Thread formerly known as Hatch day is today

[Sarah and Joey]

Here they are.. two of the pekins and the lone Mallard. So five more Pekins on the way.

AND! Can I say how PROUD of myself I am, that I have not even laid a FINGER on the bator.

Congrats on your new babies, this is our first time hatching ducks and your yellow ones look just like our Aylesburys. How long did you manage to resist b4 going in for a cuddle?

 

[Sarah and Joey]

We now have 3 new baby ducks and 2 more who look like they're on their way.
One has made a small hole in the shell, keep hearing a chirp and can see it's little beak peeping through the hole.
Its been like this now though for the last 6 hours and the little thing doesn't seem to be getting any further.
Oh, they're Aylesbury ducks by the way.
How long do I leave the little fella b4 giving a helping hand??

It's just started chirp chirp again, does sound a strong chirp!!

 

[carcar80]

No help needed yet IMO!! 6 hours isn't near long enough for most to hatch. Just "enjoy" watching.

I waited until the first three were getting too curious for the bator (pecking at the heating element) before removing them. The next two I didn't wait but maybe a hour since the others were dry in the brooder by that point and waiting to snuggle with the newbies. The one this morning was still super-new when I moved it but I didn't want hubby to forget and leave it in there. All are doing great now.

*****So I'm home now and no news on the last two, no real progress. They are rocking and peeping so I'm not concerned, HOWEVER.. I was MOST displeased to find that my temp had been hovering around 93*F, all day I'm sure.

Any ideas on how/whether this might affect the remaining two? I guess losing all the other eggs caused the drop.

 

[carcar80]

Ack! Ack!!!! I did a little investigating and found that my bator top was left "jacked up" on one corner when I took the new baby out this morning. So it's all MY fault!!

One egg only had two "pimples" of pips on it, so it appears to be fine as far as membrane goes. I chipped away the teensiest piece of shell from one of the pimples and membrane is snow white underneath. Baby sounds great.

The other already had one nice, large extended pip with shell frags raised this morning, so it's now dried out pretty badly.

Baby is still very much vocal and active, though. So I reached into the bator and peeled away enough of the (now YELLOW) membrane and chipped a good bit of shell away to make a hole. Sprayed the shell well and used my fingertip to moisten the edges of the membrane really well. Sprayed the other egg thoroughly.. Poured warm water on my dish towels that are in there and pulled them up around the eggs, leaving a corner of one of the towels actually touching part of the exposed membrane on the assisted egg.

Ugg. I feel like I've done right so far, but I'm so sick over this being my fault!

 

[carcar80]

Here is a pic of where I helped the dried out one a bit. I tried to do more of a "zip" pattern, in hopes that once he is feeling strong enough he can maybe just pop the top of the shell off like he would have naturally. Looks like he's still absorbing from those veins too, but I didn't do anything that brought blood. My "artificial zip" doesn't go any further than where the towel blocks your view.

You can see that the membrane on the other is still white where this one is yellow and very rubbery. It is more yellow than shows in this pic, and the part that was covering where you can now see his face was even darker yellow. So I didn't do anything to help the other, I'll just watch and see what happens.



And on a lighter note, here a shot from the little box of cuteness next to the bator. I'm calling this shot, "STRANGER DANGER!!!"

LOL!!

 

[Sarah and Joey]

oh no, i do hope your remaining eggs make it!!
I'll wait patiently until morning, another egg at the other side of the bator has also just pipped through the shell and keeps chirping in, hopefully the 2 of them will hear each others peeps and encourage each other out!!
I can't sit and watch these eggs any longer, must go to bed and hopefully wake to 2 new babies - fingers crossed.

 

[carcar80]

LOL! It's torture, isn't it? Let's see, my first pipped on Sunday, and nobody actually hatched until yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon. So I think you are fine, just don't open and lose your humidity! Good luck!! And get some good sleep!

edit: And I really have the feeling they'll be fine.. it'll just be a bit dicey for a while, may be a late night.. actually I'm GLAD now that my temp was off, otherwise I'd have never realized I was losing all my humidity!

 

[Sarah and Joey]

just seen your photo - they're super cute

 

[donnavee]

I put 38 eggs in the bator & they just started hatching last night. I took these 6 out this afternoon as things were getting pretty crowded and they were the rowdiest. Looks like I'll have at least 8 more to keep these company in the morning. Baby chickens are cute, but ducklings are at the top of the cute meter.

 

[carcar80]

Gorgeous, Donnavee!! Congrats.

I totally agree- I've had both as well and there's just SOMETHING about those ducklings! LOL. Lucky for them since they're also 100,000x messier.