Re: failure to thrive

In article <Xns96C4D9508D9F1danny@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
diddy <diddy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> I had 4 duck eggs candled a few days ago and one chicken egg. All were
> doing well. They were all due to hatch yesterday.
>
> I checked two of the duck eggs and nothing was moving inside. The chicken
> egg had been quiet for a couple of days. Today , I gently tapped open the
> chicken egg and the chick was dead, with his head tucked under his wing.
> Fully fledged, and ready for birth. Just dead. i fear that 2 of the 4 duck
> eggs are also dead.
> The temperature has remained steady at 100 degrees. The incubator has been
> kept in a dark room with no sun. I've kept water in the bottom of the
> incubator to maintain humidity.
> So what suddenly is causing near to hatch birds to fail?
> I'd like not to lose the last two ducklings (that were due to hatch
> yesterday)

You could cautiously open the airspace, but that's risky...
Do you have a hygrometer?

Hatch failures are pretty much always due to errors in incubation
conditions somewhere along the line. Hovabator has a brochure with their
incubators with troubleshooting charts. The stage of embryo death (how
well they were developed) and condition of the embryo (overly dry or
overly wet) can help to pinpoint where the incubation process went wrong.

AFAIK, late stage embryo death is most often either a humidity problem
or lack of air flow/circulation. Ducks also require higher humidity than
chicken so it's advisable not to incubate them at the same time.

This info. might also be available on google. I don't have it handy or
I'd type it out.

Cheers!
--
Om.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch." -Jack Nicholson
.

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