Here are some tips of manually and personally caring about hatching assistance
Hatching Preparation
Hatching Preparation
Before incubation, make sure that all of incubation equiptment is properly disinfected. Use a solution of water and any kind of Incubation Disinfectant to disinfect equiptment. Put the solution into a spray bottle and mist down the incubator, thermometers, the slats that hold the eggs, and new sponge for humidity.
Whenever you receive hatching eggs from another breeder, Please ALWAYS spray down the hatching eggs with some Incubation Disinfectant to kill any germs. Just to be extra cautious.
Temperature
When hatching the chicken or duck eggs, the temperature should be 99.5 for forced air incubators, and 101 for still air incubators (Reading in Celcius)
Humidity
Keep the humidity around 35% the first 18 days for the chicken eggs. The first 23 days (call eggs) or 26 days (mandarin eggs), keep it a little bit higher, around 40%. The last 3 days for chicken eggs please keep the humidity 65-70%. For duck eggs keep it around 75%. Both chicks and ducklings hatch out fine when the humidity was around 80% and couldnt get it any lower.
Turning
Turn the eggs an odd number of times a day, if you dont have an automatic turner. Stop the turing on day 18 for chicken eggs, day 23 for calls or day 26 for mandarins. Day 18, 23, or 26 (depending on the breed) is the day when the chicks start to get in position to hatch. Turing during this time will confuse the baby chick/duckling.
Hatching
On day 19-21 when the chicks begin to pip and hatch, you must not open the incubator. Call ducklings begin to pip and hatch on day 26-27, mandarins on day 29-30. Opening the incubator lets out the humidity and the chicks can become stuck in the shell. Let the chicks stay in the incubator for 24 hours until it fluffs up before moving it to the brooder.
Helping Call Ducklings Hatch
Some people are against helping, but it is good to do helps as well, especially with call ducklings. Call ducklings, especially the good quality ones, have round heads, short beaks, and short necks, which, contributes to difficulty during the hatch. Lets start from the beginning.
After putting the call duck eggs into the incubator, please wait 10 days, and then do the mist and cool the eggs daily. Cools the eggs for about 5 minutes each day, and mist them with lukewarm water sometime during that cool down period. Good to do this from day 10, up until the duckling pips through the air sac.
Once the duckling pips through the air sac, please wait around 14-18 hours, and if there is no pip through the shell, please make a small hole at the large end of the egg so that the duckling can breathe. The air hitting the membrane also stimulates the yolk sac to absorb, and the veins to dry up.
Then wait another 6-12 hours. If you hear the peeping of the duckling starting to slow down, or not pip as vigorously as it was, then you will help earlier. Then slowly, using fingernail or a toothpick, start to break off the large end of the egg. If you see any bright red blood, STOP. Put the duckling back into the incubator, and wait 3-4 hours before starting up again. Once you get the large end of the egg off, you will be able to see the membrane. If it looks rubbery and white, then take some q-tips soaked in warm water, and wet the membrane down. If the veins in the membrane look full with blood, put the duckling back, and wait another 3 hours. Keep repeating until the veins are almost all empty.
Once the veins are mostly gone, proceed to slowly stretch the membrane over the egg, so that the duckling is free from the membrane. Then slowly, and gently, take the ducklings head and pop it out of the shell. Then you stick the duckling, still in the shell, back into the incubator, for him to finish the hatching process himself.
Sometimes this is necessary, especially with show quality call ducklings. Since the ducklings have short necks, large round heads, and tiny beaks, sometimes the only thing that they can do is break the air sac, and then they need help getting the rest of the way out.
Do you feel confusing? Please read it again and again and please practice it. It SURELY worth doing.
Note: This is not my original article but it has been added here and there to suit the reading pleasure.
Note: This is not my original article but it has been added here and there to suit the reading pleasure.
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