Thread formerly known as Hatch day is today

[JulieNKC]

OK, I thought that seemed odd.

I AM SO ANNOYED! I got my new Brinsea incubator today and there is a hole in one of the water wells. Do they not check these things before they ship them out? I'm going to have to send it back. I have 5 Seb eggs that I was going to put in there tomorrow.

That would be so irritating! Being all excited to have a nice shiny new incubator, then having to send it back and wait all over again.

Hello. I gave some eggs to my friend to incubate, thinking my ducks (who are under a year old) would not really be old enough for them to be fertile (I don't know a lot about ducks, yet). I have one Mallard Drake, 2 Mallard Hens, and one Cayuga hen. My GF called on Wednesday to tell me to come pick up the two that hatched on Wednesday and put them in my brooder. Then Saturday she brought over one that started hatching on Thursday and finally got out late Friday/Early Saturday morning. We didn't think it was going to make it as it looked very sickly and well, just a bit sad... but I put him in with the rest of the babies and put electrolites in the water and he/she is looking GREAT. My friend took 11 more eggs Saturday to start incubating to see what we get. In the picture, I have the two ducklings I purchased on Saturday last, not knowing she was hatching the eggs I gave her. The two medium sized ones are the two from Wednesday (1 full Mallard and 1 Cayuga/Mallard mix) and the smallest one is our little tough one. I do not know how to sex them at this age though... any assistance would be appreciated. I only know after they are old enough to get their drake tail.

Adorable! Like Psue said, Metzers has some pretty good stuff on sexing. They have a video on vent sexing. I vent sex, but am not 100% confident on that yet, especially with the little call ducklings, then around 4-8 weeks confirm it with quack sexing.

Duckling #4 just hatched about 5 mins ago! His/her name is Valentine because the egg was layed on Valentines day and marked 2/14... Can't wait for the rest to hatch...

ive been looking for a thread like this for a while! i candled my incubated duck eggs last night at 11:30 and 4 of them had internally pipped so i turned my temp down upped my humidity and put them into lockdown. but now i still have no external pips, when should i start worrying that those 4 havent pipped through their shell? im kinda freaking!

They are slow slow slow. Mine internal pipped Friday, saturday, and sunday, and hatched late sunday night and this morning.

I almost had a serious stink bomb goose egg Saturday night. Turned it before dinner, all was well, went to turn it before bed and it had cracked down the middle and was oozing, but luckily didn't bust through the membrane. Oh ick!!!

The cabinet bator is calibrated and turned off until I have my hygrometer and test eggs.

I'm getting itchy for some babies since my two test eggs quit on me last week. I think I have 18 going to lockdown this time around.

Glad you caught the stinker!
18! Hoping you get lots of babies.

This morning it looked like I have an Ancona duckling internally pipped. Hatch day is supposed to be Friday. I may get an early bird.

bellah1 - that's the hard part - trying to figure out when or if you should help. For what it's worth, this is what I do. I'm by no means an expert hatcher, but so far, it's worked well for me.

If they are internally pipped, but have made no further progress after 24+ hours, I carefully make a tiny hole through the shell into the air cell. That way, I know they can breathe. Once you do this though, you have to keep the humidity high so they don't shrink wrap. This is just what I do. Some people don't interfere at all, so you'll need to decide what you think is best.

x2, that's pretty much what I do too.

We had two that had internally pipped, and one died. So we pipped a little hole in the other one and raised the humidity to 80%. So far it looks like it's still alive. I actually had a little funeral today for the three ducklings that didn't make it out of their shells.

Sorry about your lost ducklings. I had 4 that internal pipped, 3 that hatched. The other one pippped too early I think, and must have hit a fairly big vessel because it bled a lot, poor little thing. It's sad to lose them when they've got so far. I hope the last one hatches for you!



Duckling #3, I have no idea what color this one is, so can't wait to see it grow up.

Duckling #2 looks a lot like duckling #1, blue ancona patterned.

 

[Iain Utah]

Julie, my goodness, what a precious baby!!

