[nitrochicken]

Hi,
I posted a few weeks ago about my progress in my home made incubator.
Anyway, I now have 2 healthy looking chicks hatched, one late on the 21st day and one early on the 22nd.
The other two eggs are worrying me though, I can hear them cheeping and tapping inside the eggs but no cracks as yet and today is day 23.
I'm pretty sure my humidity is high enough and my temp has been good and constant.
Is there anything I should do and are they likely to hatch?

Thanks

Dale

[chickenlady]

Cant help with your question but WOW! you built your own incubator? how did you do it? and welcome to the forum  :happy:

[nitrochicken]

The incubator I made is pretty ugly! I made an automatic turner too but it's pretty much a pipe cleaner and sticky tape kind of thing!
The box is made from 2" polystyrene sheet from the builders merchant, glued together.
The heater is a ceramic, edison screw reptile heater that I had already that hangs inside the box.
Temperature is controlled by a thermostat kind of thing I made and there is an old computer fan in there to curculate the air.

The auto turner is made from a mechanical plug in timer, as they contain a small motor and gearbox that turn very slowly. Eggs are continually turning at a rate of about 1 turn every 1h 45min.

Sorry my explanation isn't very good but it's a bit of a botch together really. Pretty chuffed it worked though

Dale

[Foxy]

I am presuming its a "still air" incubator, so they normally can have the temp slightly higher than "forced air" ie with a fan circulating air
What temp has it been averaging out? if slightly lower they can take a day longer.
Check the sound of the cheeping does it sound distressed?

[nitrochicken]

Hi Foxy,
The incubator does have a fan and temp has been almost spot on 37.5 for the whole time.
I'm not sure I know the difference between a distressed and a normal cheep!
I'm hoping there are cracks when I get home tonight, otherwise can I crack the shell to help?
Thanks
Dale

[Foxy]

well, thats a tough call, you can either make a tiny hole in the round bit where the air sac is (candle first to check) that will help the chick with enough oxygen. Check the membrane hasn't dried out as that will make if difficult for them to get out, be care as well not to start any bleeding of the membrane, if it bleeds the chick isn't ready to hatch out yet. Lots of people do leave them though and if they make all and well and good, as there is usually a reason why the chick cant get out of the shell on its own.

[nitrochicken]

When I got in tonight, I listened to the eggs to see if I could hear anything. I couldn't so I decided to open them up.
They both contained dead, fully formed chicks although one was a bit small.
I'm assuming it was the egg sack I could see attached to their stomachs? I expected it to be on a cord but it was attached to them directly. Does this sound right or did they have a tumor or something?
The one I could hear cheeping had a small sack and the other one's was pretty big. I think that one had been dead for a few days.

I know its hard to say but what is the most likely thing that went wrong? They were from ebay so could the postal system have weakened them?

I've changed a few things in the incubator and added extra ventilation now. I've sterilised it and I'm putting more eggs in tonight. These ones I picked up myself from someone local so hopefully I'll have better success.

Dale

[Kate and her Ducks]

The yolk sac is the thing connected directly to them so that sounds pretty normal but I've had a couple of dead in shell ducklings and it always seems really sad that they get so far and then don't get out, especially when you can hear them cheeping away.

There are mixed feelings on helping them out. Some argue that the hatch is nature's fitness test and if they don't get out it was never ment to be. Although I think that is a good, logical argument, mine are 90% pet, 10% food. I have helped out quite a few of mine and had healthy happy ducklings. I have only regretted it once when I helped out one that turned out to have congenital abnormalities and then had to cull it. Would do the same again in the future.

[poultrygeist]

That's a shame Dale. Sorry to hear they didn't quite make it.

Rob

[nitrochicken]

But we're happy with our 2 that did hatch. Cant believe how quick they start running around!