- May 10, 2016
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Hello everyone,
I just wanted to share something I found both interesting and depressing.
I had a silkie hen laying on 10 WH eggs for me. One was an early quitter. Of the 9 remaining, 8 had internally pipped, 1 had quit late. 6 of the 9 hatched.
I’ve recently stopped doing eggtopsies as often, mostly because of mess and smell. (Death has a smell, regardless of infection, and it stinks.) But I possibly over-assisted 2 of the ducklings, so I wanted to see what was going on. (Please no comments about the controversy of assisting. I always have and always will assist chicks that need help, and this is the first time I’ve ever had an issue in how much I assisted)
I was *very* surprised to find twin ducklings in the 2nd egg I opened. They were fully formed, albeit small (half the size of a normal newly-hatched baby; pics below to show comparison) and the ONLY abnormality I could find was one of the twins had a bulge under its lower beak. It was very subtle, and I wouldn’t have noticed if I wasn’t looking for deformities. And one had even externally pipped, sort of; the egg had a small cracked area but no hole. What I found very interesting was that they shared the same yolk sac—more on that later.
Here are pics of them. **Graphic**
I placed the other chick who pipped but did not survive near them to compare size. You can very clearly see here that the chicks share the same yolk sac.
Here is a close up of the bulge I noticed on one of
I was both excited and depressed to find these babies. I have been interested in twin embryos in poultry in the past, but was caught completely off guard by these little guys.
I’m curious—how often do twin embryos make it to hatching day? From what I remember of my research, I thought it was more common for them to die early-mid term.
I also wonder if it would have been physically possible for them to make it. Like I said, I may have over assisted on this hatch, so I’m worried I was their downfall. But as I’ve shown, they were attached by the yolk-sac, so how would that work? What would happen as they both continued to absorb it?
Also, can you tell if these are identical or fraternal? I assumed identical because they share the same yolk-sac, which makes me think one embryo split into 2 at some point. I’m also assuming they were both male due to beak color.
As far as I know, no one has successfully hatched twin ducks. (correct me if I’m wrong!) This unfortunate surprise has renewed my interest in them, though.
If you have any info/comments about twin embryos, please feel free to post them! I find it all very interesting. But mostly this post was just to share the little babes.
I just wanted to share something I found both interesting and depressing.
I had a silkie hen laying on 10 WH eggs for me. One was an early quitter. Of the 9 remaining, 8 had internally pipped, 1 had quit late. 6 of the 9 hatched.
I’ve recently stopped doing eggtopsies as often, mostly because of mess and smell. (Death has a smell, regardless of infection, and it stinks.) But I possibly over-assisted 2 of the ducklings, so I wanted to see what was going on. (Please no comments about the controversy of assisting. I always have and always will assist chicks that need help, and this is the first time I’ve ever had an issue in how much I assisted)
I was *very* surprised to find twin ducklings in the 2nd egg I opened. They were fully formed, albeit small (half the size of a normal newly-hatched baby; pics below to show comparison) and the ONLY abnormality I could find was one of the twins had a bulge under its lower beak. It was very subtle, and I wouldn’t have noticed if I wasn’t looking for deformities. And one had even externally pipped, sort of; the egg had a small cracked area but no hole. What I found very interesting was that they shared the same yolk sac—more on that later.
Here are pics of them. **Graphic**
I placed the other chick who pipped but did not survive near them to compare size. You can very clearly see here that the chicks share the same yolk sac.
Here is a close up of the bulge I noticed on one of
I was both excited and depressed to find these babies. I have been interested in twin embryos in poultry in the past, but was caught completely off guard by these little guys.
I’m curious—how often do twin embryos make it to hatching day? From what I remember of my research, I thought it was more common for them to die early-mid term.
I also wonder if it would have been physically possible for them to make it. Like I said, I may have over assisted on this hatch, so I’m worried I was their downfall. But as I’ve shown, they were attached by the yolk-sac, so how would that work? What would happen as they both continued to absorb it?
Also, can you tell if these are identical or fraternal? I assumed identical because they share the same yolk-sac, which makes me think one embryo split into 2 at some point. I’m also assuming they were both male due to beak color.
As far as I know, no one has successfully hatched twin ducks. (correct me if I’m wrong!) This unfortunate surprise has renewed my interest in them, though.
If you have any info/comments about twin embryos, please feel free to post them! I find it all very interesting. But mostly this post was just to share the little babes.
Wow that's odd. Thanks for sharing the pics, never seen twin baby birds before. I imagine it would have taken extreme skill and exact timing to have helped these two out successfully. And as you say, how would they have absorbed the yolk sack? 'cause they can't split it in two, then the membrane around the yolk would rupture. Possibly one would absorb it and the other die? It's amazing that they made it so far.
