Good morning,
I'm so proud! I had to get on here and give you the great news. So, here's my story...
We just got chickens. One 4-5 month old Rooster, one Hen, and 6 baby chicks, which are now about 5 weeks old. Let me tell you, when I get into something I am all in, not half way, not three-quarters, but 100% all in! So, of course, I had to buy an incubator and hatch out some chicks too. A friend of mine gave me some fertile eggs and I purchased a Nature Right 360.
From the start, I couldn't keep the humidity right on the Nature Right 360. It was either too high, or too low, during the first 18 days. Then, on day 19, during lock-down, at about 8:30 PM, I was watching a YouTube video about humidity during lockdown with the Nature Right, and when the lady got to day 18, she removed the egg turned. Lord have mercy, I forgot to remove the egg turner! I was panicked. I got on here and started searching, and after a few minutes, I finally decided, you know what, let's just remove it; and quickly! If I kill them, so beit. I would rather them have a chance to get out of the shell, than see them not be able to push the shell far enough to get out because of the egg turner. So, I removed it; and of course, in the process, a bigger egg rolled off the egg turner and slammed into the bottom of the incubator. Well, just my luck, that's all I needed. "I just killed a chick," I thought to myself.
Ok, fast forward to day 21, my first time, as an adult, to hatch eggs and ALL of them hatched! I did help one little chick hatch. And, believe it or not, it's still alive and well this morning. I'll get to that in a few. I had 20 eggs in the incubator. They were all scheduled to hatch on Saturday, which 97% of them began pipping on Saturday and 3 hatched; one around 8 AM, one around 11:30 AM, and the last one around 4 PM or so. I was a little disappointed at first because when I woke up on Saturday morning; the only pip that I had was on a Barred Rock egg. That was about 5:30-6 in the morning. No movement, nothing all day. Three others had already pipped and hatched since that egg first pipped, and one pipped, zipped, and hatched in a matter of an hour or so. What was wrong with this Barred Rock egg? Did it drown? Then, it happened, around 11:30 AM, the pip got bigger. I stayed up as long as I could and right before I started to go to bed, it zipped and hatched at 12:30 AM Sunday morning. I was delighted. So, needless to say, I went to bed happy.
It was like Christmas when I woke up on Sunday morning. I had 9 little baby chick's. And, then by that afternoon, I had 15! There were 5 eggs that had not yet started to pip. None of them had anything on them, none of them were moving besides when the other little chicks would run into them. So, I did a little more research and decided to remove all the chicks and hatched shells; all but the last chick that had hatched Sunday afternoon as it wasn't quite dry yet, and since it just hatched, it would be fine to leave in the incubator another day or two just in case one of these 5 eggs decided to pip. Well, right after removing the spent eggs and chicks, I would say about an hour or so, I saw one of the five started to pip. Nothing from the other 4 eggs though. That was awesome. So, I thought, great, Monday morning, we will have one that is about to zip or that already hatched.
No such luck! Come Monday morning, the pip was still the same size. The egg wasn't moving, the pip was not getting any bigger; it was just as it was Sunday afternoon. Later that day, I decided that the chick had probably drown, so I was going to go ahead and call it. I mean a 75% hatch rate was way more than I ever expected, so I was content. However, I did want to crack these last 5 eggs and see what happened. I knew there would be a dead baby chick in the one that pipped so long ago, so that was to be expected, but I wanted to check anyway. So, I turned the incubator off and waited about an hour and then my hubby and I put the eggs in a bowl and began to go outside to the trash can to inspect these eggs. Well, as we were heading out the door, we heard some chirping. I thought it was coming from the room all the newly hatched chicks were in, but when we got to the trash can outside, we heard it again. OMGoodness, the egg that had barely pipped (like, you need a magnifying glass to see the pip) had a chick inside chirping.
Talk about panic mode setting in again! Wow!! We ran back into the house and took a closer look. The membrane was leathery. So, I decided to try to help the chick hatch. Please, keep in mind, this is my FIRST time hatching chicks. I knew this little chick had a 75/25 chance so I CAREFULLY slit the membrane and could see a chick inside just a chirping wanting out, but that membrane was very rubbery. There was no way it was going to zip on it's own. I had not read up on what to do when you assist or hatch a chick manually, so my instinct took over. I literally hatched this chick, taking care not to cut the chick itself, I flaked away at the egg shell and carefully slit the membrane all the way around as if it was unzipping. The chick started fighting and trying to push it's way out. Yes, I assisted and within a minute or two, we had a bloody little chick, just lying there. Lots of blood! Yep, I killed it! I have no doubt, but I did my best in a moment's panic. So, we shall see.
