I had 7 chicks hatch today. They started at 1 am. So they were technically still on day 19. Most of them hatched right at the start of day 20. They aren't due to hatch until saturday.
One the last egg that had pipped was out, I took advantage of the break in the action to clean out the bator and examine the last of the eggs. 4 of them I trashed. I was reasonably sure those were goners at lock down and at this point they clearly had stopped developing 3 or 4 days ago.
1 had pipped into the air cell but I couldn't see it moving or produce a peep by tapping the egg. I wasn't sure if this one was alive or not.
1 had not pipped internally and I did not see movement, but it had developed clear up past lockdown so I put it in.
1 was definitely alive. It had not pipped internally that I could see but it was alive and moving around.
So 3 went back in. realistically I'm not sure what to expect. 2 I'm not 100% sure are even alive. 1 is lagging so far behind that I'm not sure if it's really a viable chick. Bator is going to keep them warm while they decide.
The 7 chicks I did get were very nice, strong babies.
IF I manage to get 8 out of it, that's a pretty terrible hatch rate. 44%. That's basically on par with shipped eggs. I have some suspicions about why that might be. The sad thing is most of the ones that died did so at the very end. It broke down like this:
1 clear
2 very early quitters (day 3)
1 mid term quitter (day 9)
then I had 14 good ones 2 days before lockdown. I am sure they were all good. Then when I candled at lockdown I could see that I'd lost several just in the last 48 hrs. When I locked down, it looked to me that I had 10 that were alive, which is borne out in the numbers I am dealing with now. I lost 5-7 in the last couple of days.
Anyway. I have some ideas and i think the main solution is to get a new incubator. If you recall, I am using a broken one that I used to bake 2 (literally bake.) batches 2 years ago before dh put his foot down and said NEVER AGAIN.
One the last egg that had pipped was out, I took advantage of the break in the action to clean out the bator and examine the last of the eggs. 4 of them I trashed. I was reasonably sure those were goners at lock down and at this point they clearly had stopped developing 3 or 4 days ago.
1 had pipped into the air cell but I couldn't see it moving or produce a peep by tapping the egg. I wasn't sure if this one was alive or not.
1 had not pipped internally and I did not see movement, but it had developed clear up past lockdown so I put it in.
1 was definitely alive. It had not pipped internally that I could see but it was alive and moving around.
So 3 went back in. realistically I'm not sure what to expect. 2 I'm not 100% sure are even alive. 1 is lagging so far behind that I'm not sure if it's really a viable chick. Bator is going to keep them warm while they decide.
The 7 chicks I did get were very nice, strong babies.
IF I manage to get 8 out of it, that's a pretty terrible hatch rate. 44%. That's basically on par with shipped eggs. I have some suspicions about why that might be. The sad thing is most of the ones that died did so at the very end. It broke down like this:
1 clear
2 very early quitters (day 3)
1 mid term quitter (day 9)
then I had 14 good ones 2 days before lockdown. I am sure they were all good. Then when I candled at lockdown I could see that I'd lost several just in the last 48 hrs. When I locked down, it looked to me that I had 10 that were alive, which is borne out in the numbers I am dealing with now. I lost 5-7 in the last couple of days.
Anyway. I have some ideas and i think the main solution is to get a new incubator. If you recall, I am using a broken one that I used to bake 2 (literally bake.) batches 2 years ago before dh put his foot down and said NEVER AGAIN.
Yup! Probably an alien!
