🍃August Hatch-a-Long🍃

[AusHen]

The Mr moved the chick into the small incubator while I cleaned up a flood I had caused in the laundry room so it was away from the other active chicks. I had a good look and it is the yolk sac that had broken which caused bleeding plus I can see some intestines. I have had small yolk remaining but nothing like this. I think it would be better for me to cull than risk me attempting to help it and just cause more damage and prolong it's suffering

 

[Melontine]

Had a good look at my broody's hatch.
Sadly two chicks fell out of the nesting box. I put one back under her, seems to be doing well. The other froze to death, though I tried taking it inside and using a hairdryer on low to see if I could save it. It was not to be.
So she has five chicks left that I can see. Also five unhatched eggs? (I originally put 10 under her, later reduced to 8, there should be 2 left, not 5.)
I'll go out tonight and candle them. I'll probably have to remove them so she can take care of her chicks, but I might pop a couple in the incubator if they're doing well.

 

[FortCluck]

Well my 2 day old quail decided to kill 2 of my 1 day old quail The 2 days olds are being sold today because I’ve had enough of their nonsense

 

[microchick]

Sorry for the losses, guys and gals, I can sure relate.

My last egg FINALLY hatched on day 23. Last night at 9pm nothing. I stood there looking gloomy at it sure that it was going to be an internal pip without an external zip egg. Finally carefully picked it up with the intention of candling it one last time. The moment I picked it up I hear this loud and indignant peeping coming from inside and the egg rocked in my hand.

I hastily apologized to it and carefully put it back in the mini Eco.

I was up at 2am and checked on the egg. Sure enough there was a good pip. Up at 8 this morning (not sleeping well due to egg watch, y'all know how it is) and sure enough, there was a fluff and dried chick blinking at me. So from pip to zip/hatch in 6 hours on three eggs, two under a broody hen and this one egg in the Brinsea. Three eggs did not hatch. One destroyed when the lid came off on the Brinsea while it was being moved, two died in the shell mid week.

About the Brinsea. I had received a manual turn unit for Christmas last year and installed it. I had noticed that although the 'turner' which is in the tower that holds the automatic turner in the other units was installed correctly, the lid didn't seem to be fitting as tight. Granted my grip isn't what it used to be due to my serum negative RA but I have never had any problems before. While moving the incubator, the lid popped off causing the incubator to shift in my grasp. Two eggs wound up on the floor, one shattering immediately. The other suffered mortal fractures and the egg quit developing several days later. Two eggs landed on the table with extensive cracks in the shells but no bleeding or loss of fluid. The 6th eggs was intact and stayed in the incubator.

I immediately spackled the fractured eggs together with candle wax, even waxing over two small areas where shell was completely missing.

3 of the eggs survived to hatch out chicks although two had to be assisted. It was a labor of love.

Back to the brinsea's manual turner. Today, with all the surviving chicks hatched, I tore into it and discovered that although put together properly, it overhung the bottom of the incubator almost an eighth of an inch. At this point I handed it over to my husband who examined it, disassembled it and used his lathe to take off the extra length of the gear that is supposed to mesh with the egg cradle gears.

I put it back together and bingo, perfect. The lid once again fit perfectly.

If anybody has a Brinsea Mini Eco without an installed turner, and you add the manual turner to the unit make sure you check to make sure that the tower gear doesn't hang down below the edge of the lid/dome.

I cried for two days and had bad dreams about holding the smashed egg in my hand and the yolk and blood dripping off my fingers. I don't want anybody to experience that.

In the future if I have to move the incubator I'm going to play it safer and tape the lid down.

For now, my last hatch of the year is over, I have three chicks in the brooder and two under a hen and life is good.

It was funny watching the two four day olds checking out the new baby. It was like, well, I don't know what it is, it's smaller than us so it must be okay. And that was it. They are a threesome.

Pics later.

 

[Trisseh]

I have found that the govee is pretty consistent with the meat thermometers that I have in each incubator. There are occasional periods that it spazes out and jumps up or down a couple degrees for a couple days (I usually take it out and blow out the sensor hole or take the battery off and that usually fixes it). I wouldn't trust it as my main thermometer....but it is nice to have as a secondary to alert of extreme temp changes.

