Cinco-de-Mayo Hatch-A-Long celebration!

[Canadian Wind]

One of the wrong enders. It did this all on its own.
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That is indeed one heck of a large foot! What are you hatching, cassowary?!?

 

[BarnyardChaos]

Nearing the end of this hatch, finally, with mixed feelings.
I've got two still in the incubator that are struggling to survive. The blood vessels just do NOT want to dry up! All 30 other chicks were finished by this morning and are doing fine. These last two looked ready, pipped more than 24 hours ago, making no progress, and were both starting to shrinkwrap. So I started to assist. I unzipped the shell partway around, applied coconut oil, didn't see vessels --- then one tiny tug on the membrane and they bled. One of them quite badly . Held a bit of paper towel on the wound and slight pressure for a bit and I think it stopped - externally, at least. I dunno, they don't look good but they are still peeping and breathing, so far.

I made safety holes, then eggtopsies on the six eggs that never pipped, and found that four of them had a thick, jelly-like substance lining the membrane. Too high humidity during incubation maybe? (The other two died days ago.)

Bummer. I'm going back to square One with this incubator, and start testing on it again with new hygrometers and thermometers. I've GOT to find a way to see the water levels in the channels, and be able to remove water as needed.

On the bright side, I do have THIRTY beautiful, healthy chicks from 39 fertilized eggs that were set. Even if these last two don't make it, that's still 77% hatch rate. I can live with that!

 

[Dinoroar]

Nearing the end of this hatch, finally, with mixed feelings.
I've got two still in the incubator that are struggling to survive. The blood vessels just do NOT want to dry up! All 30 other chicks were finished by this morning and are doing fine. These last two looked ready, pipped more than 24 hours ago, making no progress, and were both starting to shrinkwrap. So I started to assist. I unzipped the shell partway around, applied coconut oil, didn't see vessels --- then one tiny tug on the membrane and they bled. One of them quite badly . Held a bit of paper towel on the wound and slight pressure for a bit and I think it stopped - externally, at least. I dunno, they don't look good but they are still peeping and breathing, so far.

I made safety holes, then eggtopsies on the six eggs that never pipped, and found that four of them had a thick, jelly-like substance lining the membrane. Too high humidity during incubation maybe? (The other two died days ago.)

Bummer. I'm going back to square One with this incubator, and start testing on it again with new hygrometers and thermometers. I've GOT to find a way to see the water levels in the channels, and be able to remove water as needed.

On the bright side, I do have THIRTY beautiful, healthy chicks from 39 fertilized eggs that were set. Even if these last two don't make it, that's still 77% hatch rate. I can live with that!

That is a pretty good hatch but it’s frustrating when there are some that don’t make it. I’ve had failed to hatch chicks that had that goo around them before and it’s confusing because it will usually just be a small percentage of an otherwise good hatch. I’ve wondered if it may be prone to happening on eggs with thicker bloom/shells. Maybe they loose less moisture than the others over the course of incubation.

 

[Dinoroar]

I have a lot of chicks hatched but I can still see a bunch of eggs with pips so I’m going to wait until morning to pull everybody out. There was a big variety in egg size in this batch and peering it it seems like mostly huge sapphire gem eggs that are the ones still hatching.

 

[Canadian Wind]

I don't think any of the remaining eggs are going to hatch, and I have one chick, a blue banty cochin, that appears to maybe have a hole in it's abdomen and internal organs hanging out?? It doesn't look like the umbilical or yolk sac, it looks like liver... It's connected at a different place too, and not the vent or umbilical.

I placed the chick in a small container in the incubator. It's very lively, but if this is actually a deformity I don't think it will survive. I'll re-assess things in the morning.

