Thanks! They are in lock down and the temp is 100 and holding steady for now. I am not going to mess with it, although I would like to have it at 99.5! 2 eggs are wiggling.
Unfortunately, some of the babies just don't make it. Sounds bad if the neck is bent in the wrong direction. Give it some space away from the other chicks stepping on it and see what happens.
Poor baby! I hope she's doing ok. I had a hatch where they all drowned except for one, and we ended up having to keep that one inside with us for a few weeks. What we did to reintroduce her, was to get some younger chicks, and keep her and the new babies separate from the big ones for a while...
I am losing my mind, and sleep! I'm at day 17 and in the past few days the temperature keeps going all over the place.
I have not moved the incubator and only open it to candle on days 4, 10 and 14 so far, and to occasionally add a little water. They are supposed to go into lockdown tomorrow...
Are the others picking on this one? It could have a health problem and the other sense it. Chickens are brutally mean to the weaker ones. Maybe you can separate it for a little while so it's getting enough food, but keep it in eye sight of the others so it's not shunned from the flock when you...
A friend of mine gave me a nice mixture of eggs from her flock. There are some speckled sussex, lavender orpington, red sexlink, silkies and brahmas. The only rooster she has is an easter egger.
Will the females of this mixture also lay colored eggs?
I hatched 9 eggs in my incubator that were from my own chickens. Of the 9, two are splay-legged. I tried the bandaid splint for two days, and switched this morning to a small piece of a drinking straw with a rubberband through it. The rubberband is working great!
They are standing up and trying...
Thank you! The rock idea is awesome. They do hold heat and then radiate.
Yes, I believe that the temps were too low. I'll work really hard to get it stable before another egg sees the inside!
Here's what I did.
For the first 18 days, they were air cell up in an egg carton with the bottom cut out. I turned them 3x day. The temp was usually 99, but definitely fluctuated. Humidity was low (30-40) for 1-18. On day 18, I took out the duds, added water to the bottom and put a wet sponge...
I candled and did the float test. 1 is still moving in the egg but is way smaller than the others and seems behind in development. I opened up the other 3 after I was positive they were dead. I very slowly opened up the air sac, then tore the outer membrane off and noticed that all of them were...
:epIt looks like it's right up against the shell, but I'm clearly no expert! Maybe I should shine the candler through the bottom and scare it out! Hahaha!
Here's a pic of my ridiculous thermometers and I'm just averaging the humidity between the two. There's no condensation so I know it's definitely not 77%.
One says it's 102 and the other 100.2.