My incubators are in my finished basement. There are no real drafts - it stays a pretty consistent 67 down their. They are in my workout room which has no windows. The hovabators do so much better at holding temp and humidity than any of the other incubators I have had.

Yes, the temp dropped every time the humidity peaked as I have to remove the lid to fill the water channels. So I lose some heat but doesn't take too long to come back up where I put warm water in the channels.

One of the ebay sellers I have been emailing back and forth mentioned that if temps are too high (bordering the 104.9 kill temp), that it will also slow growth. So hopefully all of this was just because my primary thermometer was faulty. (I will be set for incubator checks now as I have more thermometers than I know what to do with. LOL!) Now I need to go see if I broke my turner........I left the large dial thermometer in there overnight without taping it down and it got stuck between the rails and popped the rails off.....all of them!

It does look to be a handy option to be able to track over time without having eyes on it all the time.

haha, I know, it’s crazy the things that we accumulate over time when hatching.xD

oh no!!! Can’t win for losing some days. Those rails are interchangeable though, right? Hopefully they just popped off and didn’t wreck any turning motor components...

 

[Melontine]

Went out and candled my broody's extra eggs. Most don't look viable, I tossed out three that had nothing in them. I put the other three in the incubator, though I only think that one of those has a chance at hatching.
Now I'm left to wonder what to do if it hatches. I didn't want leave it under miss broody, because she has five chicks that need her to take care of them while this egg might take another 2-3 days to hatch.
But now that means she's not going to want to raise the poor chick, and if it's all alone... I don't know.
I'm considering looking and seeing if anyone has any young chicks for sale, then I can raise them in a brooder together. Might be hard to find day-old chicks in September in Maine. But you never know till you try right?

 

[kelseyk]

It does look to be a handy option to be able to track over time without having eyes on it all the time.

haha, I know, it’s crazy the things that we accumulate over time when hatching.xD

oh no!!! Can’t win for losing some days. Those rails are interchangeable though, right? Hopefully they just popped off and didn’t wreck any turning motor components...

Yes, the rails are interchangeable. The price that attaches to the rail popped off the motor. I got it all put back together and looks like all is working again. I didn't get the lid back on my hovabator right away...so now the govee is taking its turn going haywire and now reading 95 something. I'll take the battery out and hopefully that will fix it.

 

[Poultry by the Numbers]

I little late to the thread but we incubated eggs for the first time (quail). They started hatching yesterday evening. We had 21 fluffy little quail this morning. 3 more since then and 4 eggs to go.

 

[CindyinSD]

Went out and candled my broody's extra eggs. Most don't look viable, I tossed out three that had nothing in them. I put the other three in the incubator, though I only think that one of those has a chance at hatching.
Now I'm left to wonder what to do if it hatches. I didn't want leave it under miss broody, because she has five chicks that need her to take care of them while this egg might take another 2-3 days to hatch.
But now that means she's not going to want to raise the poor chick, and if it's all alone... I don't know.
I'm considering looking and seeing if anyone has any young chicks for sale, then I can raise them in a brooder together. Might be hard to find day-old chicks in September in Maine. But you never know till you try right?

You could do that. I honestly think I would give the egg back to her. She'll abandon it or hatch it. That's nature's way. If it does hatch, it's much better off with mama. The chicks live off the yolk for three days. They may nibble at food & water but they're not that into it until their big pre-birth meal has digested. It's unlikely mama will stay with the egg to the detriment of the hatched chicks. If she does, then you can remove it.

 

[Melontine]

You could do that. I honestly think I would give the egg back to her. She'll abandon it or hatch it. That's nature's way. If it does hatch, it's much better off with mama. The chicks live off the yolk for three days. They may nibble at food & water but they're not that into it until their big pre-birth meal has digested. It's unlikely mama will stay with the egg to the detriment of the hatched chicks. If she does, then you can remove it.

I considered it, that's definitely a reasonable strategy. But one chick already died after wandering too far from her and freezing. The poor thing left the nesting box to be on the coop floor and couldn't figure out how to get back in. It's not directly related, but it's been two days now since the first baby hatched and I think at this point it's better for her to focus on her five remaining babies than hatching a single late egg that may take several more days.