I am very excited for you and can't wait for updates. I can't offer any advice, though since my first lockdown won't start until Wednesday.. Happy hatching.
Yay!!!
First pip!
BO x EE - 4:22pm
How is it going? I will be putting mine in lockdown in just a few minutes...going through my checklist
At work today, so I am hoping for some more when I get home.Sorry been in hatching land since yesterday.
Well yesterday was a marathon day, it began at 5 am. When I went to bed Tuesday night we had one pip and woke up to 12 pips and one unzipping. We had hatches in waves yesterday, the first 8 moved pretty quickly once they got going. Then we rounded out the day with 4 more. The first pip ended up not hatching until almost 4 pm (they pipped around 4:18pm Tuesday) and I had to partial assist. Her shell had gotten stuck as she zipped down towards the floor rather than around. Anyway long story short, after all day of her trying to unzip all the way she couldn't. So I moistened the membrane and then was able to get most of the shell off. There was still about 1/4 stuck to her, that eventually came off and she is doing ok. The first wave seemed pretty robust a healthy, the second weave definitely seemed more small and a little more fragile.
So right now we have 12 from yesterday, two that just hatched and two more currently unzipping and a hand full in the bator still. Here are a few pics of the gang from last night.
Here is the one I assisted, so I didn't pull the shell all the way off, I moistened the membrane (it was dry, brownish/yellow) and then turned the egg over and pulled the membrane back some and the shell partial off. She was able to free herself eventually.
It was the strangest thing, in the middle of dealing with hatching etc, I decided to go check on the flock. I went out and started slopping their fermented feed into their feed pans when I noticed one of our dark Cornish. She was laying lifeless on the ground. I walked over and picked her up and she seemed dead. She wasn't cold yet, she wasn't stuff. I picked her up and examined her some. No visible injuries, my BF then started to go over her body. He tried giving her some air, nothing. It did seem as if her vent was protruding some, not all the way outside of her body but it was fairly swollen and reddish. The best we can figure is she died while being mounted by our roo. She was the runt of the litter and was rather small. It was just a very odd day, bringing in babies and saying goodbye to a flock member. We have no come full circle with our flock from just over a year ago. It doesn't seem possible that it has been a year since we started this journey.
