The Poultry Keeper

sasha.p · Joined: 04 Sep 2005 Posts: 472 Location: gwent

i just went to empty out the welsummer eggs i bought in as thought the hatch was over i had 12 of them in there none hatched to my dissapointment as i was emtptying them into the bin i noticed one had a hole and i could see the membrane so i wondered if it had pipped itself or if another chick had knocked a hole in it by accident anyway so i took a bit of shell to see if i could move the membrane back to see if ther beak was there and punctured the membrane which started to bleed but as it did the chick started to move Shocked

sureley this is not right so i checked again its definatley moving so what do i do it is two days after all the others i put in there hatched should i hang on and see? whats the chances of them hatching this late and why has this happened all the pthers i had in there hatched even though they were different breeds to each other its just the welsummers that have done Question

NannyP · Posted: Mon May 12, 2008 11:03 am Post subject:

I think the general concensus is to leave til Day 25. Hope it hatches.

CP · Posted: Mon May 12, 2008 11:51 am Post subject:

Yes, leave at bit longer - at least 25 days. What have you got to lose? Wink

AFAIK Welsummers don't have a longer hatching time than any other breed.

I'm not suggesting you can't count but are you sure of your dates? Embarassed

Tracey Morris · Joined: 04 Nov 2007 Posts: 289 Location: South Wales

Well I had a goling hatch on #monday morning within an hour (they generally take a day after pipping the shell in my incubator) which was 9 days late! Shocked

The reason it was still in the incubator was I was being lazy Confused

There was no movement, no sound nothing to indicate it had a gosling in it!

So now I have to leave them all another 9 days Sad

before throwing away).

I have hatched nearly 20 goslings and chicks Since February and am very certain about the dates I put on the eggs. I do tend to have different date hatches because I put new eggs in as and when there is space in the incubator hence the different dates. (Keeps the brain active too)

CP · Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 8:49 am Post subject:

I couldn't do that, because I have no brain! Rolling Eyes

1 date is enough for me to think about. Embarassed

Tarka · Joined: 21 Dec 2007 Posts: 291

Is the humidity at the correct level ?

sasha.p · Joined: 04 Sep 2005 Posts: 472 Location: gwent

well it has completly confused me as all the eggs were sat for a day before i popped them in i have 12 little chicks in the brooder in my shed .normally i would discard the eggs thinking they had died late stages a day after the last hatchling hatched which was saturday evening. the one which i tampered with i took another look at lastnight it still appeared to be moving but the membrane appeared to be drying around it so i decided to put some cellotape over the hole Laughing

in the shell then this morning i checked it and plain as day i can see the membrane is now moist again and i can see its heart beat moving back and forth so it is still alive i just hope it will have enough strength after i moved the membrane and it started to bleed Embarassed

well if i had not done this though i would of had no idea they were still alive in there so i guess it is just as well i did otherwise they would of been thrown out with the rubbish Rolling Eyes

well i do hope they hatch anyway even though there is still no sign of anything yet will let you know how it goes not getting my hopes too high though Smile

sasha.p · Joined: 04 Sep 2005 Posts: 472 Location: gwent

well thats it yes the humidity has been great right the way through i have a wet bulb thermometer on my incubator and do use it and my incubator is in a room that is at a level temp etc too as this took me several hatches to find the right place for it to live although i have never had this happen before i filled both trays and removed from the auto turn cradle two days before hatch date as always the hatch went great with the other chicks i put in there some pheasant fowl and light sussex and some rir x sussex it is juyst the welsummers that have done it

Henwife · Joined: 31 Jan 2006 Posts: 3021 Location: Monmouthshire

I have some Welsummer LF due to hatch tomorrow night (ish). When I candled them before putting them in the hatcher they looked very still compared with the Cream legbars, which I put down to dark shells. Now I await hatching with trepidaton, as like you, if nothing seems to be happening, I assume nothing will. I come back to this thread when something does, but please....not a load of late hatchers.

Henwife · Joined: 31 Jan 2006 Posts: 3021 Location: Monmouthshire

Oh heck. There's one welsummer chick in the hatcher this evening.

debcat · Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 11:34 pm Post subject:

think you spoke too soon there henwife Very Happy

Henwife · Joined: 31 Jan 2006 Posts: 3021 Location: Monmouthshire

I did...now 5 welsummers and 3 cream legbars.

CP · Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 8:57 am Post subject:

Well at least they're not late! Laughing

Henwife · Joined: 31 Jan 2006 Posts: 3021 Location: Monmouthshire

7 welsumers and 6 (now 5) Cream legbars. The Cream legbar that I had to cull I hadn't expected to hatch. Despite incubating upright, there was a huge airspace along the length of the egg and when it did hatch, a lot of insides were outside. Not nice. CLs all female!

sasha.p · Joined: 04 Sep 2005 Posts: 472 Location: gwent

well done henwife at least you had some hatch i had a broody which i had sat on eggs for a while then decided i would rather her rear the chicks so done a swap the same evening after i posted last unfortunatley it was a big mistake i switched her eggs in the dark and the following day several hatched but my son came down ill the same day with a high temprature so another virus and i did not get a chance to look in on her until dh came home from work but by which time the chicks had been busy hatching and she decided she was going to kill them all!!!i was absolutley gutted for the poor little things they were perfect in every way by what was left of them what a horrid thing to find i was expecting to look in and see little heads poking out from under her so i have now ringed her and marked her so i know she is a non hatcher and will never use her as a broody again worst thing is she was back in the communal nest box yesterday brooding the eggs that had just been laid by the others Evil or Very Mad

anyway i have an empty incubator now so am off to take a look on e-bay to see if i can fill it again after the weekend this time i will use the heat lamp although i do have 3 other broodies succesfully sitting on duck eggs at the moment and one broody who is now rearing chicks she hatched so they are not all like that thankfully