they looked like chicken eggs at 7-10 days. As I'm in Ireland, where humidity is high, I've kept them between 40 and 50% humidity and they seemed to be growing well.
About 2 weeks after getting them, I came down to find the brooder temp had dropped to 25o celcius and the eggs were cold to the touch. I tweaked the temp button and got it back to the correct temp.
I ordered a cheap incubator from the nearest supplier, a covatutto 16. This arrived the next day, in the meantime, one of the eggs died and started to stink, so I removed it. Obviously the cold killed it.
The other 2 eggs were stronger and continued to grow, then I got a notification from my electricity supplier saying my supply would be interrupted for several hours last Tuesday. I asked in a local pub 2 miles away if I could plug my babies in for the duration of the interruption, bless them, they said yes! Drove the babies over, as carefully as possible and brought them home 2 days later. Still alive and growing.
At this point I've had the eggs with me for 29 days, when candling 2 nights ago, I saw the dip down on egg #1,and egg #2 dipped yesterday. No tapping or peeping noise yet from either. I was worried yesterday so I float tested them, egg 2 showed definite movement, egg 1 I didn't notice anything.
I'm concerned at this stage that they haven't internally pipped and that the membrane may be shrink wrapping. I'm very wary of intervening as I don't know exactly when their incubation began.
Can anyone talk me through this process please? I have studied Petes incubation of goose eggs, as I haven't found much helpful info about swan incubation and am trying to use his methods.
When I got home, I found that my rcom 20 pro was broken so I started up my tlc 4 brooder, 37.5. On candling all 3 eggs were fertile and alive. To me, they looked like chicken eggs at 7-10 days. As I'm in Ireland, where humidity is high, I've kept them between 40 and 50% humidity and they seemed to be growing well.
About 2 weeks after getting them, I came down to find the brooder temp had dropped to 25o celcius and the eggs were cold to the touch. I tweaked the temp button and got it back to the correct temp.
I ordered a cheap incubator from the nearest supplier, a covatutto 16. This arrived the next day, in the meantime, one of the eggs died and started to stink, so I removed it. Obviously the cold killed it.
The other 2 eggs were stronger and continued to grow, then I got a notification from my electricity supplier saying my supply would be interrupted for several hours last Tuesday. I asked in a local pub 2 miles away if I could plug my babies in for the duration of the interruption, bless them, they said yes! Drove the babies over, as carefully as possible and brought them home 2 days later. Still alive and growing.
At this point I've had the eggs with me for 29 days, when candling 2 nights ago, I saw the dip down on egg #1,and egg #2 dipped yesterday. No tapping or peeping noise yet from either. I was worried yesterday so I float tested them, egg 2 showed definite movement, egg 1 I didn't notice anything.
I'm concerned at this stage that they haven't internally pipped and that the membrane may be shrink wrapping. I'm very wary of intervening as I don't know exactly when their incubation began.
Can anyone talk me through this process please? I have studied Petes incubation of goose eggs, as I haven't found much helpful info about swan incubation and am trying to use his methods.