Guess what? About 12 hours later, that little sweet baby is stumbling all over that incubator doing it's best to get on it's feet. It would get up and summersalt backwards and stumble around, and give out and rest and so forth. A little later that evening when it dried off, we decided to go ahead and put the little one in with the others. Maybe by doing so it would have more motivation to get up and move around and gain some strength in the process. And, it has! This morning, this little one, who I call "Miracle" has been chirping and running around with the others. I thought maybe she would get bullied, but she hasn't been. She pecks back.
Anyway, I did crack the other 4 eggs, and no dice. They were filled with yoke. Oh, remember that big egg that rolled off the incubator when I took the egg turner out? Well, one of these 4 eggs was it. I know because I kept an eye on that egg on purpose. So, I'm not tore up about that anymore. I am going to assume these 4 were not fertile since they never formed. That makes a 100% hatch rate for my first time incubating eggs with a new incubator and one that I had a challenging time keeping the humidity stable. So, needless to say, I'm thrilled beyond reproach! Graphic pictures below.
This is a photo of all the blood that dripped from the egg as I helped the last little chick out of it.
This is Miracle just laying in the incubator after I helped her out of the shell, careful not to cut the ambiblical cord or anything attached to or on her. So much blood, I really didn't think she would make it. She's a fighter though.
This photo was just taken this morning. Look at Miracle standing in the back next to the roost. What a fiesty little chick! I'm so happy she gets where she wants to go and doesn't take bullying from the other chicks.
Thank you for reading my story! I am thrilled and wanted to share in my excitement.
If I had anything to share with anyone new, like me, to hatching chicks, it would be that sometimes you just need to let instinct take over and do what you feel is best and right for your hatchling's. I could have very well killed this little chick, but I didn't. And, if this happens again, I may not have the best success, but at least I know I tried and I feel good about it either way.
It's a learning process. What did I learn from this? Well, I'm in the process of buying a smaller 6-10 egg incubator so that if have another situation like this, I can just take the unpipped eggs out of the Nature Right incubator, put them in a smaller one, and keep going with what has already hatched in the Nature Right. So, now I'm on the hunt for a small incubator.
If anyone has one that they like, please share. I'll be putting another batch of eggs in the Nature Right today.
I'm so proud! I had to get on here and give you the great news. So, here's my story...
We just got chickens. One 4-5 month old Rooster, one Hen, and 6 baby chicks, which are now about 5 weeks old. Let me tell you, when I get into something I am all in, not half way, not three-quarters, but 100% all in! So, of course, I had to buy an incubator and hatch out some chicks too. A friend of mine gave me some fertile eggs and I purchased a Nature Right 360.
From the start, I couldn't keep the humidity right on the Nature Right 360. It was either too high, or too low, during the first 18 days. Then, on day 19, during lock-down, at about 8:30 PM, I was watching a YouTube video about humidity during lockdown with the Nature Right, and when the lady got to day 18, she removed the egg turned. Lord have mercy, I forgot to remove the egg turner! I was panicked. I got on here and started searching, and after a few minutes, I finally decided, you know what, let's just remove it; and quickly! If I kill them, so beit. I would rather them have a chance to get out of the shell, than see them not be able to push the shell far enough to get out because of the egg turner. So, I removed it; and of course, in the process, a bigger egg rolled off the egg turner and slammed into the bottom of the incubator. Well, just my luck, that's all I needed. "I just killed a chick," I thought to myself.
Ok, fast forward to day 21, my first time, as an adult, to hatch eggs and ALL of them hatched! I did help one little chick hatch. And, believe it or not, it's still alive and well this morning. I'll get to that in a few. I had 20 eggs in the incubator. They were all scheduled to hatch on Saturday, which 97% of them began pipping on Saturday and 3 hatched; one around 8 AM, one around 11:30 AM, and the last one around 4 PM or so. I was a little disappointed at first because when I woke up on Saturday morning; the only pip that I had was on a Barred Rock egg. That was about 5:30-6 in the morning. No movement, nothing all day. Three others had already pipped and hatched since that egg first pipped, and one pipped, zipped, and hatched in a matter of an hour or so. What was wrong with this Barred Rock egg? Did it drown? Then, it happened, around 11:30 AM, the pip got bigger. I stayed up as long as I could and right before I started to go to bed, it zipped and hatched at 12:30 AM Sunday morning. I was delighted. So, needless to say, I went to bed happy.
