Tis Time for a March 2020 Hatch-a-long!

[FortCluck]

Also I mentioned getting a nurture right to my husband and he did not object outright so that was essentially him saying he was on board, right?

Yeah that's what I would think

 

[julskinka]

By the way, I got that olive egger out this morning! It had absorbed all the blood and still hadn’t come out, so I made a zip for it and waited and then pulled it open a bit and it finally pushed out. It had its wing over its head wrong and was definitely stuck. I don’t think it was shrink wrapped though.

Awesome! Yay!!

 

[gmjarvi]

I just got rid of all the ducklings except the 3 I chose and this one.

This one is from a mint green shell so I'm hoping it's part runner.

I will get my duckling fix soon, my mom wants me to raise her a couple of pekins for the freezer and my husband actually wants ducks (just not my beloved cayugas for some reason) so I'm going to get a few of each breed that TSC offers on Monday. He can keep the ones he likes as pets and the ones he doesnt like will be meat ducks. So. The 28 days won't seem too bad then. And maybe the blow will be softened if this hatch doesn't end well.

I'd love to have runners, maybe I will hatch some of those this year or next year, too .

Side note, I really need to get busy building more brooders

 

[julskinka]

You guys I am ing my pants...

I don't even know how I did this without even nicking a vein. The outer membrane of the shell was pretty much stuck to the membrane that the duckling is in if that makes any sense.

So I had to stick a knitting needle between the egg membrane and the duckling membrane and slowly work my way down and peel...

I don't know how no veins broke or anything.

I used an 18 gauge needle to pierce the membrane and slowly rip it open so that the duckling could breathe.

Now how do I keep that membrane moisturized because I did put water in my incubator so that it would have at least some humidity in it.

Help!!!

Literally I'm sweating. If this duckling does not make it I am going to be so upset.

and by the way it's bill was way down at the bottom of the egg as you can see

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Amazing! Good job! Is it sticky or are duck eggs always that way? I'd coat the membrane with neosporin with a q-tip.

 

[julskinka]

Amazing! Good job! Is it sticky or are duck eggs always that way? I'd coat the membrane with neosporin with a q-tip.

Can also wrap it in a warm wet paper towel.

 

[abpatchy]

Also I mentioned getting a nurture right to my husband and he did not object outright so that was essentially him saying he was on board, right?

same thing... he might as well have gone and bought it..

 

[julskinka]

So add some triple antibiotic ointment?

Good thing I have some on hand. I don't get why it hasn't absorbed. I guess after this assist I can literally do any assist yesterday I had to push in a ducklings intestines!

I don't know about ducks but with chicks i think the act of breathing is what triggers the rest of the yolk and blood absorption.

 

[FortCluck]

Amazing! Good job! Is it sticky or are duck eggs always that way? I'd coat the membrane with neosporin with a q-tip.

Duck egg insides are stickier than a chickens for some reason. Even when you cook them.

You know how a chicken egg white is kind of runny... A duck egg white is like goop kind of It sounds gross but they make better eggs

 

[FortCluck]

I don't know about ducks but with chicks i think the act of breathing is what triggers the rest of the yolk and blood absorption.

So now that it's breathing it should start absorbing. I want my lucky ducky

 

[baby-blue]

I left this on page 319. I have a lot to catch up on.

Took out the cracked duck egg, it started to look dead a day after we waxed it. The waxed silkie egg is looking good though. All of the other eggs have moving, active embryos and big veins. Those silkie and serama eggs have only a week or two left before they get moved to my hatcher!

A bit off of the topic of hatching eggs - but still on the topic of chickens and ducks - I now have a large group of ducklings and chicks that were almost snake food. I stopped at TSC for crumble and oyster shell and, while I was lovingly staring at every single chick and duckling, I overheard a man talking about buying all of the $1-ducklings and chicks for his snakes. Obviously, I had to do something. I got my favorite employee and she managed to snag the last 8 ducklings and 6 chicks in the bin. And then they threw in a wry-necked day old duckling, and a pasty-butt silkie. We’re on the hunt for prednisone for the duckling, she’s on a vitamin regimen and she has a brace. So we’ll see how she does!