April Hatch Thread--Come Join Us!

[MissBroodyHen]

Well it is day 10 for me and I can't seem to get the hang of candling. My DH says he can see veining in the brown eggs but we can't see through the blue and olive eggs.Today we moved  the juveniles to the grow out pen, put the babies in a larger brooder pen outside in anticipation of the incubator hatch.  What a rodeo that was. Little chickies everywhere. They are all settled in  now. I went in to gather eggs and got a real whacking from my big barred rock. She was having none of me taking this egg. She has been acting  like this for a few days so I am going to let her have today's egg and 2 others to see if she will stick. Never had a broody hen before. You might know as soon as I bought an incubator I would have one decide to become a chicken mommy. The more the merrier I guess, but we are going to have to get busy expanding and moving the coop. The float test is interesting, but wouldn't the water remove the bloom and leave the egg more susceptible to bacteria? Just wondering. I think I will weigh them tomorrow and see if they are loosing weight.

 

The floating test should be done as a last resort. They should be around 48 hours past due! The temp of the water needs to be spot on. And you should remember not to worry at that late stage of incubation. Bacteria shouldn't be the issue when it will reveal if the eggs are good or not. You have to out em weigh the risks. And also make sure your water container is very clean.

 

[MissBroodyHen]

Originally Posted by Keggen

I haven't been able to keep up with all of the posts, so forgive me if this has already been asked. My eggs went into the incubator on the night of the 29th. At what point would you cull "bad" eggs? I have 4 positively clear eggs and about 5 more questionable ones. The 5 questionable are really dark from a Welsummer, and they are so dark that I can't even see the air pocket at the end. I *really* want those to hatch but I suspect they are not fertile because the hen had a leg injury throughout most of the winter and the rooster does not give her much attention as a result. So the odds are against them, even though I am hopeful.

Should I just give up on them at this point? Or how long do you wait to make sure? As for the other 4 eggs they are lighter brown varieties and they are very clear with no veining and only one of them has what looks like a possible dark mass in it. I marked them when I candled a few days ago and checked again last night and they look the same so I think they are duds.

So here is a silly question......what do you do with eggs that you are removing from the incubator? It seems wrong to toss them in the trash, but I don't know what else I would do. Should I crack them to see out of curiosity? I have this horrible fear that I would be wrong though and by cracking I would see that I killed a chick. Or would it be stinky and/or bacteria ridden if I crack them to see?
I crack mine in a zip lock if I am positive its a dud. There has been talk of a float test with links a few pages back in recent discussion, for those really difficult to candle eggs.

I have cracked open all my duds. If they are clear and assuming you are on day 12. They would be infertile eggs if you don't want to just bin them. But I would remove those and crack each one open. In either a sealed back as someone mentioned. I doubt it would stink but you could just do it on a plate outside.
The one thing you must look for is veins! Veins are the one thing you should see even in dark eggs with a very bright light in the dark. Veins always appear. Do some reasearch on google lots of people have candiling videos to help!
This is one i cracked open. The chick had died. No movement and it only just died. But you could see this ring of death though the egg on candiling at it was a Maran which is very dark!

This one is a video of my good egg which is what it looked like on day 5. Here you can see the veins clearly.

You don't have to watch but its good to see what things look like. There is other links that should pop up from other people when you view these. Hope it helps!

 

[LauraNJ]

Woke up at 5:30 am to chirping. Jumped out of bed, threw the lights on (incubators are in my master) and ran over the incubator. Nope, nothing. The chirping was apparently a combination of chicks downstairs and the birds outside my bedroom window.

Tomorrow is day 21 and so hopefully I get some hatching out. Temp and humidity has been spot on so nothing more I could have done or could point to if I don't have a good hatch. If I don't have a good hatch, I won't have a reason except that the eggs were shipped and it weakened them.

Also expecting 2 rabbit litters tomorrow so I am just a bundle of nerves waiting for tomorrow and what it brings.

Out of 29 eggs, I should have some hatch (crossing fingers).

 

[Partyfowl]

Woke up at 5:30 am to chirping. Jumped out of bed, threw the lights on (incubators are in my master) and ran over the incubator. Nope, nothing.

Hilarious. Well, at least your wide awake now Time for coffee.

 

[annabell254]

just a thought but silkies usually pip earlier than most birds as they are a bantam! So maybe worth checking one of them a little. ? It's the only think I can think

Yep... I know.... did the tap test and water test, and then started to autopsy..... I had some that looked to have died last week, they were fully formed, but still had a decent sized yoke attached, one was fully formed and ready to hatch, it has a bit of room in the air cell, but still seemed to be a huge chick, and then some that looked to have died early on as they were watery with a black spot inside them

QUESTIONS:
What causes death in the first week, the 2nd week and death right before hatch????

I did have a seeping egg in there after the first week, I took it out but it was in there a day before I relised what was happening? could this be a cuase???