It was like Christmas when I woke up on Sunday morning. I had 9 little baby chick's. And, then by that afternoon, I had 15! There were 5 eggs that had not yet started to pip. None of them had anything on them, none of them were moving besides when the other little chicks would run into them. So, I did a little more research and decided to remove all the chicks and hatched shells; all but the last chick that had hatched Sunday afternoon as it wasn't quite dry yet, and since it just hatched, it would be fine to leave in the incubator another day or two just in case one of these 5 eggs decided to pip. Well, right after removing the spent eggs and chicks, I would say about an hour or so, I saw one of the five started to pip. Nothing from the other 4 eggs though. That was awesome. So, I thought, great, Monday morning, we will have one that is about to zip or that already hatched.
No such luck! Come Monday morning, the pip was still the same size. The egg wasn't moving, the pip was not getting any bigger; it was just as it was Sunday afternoon. Later that day, I decided that the chick had probably drown, so I was going to go ahead and call it. I mean a 75% hatch rate was way more than I ever expected, so I was content. However, I did want to crack these last 5 eggs and see what happened. I knew there would be a dead baby chick in the one that pipped so long ago, so that was to be expected, but I wanted to check anyway. So, I turned the incubator off and waited about an hour and then my hubby and I put the eggs in a bowl and began to go outside to the trash can to inspect these eggs. Well, as we were heading out the door, we heard some chirping. I thought it was coming from the room all the newly hatched chicks were in, but when we got to the trash can outside, we heard it again. OMGoodness, the egg that had barely pipped (like, you need a magnifying glass to see the pip) had a chick inside chirping.
Talk about panic mode setting in again! Wow!! We ran back into the house and took a closer look. The membrane was leathery. So, I decided to try to help the chick hatch. Please, keep in mind, this is my FIRST time hatching chicks. I knew this little chick had a 75/25 chance so I CAREFULLY slit the membrane and could see a chick inside just a chirping wanting out, but that membrane was very rubbery. There was no way it was going to zip on it's own. I had not read up on what to do when you assist or hatch a chick manually, so my instinct took over. I literally hatched this chick, taking care not to cut the chick itself, I flaked away at the egg shell and carefully slit the membrane all the way around as if it was unzipping. The chick started fighting and trying to push it's way out. Yes, I assisted and within a minute or two, we had a bloody little chick, just lying there. Lots of blood! Yep, I killed it! I have no doubt, but I did my best in a moment's panic. So, we shall see.
Guess what? About 12 hours later, that little sweet baby is stumbling all over that incubator doing it's best to get on it's feet. It would get up and summersalt backwards and stumble around, and give out and rest and so forth. A little later that evening when it dried off, we decided to go ahead and put the little one in with the others. Maybe by doing so it would have more motivation to get up and move around and gain some strength in the process. And, it has! This morning, this little one, who I call "Miracle" has been chirping and running around with the others. I thought maybe she would get bullied, but she hasn't been. She pecks back.
Anyway, I did crack the other 4 eggs, and no dice. They were filled with yoke. Oh, remember that big egg that rolled off the incubator when I took the egg turner out? Well, one of these 4 eggs was it. I know because I kept an eye on that egg on purpose. So, I'm not tore up about that anymore. I am going to assume these 4 were not fertile since they never formed. That makes a 100% hatch rate for my first time incubating eggs with a new incubator and one that I had a challenging time keeping the humidity stable. So, needless to say, I'm thrilled beyond reproach! Graphic pictures below.
This is a photo of all the blood that dripped from the egg as I helped the last little chick out of it.
This is Miracle just laying in the incubator after I helped her out of the shell, careful not to cut the ambiblical cord or anything attached to or on her. So much blood, I really didn't think she would make it. She's a fighter though.
This photo was just taken this morning. Look at Miracle standing in the back next to the roost. What a fiesty little chick! I'm so happy she gets where she wants to go and doesn't take bullying from the other chicks.
Thank you for reading my story! I am thrilled and wanted to share in my excitement.
If I had anything to share with anyone new, like me, to hatching chicks, it would be that sometimes you just need to let instinct take over and do what you feel is best and right for your hatchling's. I could have very well killed this little chick, but I didn't. And, if this happens again, I may not have the best success, but at least I know I tried and I feel good about it either way.
It's a learning process. What did I learn from this? Well, I'm in the process of buying a smaller 6-10 egg incubator so that if have another situation like this, I can just take the unpipped eggs out of the Nature Right incubator, put them in a smaller one, and keep going with what has already hatched in the Nature Right. So, now I'm on the hunt for a small incubator.
If anyone has one that they like, please share. I'll be putting another batch of eggs in the Nature Right today.
