What happened to the blood veins in the eggs?

[cajuntc74]

Since I just came upon this thread and really don't know all that has been going on but how old is Paris and is she from this same hatch?
Thanks for the info about the safe hole I haven't ever tried using a bator when we have ducklings I let my ducks hatch. I have only had to assist once and thankfully that duckling hatched fine, Nerve wracking to say the least.

Miss Lydia,
Paris is about 6 days old. She is the only survivor of the original 6 eggs I began incubating from my sweet duck "Hussy". I was completely new to this whole thing and bit off a little more than I could chew. I did not do much of anything right in the beginning and I handled them WAY too much. I am pretty sure I caused a lot of the problems I am having with the hatching process. The first 2 eggs Hussy laid were double yolk eggs. One of them died at just a couple of weeks. The second one died about 2 days before it was supposed to hatch. Actually I take that back...all of the first 6 eggs died. Paris was the 7th egg and 3 days later I added Rocky's egg.. so I had a bunch of eggs in the same incubator all hatching at different times. I have 7 eggs left total that are supposed to hatch and they are all looking really good and growing nicely...it seems to be that way until just before they are supposed to hatch. Then everything seems to go South!
So anyway, the 3rd of Hussy's eggs was due to hatch but died because it was backwards inside the egg. I did not know that was even a problem until I am sure it was too late. I noticed the gray spot appear but did not know what it was and didn't realize that I could have at least tried to assist it. Then finally Paris hatched and it was tough. Then Rocky hatched last night.. he was mal-positioned too. I did a ton of research almost non-stop to make sure I was making the right choices. It was completely nerve wracking. This next baby to hatch ..... I am just not sure about this one. I guess I need to read up some more on 'sticky chicks"...There is a thread on here that is FANTASTIC! I have read it about 100 times. I still check in with Orca because it is nice to have actual advice...she has been an amazing help! ( I assume she is a she)....I do not feel confident whatsoever about this little one.. I put it in the incubator 28 days ago...one night the incubator spiked out at 109 degrees and I had no idea how long the temp was that high.. but so far 2 of them survived and the rest look good except this one. I have a "real" incubator now so I don't have to worry so much about temperature fluctuations..I know now that I need to start them all at the same time and set them in the egg turned and leave them ALONE! I am a curious busy body and I think that has caused most of the problems...

 

[Miss Lydia]

Miss Lydia,
Paris is about 6 days old. She is the only survivor of the original 6 eggs I began incubating from my sweet duck "Hussy". I was completely new to this whole thing and bit off a little more than I could chew. I did not do much of anything right in the beginning and I handled them WAY too much. I am pretty sure I caused a lot of the problems I am having with the hatching process. The first 2 eggs Hussy laid were double yolk eggs. One of them died at just a couple of weeks. The second one died about 2 days before it was supposed to hatch. Actually I take that back...all of the first 6 eggs died. Paris was the 7th egg and 3 days later I added Rocky's egg.. so I had a bunch of eggs in the same incubator all hatching at different times. I have 7 eggs left total that are supposed to hatch and they are all looking really good and growing nicely...it seems to be that way until just before they are supposed to hatch. Then everything seems to go South!
So anyway, the 3rd of Hussy's eggs was due to hatch but died because it was backwards inside the egg. I did not know that was even a problem until I am sure it was too late. I noticed the gray spot appear but did not know what it was and didn't realize that I could have at least tried to assist it. Then finally Paris hatched and it was tough. Then Rocky hatched last night.. he was mal-positioned too. I did a ton of research almost non-stop to make sure I was making the right choices. It was completely nerve wracking. This next baby to hatch ..... I am just not sure about this one. I guess I need to read up some more on 'sticky chicks"...There is a thread on here that is FANTASTIC! I have read it about 100 times. I still check in with Orca because it is nice to have actual advice...she has been an amazing help! ( I assume she is a she)....I do not feel confident whatsoever about this little one.. I put it in the incubator 28 days ago...one night the incubator spiked out at 109 degrees and I had no idea how long the temp was that high.. but so far 2 of them survived and the rest look good except this one. I have a "real" incubator now so I don't have to worry so much about temperature fluctuations..I know now that I need to start them all at the same time and set them in the egg turned and leave them ALONE! I am a curious busy body and I think that has caused most of the problems...

Very interesting thanks for catching me up. I bet this have been very stressful too. Wonderful you have 2 babies now though and hopefully more to come. You'll be a pro once this is over.. lol I'll be following along now and praying this lil one and all the others make it safely out and are healthy. Orca is a good one to help she has alot of knowledge.

