Setting eggs today (3/30) anyone else??? - Page 3

Mama SS has tossed out two more empty egg shells, but no sign of the chicks, they are being kept out of sight. The four that hatched Thursday & Friday are venturing out, away from Mama by a few inches. They are exploring for awhile then scrambling back to her. Mama should still have five eggs to go.

Our pipped egg in the incubator hatched this morning. She is still drying off and fluffing up. We will take her out tomorrow and put her under Mama SS. We've ask her to tap and talk to the other two egg that should be hatching. So far she is very obedient.

We have 36 chicken and 5 turkey eggs that are supposed to go into the incubator tomorrow, but I'm not ready to give up on the two eggs yet.

We will see.

Hoping that your remaining eggs hatch. And I will join that cheer. Yay for fuzzy butts!  

We're holding out for late babies.

We removed our incubator hatched chick and took her out to Mama SS. Mama was so distracted by us lifting her that she missed us placing the chick. We stayed out in the brooder pen for over a hour. She has hatched 9 of 11 eggs, two EE mixes to go. The incubator hatched chick is fitting in great, eating, sleeping and drinking with the others.

We still have two eggs in the incubator. I did a quick candle and both have good air sacks and dark areas in the rest of the egg. I talked to DH after candling and he agreed that we should wait a few more days. We still have the next batch of eggs to consider, but we don't want to kill chicks to incubate more. Tuesday is our next deadline. (NO pun intended)

So, we also have four more unhatched eggs. Two in the 'bator and two under Mama. Here are some pictures.

The last 'bator hatch. She has four toes, feathered legs and a beard. We have Favorelles (who have 5 toes, feathered legs and beard), and EE (who have 4 toes, NO feathered legs and beard). I'm thinking she may be a mix of the two. We have hens and roos of both.

This is Mama SS with 10 chicks. The 'bator hatched chick is at the bottom of the picture.

Yay for fuzzy butts!! 

If Robin completely abandons them for more than 20-30 minutes, and is not disturbed by your handling them, I would go by her instincts. Our BO Mama did that with a couple of her eggs and she was right on. They were chicks that had died, fully developed, just didn't make it to pipping. If, however, Robin stays with them other than short times off, I would give a bit more time. Our last chick to hatch in the incubator, pictured above, was from an egg that another hen added to Mama BO's nest, and since we didn't know when it was laid we stuck it in the incubator on 3/31.

Mamas usually turn and change positions of the eggs many times a day, but if one or two are on the perimeter more than directly under her they may take more time to develop. We have had that happen in the incubator too.

Our Mama SS got up from her remaining two eggs, moved them under the heat lamp, and took some time to scratch, eat, drink with her chicks, and then poop. When she went back to the eggs she scooted them back into the nesting box and sat down. She is up more often today than she ever has been, but the chicks are very active and with the added heat lamp are able to move further away from Mama. (Our temps today were in the 40's and tonight we have a freeze warning.)

Our older chickens are starting to wonder why we are spending so much time in the brooding coop. We are spending more time with the little ones, watching what new things they are learning, and how much they are growing.

I went down to the incubator to beg the remaining two eggs to pip by tomorrow. I wanted Mother's Day eggs and I don't think I'm going to make it now.

Yay for fuzzy butts!!   

Well, bad news, Mama SS had rolled her eggs down the bedding slope from the nest. One egg had a crushed spot in it and it was stinky! The other one had a detached air sack. We have not opened them yet. Can't wait. I think we'll wait until after dinner settles.

I candled the final two eggs in the incubator, I think one air sack has detached, not nearly as bad as Mama's, but starting to slosh. The other still looks OK, I don't want to kill a viable chick, but on day 24, it is hard not to give up, I made the decision. We will do an eggtopsy. I will let you know.

So we have 10 live chicks from 15 started eggs.

10 minutes later:

DH came to the office and said, "now or never", so out we went. Thankfully we did this outside. The two under Mama were not fertile, still all yolk, one smelly, one just looked like a normal egg, no bad smell at all. Neither were fertile.

One of the 'bator eggs - I crack on a piece of concrete near our compost pile and it exploded. The smell and the sight was disgusting. to the 10th. DH took off, he couldn't take it, and he worked in a large emergency room for 7 years. The final egg was a long extra large egg. Not one that I would normally keep for incubating, but it had been laid in Mama BO nest, and I could never detect what I found because it was a dark brown shell. It was a double yolk that started to develop, maybe day 10-14, and stopped. While it was an extra large egg, they would not have make it to hatch. There was not enough room.

My suggestion, if you decide to open the eggs that Robin still has, do it outside. I came in, changed my clothes, washed my hands, even though I was wearing vinyl gloves, and have been sniffing coffee beans to clear the smell. I can still smell that exploded egg. Shudder. I'm so thankful it did not explode in the incubator.

Let me know what you decide.