out of 7 eggs 2 have passed and 1 has been hatching since about 4pm yesterday, it's now 5PM and no external pip, I thought the humidity was too low, so I set up a room humidifier and that hasn't helped, any thoughts on what else I could do?

I did assist egg #2 because he was so late and had made no progress over 10 hours, he was weak and only vocalized once when the hen started to clean him, he died shortly after, I'm starting to think all of these chicks are just weak as egg#3 even though internally pipped has not vocalized at all.

anyone have any input?

Well not really I don't fuss around the hen and eggs when they are hatching, believe the fact having me hanging around would bother the hen too much. Besides which I've never actually heard a chick still in the egg.

last clutch I could hear the chicks while I was refilling the food supply for the pair and changing water, I knew they were still in the eggs because it was faint compared to when they hatched out completely, I candled the egg this afternoon to make sure he was still alive, my hen doesn't care too much if I handle the eggs as I have spent some time on taming her, I also hatched ducks and hours before they were out they could be heard inside the eggs and would often roll the egg side to side as they wiggled to pip, but obviously ducks aren't budgies.

again does anyone have any advise on what else I can do?

just want to check you have very clean hands or wear gloves when handling the eggs? They do have air holes and can get bacteria into the growing chick that can kill them before hatching.

Only other thing I can think of is how many clutches in a row has the hen laid? perhaps she needs a 6 - 12 month rest

Dingo, Nerwen and Lin have valid points. I wouldn't handle the eggs unless you have washed them in something like Chorihexidine and then only once or twice. I candle my eggs 5 days after the last egg is laid and then a day or two before the first one is expected to hatch. Then maybe if the last one to overdue.

 

Your profile says you only have two birds. I take it that this pair are them? How many rounds has the hen had? I only let mine have two and only if I think she is up to it.

I understand everyones concerns, I am aware eggs are porous and do wash my hands every time I go anywhere near my birds as I have one in quarentine and dont want to risk contaminating my flock or the eggs, and when I hand them when they have pipped I do have gloves on, I do only have 2 budgies, this clutch they are on wasn't planned by me, I caught my pair mating 3 times before I gave them a box, and they will be rested after this for atleast 6 months, the last clutch they had all hatched out in oct.

I understand everyones concerns, I am aware eggs are porous and do wash my hands every time I go anywhere near my birds as I have one in quarentine and dont want to risk contaminating my flock or the eggs, and when I hand them when they have pipped I do have gloves on, I do only have 2 budgies, this clutch they are on wasn't planned by me, I caught my pair mating 3 times before I gave them a box, and they will be rested after this for atleast 6 months, the last clutch they had all hatched out in oct.

 

Do you still have any of the first clutch ? I would love to see the Photos

unfortunatly the first cutch failed, one chick lived for a few weeks but when the one that was slightly younger than him abruptly passed the pair stopped feeding and he didn't take to hand feeding.

egg #3 passed on last night I extracted him from the egg ( I made sure he was gone before I opened the shell) , he had developed upside down and had a fluid filled growth on the right side of his neck, I am sure had he survived hatching he would have probly had other issues as well.

next is due tomorrow, hopefully this one will have developed correctly, and I'm still open to suggestions as to anything else I can do to increase the chances of healthy live chicks.

Dingo, are you sure the parents aren't related? With the kind of losses your experiencing I would think inbreeding might be the cause

:hap: Something is certainly going wrong with such a high fail rate.. I just hope you/we work out what it is soon....

I dont believe they are related if they are the only parentage I can see them sharing would be the dam as the cock is opaline and the hen is not, if they fail this one I will wait wait till my new little one is old enough to breed and try it with one of my pair, one chick is trying to hatch right now he has a crack in the shell about 1/4", I'm not sure if he's got an air whole through the membrane though, the humidifier should help keep everything moist, fingers crossed!

as for the pairs first clutch the hen laid 6 eggs she cracked the first trying to roll it, she didn't keep the first chick to hatch warm, she didn;t feed #3, one egg was infertile and the last two chicks as I said in the last post one survived a few weeks but the last chick to hatch was weak from the start and passed, as a result the hen stopped feeding the eldest, I didn't think that was too far off for a first time hen, but I was certainly hoping for better turn out this time, I'll let you all know how this chick does.

 

update, the chick passed, I checked him a few minutes ago and he was gone, I had checked him about an hour ago and he was doing very good he was almost free from the shell and appeared very strong and was vocalizing, I believe my hen had him sitting wrong and as a result he got crushed by the shell, I do have a question for those more experienced, when I checked him an hour ago should I have helped him out atleast most of the way, he had all the shell chipped away and just needed to wiggle free? I believe helping him would have prevented her from setting on him like that(he was upside down against the bottom of the box with the shell ontop of him)

if she failes this clutch I will probly use her as a "goat for the race horse"

Edited March 14, 200619 yr by Dingo

Never help a chick free itself from the shell. If a baby can't get out of the shell by itself it probably won't survive anyway.

A shell does not weigh enough to damage a baby.

Never help a chick free itself from the shell. If a baby can't get out of the shell by itself it probably won't survive anyway.

A shell does not weigh enough to damage a baby.

 

 

I never said the weight of the shell killed the chick I said the hen had him on end and she sat on him like that when I found him he had shell fragments in his eye and his skull was crushed.

and I disagree with the helping chicks statement yes some chicks wont survive but alot of them will as long as theres nothing else wrong, if you look back, the membranes are drying to quickly which is trapping the chicks, and the humidifier is not helping so I am at a loss, yesterdays chick passed away in the shell I removed him after he had passed and he also had what appeared to be fluid filled lumps on either side of the neck, for this too I am at a loss, I've never seen a chick with lumps like this on the sides of the neck.