MalmesburyCallDuck
Hatching
- Apr 25, 2024
- 4
- 4
- 8
Hello. I'm a novice at hatching but I had call ducks as a child (which we hatched in a incubator) so bought some eggs to do the same with my kids. We started with 12 shipped eggs (I'm in the UK, and the post took 6 days instead of the next day service the seller paid for!) but we managed to get to lockdown with 10 live embryos (lockdown started at the end of day 23). We are now on day 26, and at varying stages of hatching so I have a few questions I'm hoping someone more experienced can answer....
1) one of the little ones attempted to pip outside of the air cell. I waited for a bit, but after no obvious internal pip in the air cell, opened up slightly over the damaged shell. Sure enough the bill is there, so I've opened it up enough for the duckling to breathe, but I dare not touch it any further as the blood vessels are still quite obvious and it's obviously still chewing. Do I let it continue to try and hatch by itself (and can it even manage that?), or will I need to assist going forwards?
2) one of the eggs had a bruise on the side, which was growing. Again, no obvious internal pip in the air cell, so I made a safety hole over the bruise, but what next? Do I watch and wait, or will I need to assist there too?
3) one egg has pipped externally after 24hrs, I assume I can just let that one continue on its own unassisted?
For reference, I have a brinsea mini II eco, and have been running at 37.2 degrees Celsius & 45-55% humidity (UK weather has been really unsettled this year so the external humidity has played havoc with my stability). Currently we're similar on temp - 37.0, but 70% humidity. No signs of membranes being dry/tan so hoping I've done ok on that front!
Thank you in advance for the help & really wish I'd attempted an easier breed for my first hatch....
1) one of the little ones attempted to pip outside of the air cell. I waited for a bit, but after no obvious internal pip in the air cell, opened up slightly over the damaged shell. Sure enough the bill is there, so I've opened it up enough for the duckling to breathe, but I dare not touch it any further as the blood vessels are still quite obvious and it's obviously still chewing. Do I let it continue to try and hatch by itself (and can it even manage that?), or will I need to assist going forwards?
2) one of the eggs had a bruise on the side, which was growing. Again, no obvious internal pip in the air cell, so I made a safety hole over the bruise, but what next? Do I watch and wait, or will I need to assist there too?
3) one egg has pipped externally after 24hrs, I assume I can just let that one continue on its own unassisted?
For reference, I have a brinsea mini II eco, and have been running at 37.2 degrees Celsius & 45-55% humidity (UK weather has been really unsettled this year so the external humidity has played havoc with my stability). Currently we're similar on temp - 37.0, but 70% humidity. No signs of membranes being dry/tan so hoping I've done ok on that front!
Thank you in advance for the help & really wish I'd attempted an easier breed for my first hatch....
