Hi. Here is my story in case someone else can glean from it. I feel I owe it to the site to share since I was so blessed by reading all the posts myself.
This is our first time and we are doing it with borrowed incubators. One is a little giant and one is an all automatic that only holds 3 eggs. We are hatching with a due date of today. Five of my six Little Giant eggs (3 white silkies and 3 brown) pipped early yesterday morning and then didn't do anything all day except occasionally peep. I started to get worried around 5pm and started to doubt the instruction manual that described a 12 hour process. So then I googled the topic and found BYC. After reading what seemed like an endless stream of alternating opinions on the topic of interceding, I decided I would err on the side of too much help since the whole artificial process was full of human error from the get go and each candling showed very healthy embryos all along.
I was only on day 20 so I proceeded carefully on the first zip job and stopped when a small blood trickle occurred. At this point the little guy looked happy, his face was clear of fluid and he was peeping energetically between naps. We did a complete zip job on three others, made sure there was plenty of humidity, and we went to bed. My excited 9 year old son got me up 5 hours later
and two had finished the job and were hobbling around the bator drying off! The one that had the blood show last night was still in his shell and looked glued in with dried membrane, but cheerfully peeped at me when he saw me.
I helped him get unglued around his face and shoulders with a dull tweezers and put him back and he finished the job within an hour. Now I have three little cheepers drying off and looking adorable. Sadly, the fourth egg (brown) we had zipped last night was awfully still and I missed it that he had lots of fluid near his beak that may have formed while we were videoing the new chicks. Maybe he drowned. We got him out before my little girls wake up and see him like that.
The fifth pipped egg (brown) was sitting there unchanged from yesterday so I took it out and gave it a zip job and he was very much alive in there. This time I was meticulous about making sure the beak was totally clear of ANY obstructions, wrapped him in a moist washcloth and I will give him some time with keeping a close eye on him, especially because he is my only brown viable so far. He is breathing strong and he is hanging out for now.
The last Little Giant brown silkie egg (brown) is still doing nothing, no cracks, no noise, no wiggling. I candled it and I don't see any movement. Not sure if I should leave it in there and give it a couple days or what?
Interesting fact that the three happy cheepers in there are the 3 white ones
and the slower, troubled ones are brown. (1-the one I lost this morning, 2- the quiet, closed egg, and 3-the one that is slower and still sticking his beak out of a shell, these were the brown ones).
Finally, I have three left (two browns and a white) in the super automatic incubator (R-Com Digital Egg Incubator) that controls everything for you. Today is the due date and no indications of activity or cheeping yet. I was sure that this incubator was going to be the more exciting show, not the incubator where I had to do jumping jacks for three weeks keeping it regulated.
There is still plenty of time though.
That's our story so far.
I won't be getting back home until 10:30 tonight, but at least my hubby will be home all day to give me updates! I'm SOOO excited!!