 

[Orca5094]

Aww, thanks guys! ^-^ I like to help out when I can.

And it's true, you will be a hatching pro by the time this is all over, cajuntc! Incubation and hatching is definitely a learning process.

 

[cajuntc74]

The little duckling that was supposed to hatch on the 20th died. It is the one that was backwards inside the egg. I could see where the beak was and I cut the part of the shell off just around the beak area last night but I didn't disturb the membrane at all. I got up this morning and paced around trying to decide what to do..so I took the plunge and decided to cut more of the shell away and put a little slit in the membrane because a nice air pocket formed when I took more of the shell off. I dampened the membrane and was able to slice it open just enough to see that I was exactly accurate with my beak markings I put on the outside of the shell. There was no movement at all. When I first got up this morning it was moving only slightly. Such slow movements that honestly it could have just been my eyes playing tricks on me.
I waited and watched for a good while and finally came to the conclusion that the little thing had expired. So I slowly removed the rest of the shell so I could see what was going on in there. The little thing was in fact dead and the reason was revealed. The poor baby had not for correctly. All of it's insides were exposed. The belly of the duckling had not grown together. It had absorbed nearly all of the yolk and there was only one blood vessel still visible and it was not attached to him at all. I am thankful that it died before it hatched. It would have been just heartbreaking to see it struggle to survive with no hope and die. It was perfect except for that and it was MUCH bigger than it appeared to be from the outside. I am not sure where all that light came from when I candled it. When I shined the light in there the baby only appeared to take up about 50% of the egg. And it appeared to be all twisted and inside there all weird.
Anyway..the next one is due to hatch on Thanksgiving....it is looking great.. He appears to be in that egg facing the right direction.
I guess we will wait and see and pray that this hatch goes the way it is supposed to.
Thanks for all your help Orca!

 

[Orca5094]

Oh my gosh, so sorry about that one. :/ I'm glad it passed away in the shell as well so you wouldn't have to deal with seeing it alive that way. Deformities are sad to see, but luckily most do not make it out of the shell so it's a little easier on us in some way. I had one die in the shell during lockdown and opened it up to see what might have happened. It's head was very misshapen and squishy, so that would explain why it didn't make it. Again, I was thankful it passed away before I saw it as a living deformed duckling. Sometimes it's just not meant to be.

I wish you super duper good luck on your next one! Always good when they are at least facing the right direction.

Paris and Rocky still doing well together? Both eating good for you?

 

[Lacrystol]

Baby survived the night and he is as strong and active as he can be today! It is running all over the brooder and peeping and just wanting to be held....I did introduce him to Paris and Paris did like you said. She was trying to be very rough so the intro didn't last but a few seconds. It is amazing how BIG Paris is compared to this little guy. I checked this afternoon and this one is a male. My hubby named him Rocky since he was a fighter and survived! We are relieved. I have another one that is due to hatch today and I am almost 100% certain that this one is backwards in the egg. There is no part of the darkness in the egg anywhere near the air sac. All of the duckling is crammed into the small end of the egg. I am going to keep an eye out for the dark spot to appear...any chance that I could turn the egg upside down to get it to flip around? I put that egg in the incubator 28 days ago today...I am not sure that it is even close to being ready...I just wonder if there is something I can do to help it flip right side up in the egg before it starts pipping...

There's a 1% chance he could turn around at the last minute, apparently I have seen this done. It doesn't happen to many times but there is that chance..

 

[Lacrystol]

Don't mean to step In but I am curious as to what you procedure is, what's the temp, humidity and do you have a fan. Here a little advice on upside downers. When you lock them down and I do hope your not locking your downs unless you have a second bator since you do have a mix of eggs with different due dates. But if you are able to lock them down if you place the larger end higher then the smaller end this will help avoid upside downers. A little experiment trick I had tried in the past.

 

[cajuntc74]

Don't mean to step In but I am curious as to what you procedure is, what's the temp, humidity and do you have a fan. Here a little advice on upside downers. When you lock them down and I do hope your not locking your downs unless you have a second bator since you do have a mix of eggs with different due dates. But if you are able to lock them down if you place the larger end higher then the smaller end this will help avoid upside downers. A little experiment trick I had tried in the past.

