🍃August Hatch-a-Long🍃

[FortCluck]

I wear gloves constantly when working outside. I have tan lines on my wrists...

So you have unmanly hands just kidding. My husband takes care of his hands because no woman likes rough man hands.

 

[microchick]

So miracles do happen!

Chick #2 is in the background and the last egg showing movement is on the left.

Considering the catastrophe that happened on Saturday with two eggs hitting the floor and three landing on the table the bator was sitting on I'm amazed that any of the chicks hatched at all.

They were both assisted. One pipped and tried to break out at the wrong end of the egg, the second pipped started to zip and when I checked it I could see that the membrane was sticking to it and it was tired so I went in after it. Both chicks kicked free on their own, which I was happy about.

I pulled one egg that was DOA and the remaining egg is showing movement. It should be hatched but like a human baby, it has its own schedule obviously. I'm leaving the Bobbsie Twins in the incubator till morning hoping that they will 'egg' the last on to hatch. No pun intended!

Thank you St. Brigid for doing your stuff!

 

[kelseyk]

I had 1 pip this morning and 4 more thos afternoon. Still need to check tonight.

 

[kelseyk]

2 more pips tonight - total of 7 out of 18.

Still trying to figure out my 2nd hovabator. Down to 3 out of 8 test eggs - have had 2 clears, an early (pre day 7) quitter, and 2 that quit between 7-14 days. The remaining 3 are still going, but seem awful small to me.....which would make me think temps are too low. I have a calibrated meat thermometer in there, a govee thermometer, and then bought an egg shaped thermometer, and also put in my secondary thermometer from my other incubator. Govee, egg thermometer, and secondary thermometer all read temp high. Adjusted temp down - meat thermometer never changed. Govee reads just on now and egg shaped and secondary still read high (secondary reads 1 degree high so after adjustment it is close to govee reading). I think the new egg shaped one is 3-4 degrees off. Just ordered 2 more thermometers. Gotta figure out if this is an incubator problem! Driving me nuts!

ETA: And of course, there are eggs I want on ebay right now....but no room with only 1 incubator.

 

[Vantic]

So you have unmanly hands just kidding. My husband takes care of his hands because no woman likes rough man hands.

Oh no, even with the gloves my hands are very rough and cracked. Dry/wet/dry/wet all day will do that for you. Seems worse now that the ugly ducklings have needs (ie. water). The glove prevents me from coming in with cuts and tears. Sensitive Manly Hands!

 

[kelseyk]

Woke up to 6 chicks this morning and 1 more pipped! Candled the 8 that had not pipped yet just to see how they are doing and I am pretty sure 6 are DIS. They were all moving on day 16 (what I thought was day 18, but my spreadsheet had gotten messed up). Thinking those 2 days of high humidity might have affected them. Anyway - 3 Isbars and 3 CCL is what had hatched. Will have to wait till they fluff up before I can tell who is who.

 

[FortCluck]

I have a quail chick with a leg bent upwards... thinking I’ll have to cull. It’s not from my covey so I’m not worried about defects.

 

[Applesoy]

So from our first incubation of 8 eggs we had 2 clears, 2 blood rings, and all four that made it to lockdown hatched!!! could not be more happy!
3 Swedish flower hens and one plymouth rock, pretty sure 3 cockerels and one pullet...
So I ordered 7 more hatching eggs, 3 Silverrud blues and 4 Amrocks. Recieved one extra egg for each- and had a lot of trouble fitting all 9 in my Brinsea Mini! Had to stand them up in washi tapes, are on day 3 now

 

[kelseyk]

My trouble incubator is really stumping me. I have been putting extra thermometers in to check temp while I am incubating my barnyard eggs. Prior to testing with my barnyard eggs, I recalibrated my meat thermometer and found it to be reading high (only 2 degrees - so around 101), so adjusted it. When I put it back in the incubator it read that the incubator temp was low by about 2-3 degrees, so I turned it up (thought that would explain why I was getting so many blood rings and why the embryos that were developing only looked to be around 10-14 days old on day 18). So before I put any more purchased eggs into the incubator, I decided to run some of my own eggs through to make sure I can get eggs all the way to hatch. Day 4 resulted in 3 clears and 5 developing eggs (1 developing looked weak and I left the clears in just to be sure). Day 7 resulted in the same 3 clears, 2 blood rings (one of those was the one I thought was weak), and 3 developing - removed the clears and blood rings. Day 14 (today) resulted in 2 quitters and 1 developing.....but it looks about the size of a day 10 embryo and is barely moving. Over the course of the trial period, I have bought another thermometer (which appears to read 3-4 degrees high) and have moved thermometers from my good incubator over to the trouble incubator (4 different thermometers). The last 2 weeks 3 of the 4 have shown the temperature to be too high (102-103 adjusted), the other one (my calibrated meat thermometer) is still reading around 100. So why is this last remaining embryo so small if the temp was so high for so long? High heat is supposed to result in a faster growing embryo which would be bigger than it should be by day 14. Too low of a temp would be more likely to cause slow growth resulting in a small embryo and death of that embryo. I have ordered 2 more thermometers and contacted incubator warehouse to see if they think it might be some kind of incubator malfunction. It really just has me stumped.

 

[microchick]

@kelseyk I feel your pain.

I candled my last egg today which should be on day--22? It's still viable, baby is moving but it looks like a day 18 chick! I mean how?! Two eggs hatched yesterday on time.

Now either I'm worse at math than I thought or the egg fairy snuck a ringer in on me, LOL.

@applysoy, I have a Brinsea mini also and their idea of a regular sized egg and my hen's idea of what they are are two different animals all together. I can't get 9 eggs in mine no matter what and my manual turner that DH bought me for Christmas last year doesn't like my bantam eggs.