Thread formerly known as Hatch day is today

[70%cocoa]

Well, you are all asleep but hi anyway.

QJ, I like the new girl. She sounds like a confident young lassie!!! Bunsen's green head is pretty spectacular.

Craz e - yes, your spring is our fall. Although we say autumn. Glad you liked the pics!!

 

[stillmecle]

Sorry for not being around much. Saturday's are customer day so I am slammed until 3.
Ducklings when they internally pip can take 24-48 hours to externally pip then another 12-36 to hatch.
Many times not knowing this will cause us to panic and over react.
Humidity for incubation should be roughly around 40% or as low as 30.
Humidity at lockdown should be minimum 70%
Forced air temp is 99.5-100.5 as a safe range. No lower, I have seen people talk of dropping temp at lock down, don't do it.
Candle at days 6-10-lockdown discard any eggs with staining that appears, large cracks that weep or clear eggs, as well as blood rings ect.
Do NOT candle every other day. It isn't good for the development. Resist the urge, it's hard but better for the eggs.
I go into lockdown in the mornings, that evening I candle to check internal pipping. Once they internally pip I bump up that humidity and NEVER open it again until they are zipping and out.
I don't rush to remove newly hatched chicks or ducks or goslings. They are fine for 48 hours post hatch so I leave them be.
IF an egg was candled and internally pipps and 36 hours passes with NO progression. I candle again.
When I candle it is fast and I keep a spray bottle filled with fresh hot water with me. I candle the egg or eggs in question, mist with water and return to the bator that I also spray with hot water. This helps reduce the humidity shock to the eggs being handled.
I never handle a duckling then another egg. I never handle eggs I collect outside or other hatching eggs then eggs that are on lockdown.
I never pet a dog or cat or even hold my 1 year old son and then touch an egg for hatching.
I wash my hands with anti bacterial soap before handling eggs and between each egg being candled if I have to pick them up.
When doing day 6-10 candling I lift the holding rack out, candle ONLY from the top of the eggs with them in the rack and return the entire rack to its shelf.
If a hatchling ends up needing help I have seperate manicure scissors and tweazers I use to slowly lift she'll and membrane. These items get cleaned in hot soapy water then wiped with bleach water and air dry.
The key to incubating is to not introduce germs, you do this by not rushing the hatching process and by using only the cleanest tools.
.......
Customer just pulled in so I will be back in awhile again. Have newly breeding geese who need a nest too so busy day here.
SM... I would be happy to walk you start to finish through a hatch. Can you take pictures of everything you use currently? I will look at them later and try and give my opinion. I am also willing to hatch and ship to you what ever you would like to raise. We can order a swan shipping box as they have stall mini boxes that fit inside them. So we can 4 or 6 mini stalls inside one large box. Think about it, if you don't a slew of breeds or what not we use a pigeon shipper with single stall dividers too.
Shellie

I would like to talk to you about shipping some to me. Can you pm me what I could get and the price to do this. Thanks.

 

[country_girl011]

good morning everyone =)
i got 2 eggs again today . i think its safe to say both my hens are going to keep laying. just about everyday .
and i know these 2 didnt get chilled. they were still slightly warm (i always check.)
everyday she builds a better nest in there lol. apparently she thinks it will keep me out.
sorry momma but you can sit on any eggs just yet. gotta wait a lil while. till its warm that way if you don;t stay on there i can still save the eggs!

 

[country_girl011]

i forget who wanted an internal pip pic
but i found a pretty good 1.

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

Still PM me anytime


Anyone want some Easter Egger chicken hatching eggs? Pay shipping I will box them and get them off tomorrow. Way too many around, and I am not setting them currently. Have had the typical chip munch browns, lavender, blue, and blacks hatching from these eggs.

 

[Iain Utah]

Still PM me anytime

Anyone want some Easter Egger chicken hatching eggs? Pay shipping I will box them and get them off tomorrow. Way too many around, and I am not setting them currently. Have had the typical chip munch browns, lavender, blue, and blacks hatching from these eggs.

That is so tempting!! Let me talk to hubby when he gets up.

 

[Iain Utah]

Here's my my hatching update... at the start of day 26. In my ducky bator, the first egg (blue egg #1) that internally pipped has externally pipped. It took almost 36 hours. The rest are still working on pipping... some are closer than others. I hope to see the rest of them pip throughout the day.

In my goosie bator, Celtic's eggs #2 & #4 are shadowing in the back. I can almost see shadows in Celtic's egg #3 and Ebay egg #2, and the final two eggs are getting close. I am running my humidity at 25-30%, cooling 3x, misting twice. Finally, I am seeing better air cells.

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

Go goslings go, go duckies go!

 

[Iain Utah]

QJ, if I may recommend, when your LG is available, I would move your sebbies to that bator. One thing I am finding is that the humidity level really needs to be lower than for ducks, especially after the first 2 weeks of incubating. Also, it is easier to cool/mist when they are by themselves.

 

[JulieNKC]

QJ- Give her a week or two to make sure they are drakey's babies and not the blue guys and you should have eggs to set in no time. She started laying last fall and never misses a day, although sometimes she'd hide them just to keep me on my toes. I set the last 10 of her eggs. 5 that I collected for hatching from her, and 5 I pulled out of the fridge just to see if they'd hatch.
I think I may have found my silkie roo. If I can get him soon enough and my girls get un broody and start laying soon enough then I can do the easter hatch. The ducklings are due st patties so the incubator should be free just in time.