I DID have 2 incubators ..one completely crashed on me. They both had egg turners in them but I took the turner out of one of them for the "lock down" and hatch. The other was supposed to be for the first 25 days of incubation. I am not sure what the heck happened to that incubator.. It worked perfectly then all the sudden it started alarming and it was like 35 degrees C in there. I was never able to stabilize the temp again after that. So I know the humidity was WAY too high for the rest of the eggs while waiting for the first ones to hatch. I have one of those 48 egg incubators with the auto turner and it has a fan inside there that runs nonstop. The humidity in there is about 65%. The digital readings are all over the place for the humidity. One minute is says it is 92% then the next it is 45%. I put the thingy in there from my hubby's cigar humidor and it stays pretty much around the 65% humidity mark. I think most of my problems started in the beginning with all my curiosity and lack of knowledge. I just figured that you plug the thing in and WHAM...all was just supposed to go right from then on. I wasn't sure so I kept candling them everyday just to make sure they were still growing and moving around. Now that I have had 2 that hatched successfully (somehow) my curiosity isn't so bad. I am learning a ton about all of this and hope now that the others will be ok. I have one more that is to hatch on Thanksgiving.. then 3 to hatch on Nov 30 and 3 more for Dec 3rd. After that I will load it up with some eggs that Hussy is laying now. I think I have learned enough ...the hard way.. of what NOT to do. Thanks for the tips! I appreciate them.

 

[cajuntc74]

Oh my gosh, so sorry about that one. :/ I'm glad it passed away in the shell as well so you wouldn't have to deal with seeing it alive that way. Deformities are sad to see, but luckily most do not make it out of the shell so it's a little easier on us in some way. I had one die in the shell during lockdown and opened it up to see what might have happened. It's head was very misshapen and squishy, so that would explain why it didn't make it. Again, I was thankful it passed away before I saw it as a living deformed duckling. Sometimes it's just not meant to be.

I wish you super duper good luck on your next one! Always good when they are at least facing the right direction.

Paris and Rocky still doing well together? Both eating good for you?

Paris and Rocky are doing fine together. When Paris start messing with Rocky he gets her good! He doesn't back down to her at all. She did a little peck at his beak and he let her have it! That is one strong little duckling for nearly not even making it out of the shell 2 days ago. I did put the bandaids on his legs and he doesn't like it much but at least his legs are in the right position now.

 

[Lacrystol]

I DID have 2 incubators ..one completely crashed on me. They both had egg turners in them but I took the turner out of one of them for the "lock down" and hatch. The other was supposed to be for the first 25 days of incubation. I am not sure what the heck happened to that incubator.. It worked perfectly then all the sudden it started alarming and it was like 35 degrees C in there. I was never able to stabilize the temp again after that. So I know the humidity was WAY too high for the rest of the eggs while waiting for the first ones to hatch. I have one of those 48 egg incubators with the auto turner and it has a fan inside there that runs nonstop. The humidity in there is about 65%. The digital readings are all over the place for the humidity. One minute is says it is 92% then the next it is 45%. I put the thingy in there from my hubby's cigar humidor and it stays pretty much around the 65% humidity mark. I think most of my problems started in the beginning with all my curiosity and lack of knowledge. I just figured that you plug the thing in and WHAM...all was just supposed to go right from then on. I wasn't sure so I kept candling them everyday just to make sure they were still growing and moving around. Now that I have had 2 that hatched successfully (somehow) my curiosity isn't so bad. I am learning a ton about all of this and hope now that the others will be ok. I have one more that is to hatch on Thanksgiving.. then 3 to hatch on Nov 30 and 3 more for Dec 3rd. After that I will load it up with some eggs that Hussy is laying now. I think I have learned enough ...the hard way.. of what NOT to do. Thanks for the tips! I appreciate them.

OK, well 65 is to high, it's perfect for lockdown but not for day one up to lockdown. Chances are youll have sticky babies. So I'm taken right now you have one bator and different due dates? Best advice i could give you have this point, Dont' add water to it. Keep the humidity down, come hatching day there's some things you can do to help them escape. If you see ANY empty spacing at the smaller end of the egg, you have sticky babies.

Sticky babies are cause by Four factors, One - to high of humidity, which is the most likely. TWO - temp to low at some point, three - Low oxygen level, not even circulations processing in and out of the eggs. FOUR - dirty bator, bacteria!!

If they get sticky it's very hard for them to crack open that shell, usually you need to make a safe hole for them. I just help two babies escape from there shells because they were sticky. It's a horrible thing because this gooy stuff forms and it bascially sufficates them. Makes it almost impossible for them to get out, keeps them confined in the shell.