 

[kurby22]

I’ve had 6 babies hatch today as official Cinco de Mayo babies 4 d’Anvers (2 black and 2 lavender) and 2 bantam Ameraucanas (1 blue and 1 splash) . The first baby hatched last night and was a surprise! The eggs I have ready to hatch are d’Anvers and Ameraucanas only. This baby hatched a full 24 hours ago, so much earlier and has feathered legs! Sent the picture to the breeder and she was like, Oh my! You somehow got one of my blue mille fleur d’Uccles Baby is just gorgeous!! Just very much not expected! At least 6 more have pipped, and I’m hoping the last 4 will pip over night. The Ameraucana eggs are pretty good sized for bantams so I’m thinking they will take a bit longer. Here’s little Miss Oops

 

[Dinoroar]

Cinco chick in disco colors from the nearby seedling lights
This was a really dragged out hatch and there are actually still a few eggs finishing up. Not as many naked necks as I’d hoped but lots of cute chick. I didn’t get a fluff count but looks to be about my average 85% hatch rate.

 

[BarnyardChaos]

Meet Mutt and Jeff.

These are the last two chicks of my "Dumpling" group that had trouble hatching yesterday, and had to have a full assist. They had externally pipped on schedule, but after 24 hours of no progress, I started the assist over a period of the next 12-14 hours a little at a time. It was a difficult hatch, and although they had absorbed all the yolk and were ready to come out of the shell, they still bled quite a lot (from the membrane) before hatching was complete. Then I left them in the cleaned incubator and I went to bed at 2am, not really expecting them to survive the night.

This morning, surprisingly, they were still alive - but lying on their backs and unable to stand. I started dosing with Poly-ViSol (no iron) infant vitamin formula every few hours to give them the B -vitamins in particular, but also A, D, E, and selenium. They would not eat or drink, so I made a "soup" of cooked egg, chick starter, and sugar water with electrolytes. I've fed this with a medicine dropper. They are now chirping and lively, but still unable to stand upright for more than a minute or so, nor keep from falling over.
(A healthy chick will instantly roll over and right itself when placed on its back, or when it falls over.)

This video is their progress 14 hours after hatch, and after three doses of Poly-ViSol and one feeding of "chick soup." I'll post another update tomorrow of their progress, or demise, whichever happens.

 

[BarnyardChaos]

I don't think any of the remaining eggs are going to hatch, and I have one chick, a blue banty cochin, that appears to maybe have a hole in it's abdomen and internal organs hanging out?? It doesn't look like the umbilical or yolk sac, it looks like liver... It's connected at a different place too, and not the vent or umbilical.

I placed the chick in a small container in the incubator. It's very lively, but if this is actually a deformity I don't think it will survive. I'll re-assess things in the morning.

How's the baby? Did it make it?
You know, there are tips somewhere on this site about how to correct a prolapsed navel on newly hatched chicks - generally by sterilizing the site, pushing everything back into the abdomen with a Q-tip, and either sealing the opening with glue or just treating with antibiotic ointment. It could work.

FYI but I don't know if it would be the right product for chicks, but my doctor once used Loctite gel in the blue bottle on some of my smaller wounds in the ER. He keeps this on hand for exactly this reason. It's now a staple in my first-aid kit and actually works wonders.

 

[Canadian Wind]

How's the baby? Did it make it?
You know, there are tips somewhere on this site about how to correct a prolapsed navel on newly hatched chicks - generally by sterilizing the site, pushing everything back into the abdomen with a Q-tip, and either sealing the opening with glue or just treating with antibiotic ointment. It could work.

FYI but I don't know if it would be the right product for chicks, but my doctor once used Loctite gel in the blue bottle on some of my smaller wounds in the ER. He keeps this on hand for exactly this reason. It's now a staple in my first-aid kit and actually works wonders.

Still alive. Lost a lot of blood and fluids. seems perky enough still, though. We shall see. I didn't do much to intervene, just got everything cleaned up (and I'll need to do that again). Not keeping my hopes up.

I'd seen those threads and considered doing that, but since the prognosis was bad I decided to just let nature take it's course. After all, I could have been mistaken. And I have no glue...