Today feels like Christmas... or Easter.... or a combination of both.

I have gotten 6 goose eggs so far today, 5 are dewlaps and 1 is from my #1 prized girl. I got a mini-duck egg from my coop. It is the size of a small chicken egg. Of course, I am going to set it just to see if it hatches a mini-duckling. And my first test African egg is on day 26, rocking hard, and looks strong going into hatching mode.

 

[iluvsedward]

Holy shoot that duckling is SO CUTE!!! I've got some call eggs in the bator right now!

 

[VikiG]

Please help me with some advice... Hi, we are trying to hatch our first ever batch of khaki Campbell cross ducks. Today is day 29 though & no sign of any action. I quickly & carefully candled the eggs just now and all the eggs have what seem to be relatively small air sacs, about 1/5 of the egg, is that too small? I thought they should be bigger at this stage? Nothing to be seen or heard that indicate internal pipping, surely that should have happened by now? I've kept temp & humidity to recommended levels & just last week could little moving webbed feet when I candled the eggs. I fear the worst, the kids are going to be so disappointed. Any ideas anyone??

 

[SJUDD]

Thank you everyone for your advice. I looked up the Metzer sexing video and 2 of the 3 were male. My husband was laughing at me because I got pooped on a lot before the member showed itself but now I know the Mallard is a female and my two Cayuga/Mallard cross' are male. My girlfriend wanted ducks but no females (odd right?) so she came over last night and picked up the two males and put them in her brooder. I will miss them. One is names Pi (hatched on March 14) and the other is named Howard. Cracks me up. 11 more eggs going into the incubator today so hopefully I will get some female Cayuga/Mallard crosses!! Fingers crossed!! Congratulations on all of your hatchlings!!

 

[CricketR4]

Just candled an egg we've been keeping an eye on. It looks like it didn't make it. Oddly enough it's not the one that had internally pipped. So we've lost a total of four eggs. Just hoping the remaining three hatch soon! One is zipping, so it'll hopefully be tonight for that one at least.

Sorry Viki, I can't help you. I hope everything works out...

 

[ChristineR]

That would be so irritating! Being all excited to have a nice shiny new incubator, then having to send it back and wait all over again.

Duckling #3, I have no idea what color this one is, so can't wait to see it grow up.

Duckling #2 looks a lot like duckling #1, blue ancona patterned.

I'm using it right now and then sending it back. I have 6 Sebbie eggs waiting and I'm not throwing them out. I just can't use that second water well. It should work OK without it though.

That's a very cute duckling!

Julie, my goodness, what a precious baby!!

Today feels like Christmas... or Easter.... or a combination of both.

I have gotten 6 goose eggs so far today, 5 are dewlaps and 1 is from my #1 prized girl. I got a mini-duck egg from my coop. It is the size of a small chicken egg. Of course, I am going to set it just to see if it hatches a mini-duckling. And my first test African egg is on day 26, rocking hard, and looks strong going into hatching mode.

Hooray for eggs and hatching!

Please help me with some advice... Hi, we are trying to hatch our first ever batch of khaki Campbell cross ducks. Today is day 29 though & no sign of any action. I quickly & carefully candled the eggs just now and all the eggs have what seem to be relatively small air sacs, about 1/5 of the egg, is that too small? I thought they should be bigger at this stage? Nothing to be seen or heard that indicate internal pipping, surely that should have happened by now? I've kept temp & humidity to recommended levels & just last week could little moving webbed feet when I candled the eggs. I fear the worst, the kids are going to be so disappointed. Any ideas anyone??

Can you see any movement in the eggs at all?

 

[iluvsedward]

VickiG,
Don't toss the eggs yet!!! you never know!! One day late is not enough time to pronounce dead.

 

[CricketR4]

Viki, if it helps at all, My eggs were supposed to hatch on 3/17. Well one hatched on 3/16, one on 3/17, 3 yesterday, and so far one today, so like iluvs said, don't give up! One or two days late isn't too bad...

And yes, we now have 6 ducklings! Yay! Hoping for another two...

