Set eggs February 12th! Hatch a long with me!

[TennesseeChicken]

No movement. I am assuming maybe the some of the low temps flucuations I had may make my hatch delayed a couple days?



I do add water to the incubator, every day. It was just a couple times that it got that low, but I haven't had any other problems with humidity. It is 40% right now.

I truly hope you have some pips soon!!

 

[NYRIR]

Hope this isn't a stupid question; My Silkies were in the same yard as my RIR's. Surely the RIR rooster didn't/couldn't mate w/the Silkie? He never showed ANY interest in her. Both my male & female Silkie are/were (male is now gone) white. My chick has a redish tint on the tips of it's fluff. Isn't quite dry yet so I won't try doing another pic through the plastic viewer.

My RIR roo can mate with my silkie hens.... he doesn't do it all the time...but he can

ETA But I am not sure how successful he is...

 

[Squawkbox]

Glad to have you back! I was hoping you would update!!
Why do you think you have had to help them all in both hatches?
Because I have a piece of crap incubator? . I have no idea why both batches were badly shrinkwrapped. User error maybe? I wish I knew so I could change it!

I am not being a jerk, I really would like to know what you think caused both hatches to require assistance?
What I think cause them to require assistance, not sure. As to how I knew, the first time I could tell as a chick had a large enough pip hole that I could see inside from the window, it's beak was free but the inner membrane was shrinkwrapped around it. When others would pip and continue to not make progress, I assumed they were all like this. This time, experience from last time I suppose?

I am curious as to what your temps and humidity run throughout and also what age was your last batch when you helped them?
They were just shy of 21 days. This batch, all came out of the shells today, which is 21 days also.
Temps, well as you probably know are all over the board, lowest was about 89 and highest was 105. Humidity, for the first hatch I tried dry incubation, about 30% for the first 18 days, then 65% for lockdown. This time I tried 40-45% and then aimed for 65-70% but it went higher. Really did not seem to make a difference. This time I covered the bator with a blanket, and plugged most of the vent holes thinking the air was causing them to shrink wrap, but that too made no difference.

Also, which ones did you lose?
The ones that I lost are:
1 that died it seems quite a few days ago
1 guts outside body
1 never pipped internally
2 that pipped, and that I followed the same procedure as the ones that are alive. Not sure why they did not live.

Would like pics of the five!
Forgive me if you know this, but you do know that a lot of times when they pip it can take 24 hours to zip and hatch, right?
Yup, sure do. But when they all are not making progress, to me there must be a reason.

Also, most of my chicks pipped through the side of the shells and not the air sack, why?

 

[speckledhen]

They always pip through the sides, but what you may not realize is that the air cell is there as well. A chick rarely pips straight up through the end of the egg as his head is turned underneath the wing.

 

[B J Hopkins]

That's funny. My RIR roo had about 14 Real sized females to chase which he did very well. Although I saw the male Silkie TRY to catch the female RIR's, he never succeeded. But like I said I never saw the RIR roo show any interest in the Silkie.

 

[Ema]

well to update on my previous post...I took the real wet chick out, she was so sticky she was kinda glued to the wire mesh...poor thing. I placed warm water in a dish and wrapped her up in a cloth in the water and gently rubbed, the wood stove is going since its soo cold here, so I did all this next to warmth of the fireplace then wrapped her in a dry cloth and placed her back in the bator to dry with the two unhatched eggs. the three that hatched are doing well and are in the brooder, I can almost ascertain that the 2 remaining eggs will not hatch. yesterday one of the remaining eggs was moving a lot, has not moved since last night and there is no signs of pipping external or internal. I will leave them be and see what happens. I highly doubt the fourth chick will make it through the night. I did all I can for her at this point, now only time will tell.

my first hatch I did dry incubation like the OP did, and then brought the humidity to 60 percent I too had some shrink wrapping with that hatch. so I can assume dry incubation for my environment was not the way to go. this time I kept the humidity at 35 percent from days 1 to 18 and then brought up to 60 or 65 percent for lockdown. three hatched real well, the fourth not so much. we will see what happens from here.

I am still really amazed the little egg from my youngers eggs hatched...I think my next incubation will be all eggs from the younger ones and we will see how my hatch rate is. I got 3 roos in the younger girls coop, but only a couple of them are laying, they are 9 months old.

Ema

 

[NYRIR]

They always pip through the sides, but what you may not realize is that the air cell is there as well. A chick rarely pips straight up through the end of the egg as his head is turned underneath the wing.

x 2

For Squawkbox...
Here are a couple of my pips I just took pics of...if you look closely, you can see the one in front pipped as well....



This one shows some more pips....


Are you sure they are shrink wrapped after they pip? What I mean is, the membrane can look really thick and kinda like paper...if I can get pics of that step....I will...where the beak is sticking out and the "paper" is around it...

Up to 5 pips now

 

[B J Hopkins]

One of my Blue Cochins has pipped through the shell. Worried though because there is blood around the opening, like on the egg with the chick that died yesterday (unhatched). So far the chick is peeping n pecking at the shell. My hatches have never had blood before.

Noticed something odd. Was looking at the shell of the Silkie's egg that hatched this afternoon. The air sac at the top of the shell doesn't appear broken into. Is that possible?

You're right about the thickness of the membrane just inside the egg. It's pretty thick. Now that it's dry, it is like paper.

 

[NYRIR]

One of my Blue Cochins has pipped through the shell. Worried though because there is blood around the opening, like on the egg with the chick that died yesterday (unhatched). So far the chick is peeping n pecking at the shell. My hatches have never had blood before.

Noticed something odd. Was looking at the shell of the Silkie's egg that hatched this afternoon. The air sac at the top of the shell doesn't appear broken into. Is that possible?

You're right about the thickness of the membrane just inside the egg. It's pretty thick. Now that it's dry, it is like paper.

Hmm...interesting...I'm not sure about that....

Waiting for pics...I would love to see pics of the Cochin hatching now...I have not encountered blood like you are describing before.

 

[Squawkbox]

That's what I was talking about in my post. Most of my chicks pipped the side, so the air sack remained intact.

Noticed something odd. Was looking at the shell of the Silkie's egg that hatched this afternoon. The air sac at the top of the shell doesn't appear broken into. Is that possible?