 

[annabell254]

Sorry! so all in all I got 8 chicks... 7 from shipped eggs and 1 from my eggs

was sooooo not expecting that... my eggs were under the silkie, so I think maybe the box is too big for her as a few times I found an egg behind her that was cool to the touch.... I got 5 Wyndottes (I will post picts so we can decide on the color of them one black silkie and one very nice isabel/lavender silkie and one lavender orpington

Over all I am happy with my first hatch and happy with my shipped eggs... I have my real eggs that I have wanted since last year comming this week... Sultans, Cornation Sussex, and LF citron spangled hamburgs

maybe even an isabel brahma.......

things I will do different with this next hatch

1) up temp from 99.5-99.6 to 99.8-99.9 reason: these chicks hatched on day 22 and 23
Question: do you think this slight change will be enough ..... do you think this slight change is a good idea

2) lower humidity from 40-50% averaged 45% to 35-40% reason the chicks were very large and could not zip

3) weigh the eggs!!!!!!!! and calculate the weight loss to adjust humidity accordingly.....
Question: can I weigh them as a group, or is individual best, I know they should have a 12% decrease in weight by hatch time but how much should they loose by week 1 and week 2?

4) wait a full 12-24 hours before warming eggs in incubator

5) will not turn them for the first 4 days and then I will only let the incubator rock them to one side in the morning and the other side in the evening for day 4-7 and then let the incubator rock them normally after day 7

6) I will get a better light to candel them and know to take out a seeping egg ASAP!

7) I will sanitise my hands if I have to touch them, and not just trust they are clean

8) I will stop turning them at day 17 (one day sooner)

9) I STILL dont fully understand when to up the humidity for the hatch!!!
maybe up it to 60% on day 18 and then to 80% after I hear peeps?????


WOW looking at my do different list, I am surprised any hatched!!!!

next time will be better

 

[hokankai]

Yep... I know.... did the tap test and water test, and then started to autopsy..... I had some that looked to have died last week, they were fully formed, but still had a decent sized yoke attached, one was fully formed and ready to hatch, it has a bit of room in the air cell, but still seemed to be a huge chick, and then some that looked to have died early on as they were watery with a black spot inside them

QUESTIONS:
What causes death in the first week, the 2nd week and death right before hatch????

I did have a seeping egg in there after the first week, I took it out but it was in there a day before I relised what was happening? could this be a cuase???

This is an excellent resource: https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatchability-problem-analysis

 

[MissBroodyHen]

Yep... I know.... did the tap test and water test, and then started to autopsy..... I had some that looked to have died last week, they were fully formed, but still had a decent sized yoke attached, one was fully formed and ready to hatch, it has a bit of room in the air cell, but still seemed to be a huge chick, and then some that looked to have died early on as they were watery with a black spot inside them

QUESTIONS:
What causes death in the first week, the 2nd week and death right before hatch????

I did have a seeping egg in there after the first week, I took it out but it was in there a day before I relised what was happening? could this be a cuase???

In my very short experience, I would say firstly looking at shipped eggs?! You need to determine the age of these prior to incubation. Because they are problems from the word go! Then you need to look at the bator are you a %100 sure that you temps were spot on? It is possible for them to have encountered a temp spike. And this can cause them to die very quickly. Obviously some may have been able to deal with it while others may not. If you had a chart or diary. Then you could at least look back at the problems you may have encountered. Other wise you will just have to start over. But this time ensure you get the bator running exactly to a tea. And decide how your going to deal with shipped eggs if you get them. Candle them straight away. Look for any hairline crack. What position the air cell is in, does it move? Draw a line around the cell straight away. Look at the humidity in the room the bator is in. Room temps can effect incubators immensely. Look at weighing each egg make a diary. And weigh regularly. Adjust humidity to you weights. Also some people like myself. Drop the temp slightly by around half a degree during lockdown and obviously increase humidity. Think about placing rocks in the bottom well of the bator. This may help with heat control when opening if you have to manual turn.

The moral is you can make a guess but to make an educated guess you really need to look at all the history of the whole three weeks or so including prior to incubation. Then you can accumulate your occurrences to see who is at fault. It may be the eggs were too old. Which can often be the case with seeping eggs. Especially if they dry out a lot. I had one myself with this hatch that poked small holes through and egg white began to seep. I then took it out and cracked it open. With no smell. I noted the egg was very light. And thinned shell and on the porous side. It may be that this was the cause for my to then loose another egg later on as the second had a crack that didn't deal well so it died of ring death.
So good luck. Try to get a clear picture write some notes. And start over!!

My thumbs ache. Lol

 

[jphendrix]

I have 30 eggs in lockdown right now as of last night. There was 31 but when I candled them one looked like it had not develped very much, a 1/4 of the egg was clear other than the air sac so I took it out. We cracked it open in a plastic bag and I was so shocked, IT MOVED!!!!!! Me and my son almost started crying,

I couldn't believe that I killed this little baby. The only thing that made me feel a little better is that it was probably not going to hatch or if it did it wouldve had a lot of problems with its development being delayed so much!
But on a brighter note, I have some that are now rocking!!!! I can't wait till they hatch

Congrats on all the new babies

And fingers crossed for those yet to hatch!!!!

 

[rrrmamma]

I put new batteries into my little led flashlight and re-candled. I saw movement in at least two and dark masses in all the others. I think egg 5 and egg 9 may not be developing much They have a smaller mass. I will leave them alone now until next Monday when they go into lockdown. It is so hard to keep my hands off. These are all just mutt eggs from my mixed flock with a BJG roo but this is my first time hatching and I am already addicted. Wish me luck.