 

[Goin Quackrrs]

Yes, it has been dragging out!

Aaannnnnnddddd duckling #5 JUST hatched! We're expecting a total of 9 ducklings out of 12 incubated. So, now we wait for 4 more to hopefully hatch, although, it would be nice if the two that are iffy would turn out to be ok and hatch...

I hate hatches that drag on and on like that. Congrats on #5!

So it's been 34 hours since I saw those four runner eggs internally pipped & no externally pips. When do I start to worry?

How's your temp and humidity been? I agree with the below post.

This morning it looked like I have an Ancona duckling internally pipped. Hatch day is supposed to be Friday. I may get an early bird.

bellah1 - that's the hard part - trying to figure out when or if you should help. For what it's worth, this is what I do. I'm by no means an expert hatcher, but so far, it's worked well for me.

If they are internally pipped, but have made no further progress after 24+ hours, I carefully make a tiny hole through the shell into the air cell. That way, I know they can breathe. Once you do this though, you have to keep the humidity high so they don't shrink wrap. This is just what I do. Some people don't interfere at all, so you'll need to decide what you think is best.

I've done the air hole thing quite a few times.

We had two that had internally pipped, and one died. So we pipped a little hole in the other one and raised the humidity to 80%. So far it looks like it's still alive. I actually had a little funeral today for the three ducklings that didn't make it out of their shells.

It's always hard when you lose them so near hatch. I've found that I get better hatching at 80% than below. 70-75% they get too sticky.

That would be so irritating! Being all excited to have a nice shiny new incubator, then having to send it back and wait all over again.

Adorable! Like Psue said, Metzers has some pretty good stuff on sexing. They have a video on vent sexing. I vent sex, but am not 100% confident on that yet, especially with the little call ducklings, then around 4-8 weeks confirm it with quack sexing.

They are slow slow slow. Mine internal pipped Friday, saturday, and sunday, and hatched late sunday night and this morning.
Glad you caught the stinker!
18! Hoping you get lots of babies.
x2, that's pretty much what I do too.
Sorry about your lost ducklings. I had 4 that internal pipped, 3 that hatched. The other one pippped too early I think, and must have hit a fairly big vessel because it bled a lot, poor little thing. It's sad to lose them when they've got so far. I hope the last one hatches for you!



Duckling #3, I have no idea what color this one is, so can't wait to see it grow up.

Duckling #2 looks a lot like duckling #1, blue ancona patterned.

I am so in love with that little duckling! I want!!!

Julie, my goodness, what a precious baby!!

Today feels like Christmas... or Easter.... or a combination of both.

I have gotten 6 goose eggs so far today, 5 are dewlaps and 1 is from my #1 prized girl. I got a mini-duck egg from my coop. It is the size of a small chicken egg. Of course, I am going to set it just to see if it hatches a mini-duckling. And my first test African egg is on day 26, rocking hard, and looks strong going into hatching mode.

I just brought home 2 more goose eggs. 18 duck eggs lock down tomorrow and then I can rearrange the bators again and hopefully be doing a whole lot less hand turning for a while!

Please help me with some advice... Hi, we are trying to hatch our first ever batch of khaki Campbell cross ducks. Today is day 29 though & no sign of any action. I quickly & carefully candled the eggs just now and all the eggs have what seem to be relatively small air sacs, about 1/5 of the egg, is that too small? I thought they should be bigger at this stage? Nothing to be seen or heard that indicate internal pipping, surely that should have happened by now? I've kept temp & humidity to recommended levels & just last week could little moving webbed feet when I candled the eggs. I fear the worst, the kids are going to be so disappointed. Any ideas anyone??

Are they Muscovy crosses by chance? That will extend incubation because Scovies are 35 days.

That said, sometimes a hatch just goes long. Give them one more day.

Viki, if it helps at all, My eggs were supposed to hatch on 3/17. Well one hatched on 3/16, one on 3/17, 3 yesterday, and so far one today, so like iluvs said, don't give up! One or two days late isn't too bad...

And yes, we now have 6 ducklings! Yay! Hoping for another two...