3rd Annual New Year's Day Hatch!!

[kathyinmo]

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Wait until day 18 and then candle, by then you're most of the time absolutely sure what has developed and what quit. That way you can feel confident in your decision to toss out certain eggs.

That is exactly what I do, Jeremy. The only time I candle is on day 18, when I move the eggs into the hatcher.

 

[AK Michelle]

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Sorry miss Belle.

I'll hatch some extra to make up for it

 

[9Catsz]

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Awwwww...I love sulcatas...and Russians....and ornates....and Hermans......and pancakes! Have you seen pancakes? Do you breed the Russians? I bet the babies are uber cute. My redfoot used to "play" with errant chicken feathers. She would sniff one until it stuck to her nose then blow air out of her nostrils making the feather poof off of her nose. She'd follow it to the ground and repeat. She did this all the time. I wish I would have video taped it. It was the cutest thing to see.

 

[jeremy]

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Wait until day 18 and then candle, by then you're most of the time absolutely sure what has developed and what quit. That way you can feel confident in your decision to toss out certain eggs.

That is exactly what I do, Jeremy. The only time I candle is on day 18, when I move the eggs into the hatcher.

I feel like it can save you a lot of heartache, too.

That way if less eggs developed that what you were expecting or wanted, you're only disappointed for a few days rather than a few weeks!

 

[wolftracks]

Just marking my spot. After Christmas I think I'm going to vegatate on this thread.

 

[LeasureChix]

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I had really good luck with Karen's silkies

She sent 24 for an 18 egg auction and I ended up with 19 making it to lockdown and 14 hatching

Wish I could figure out what makes such late quitters though. That has happened to me several times. They are alive at lockdown but never hatch.

Congratulations, Melissa, I had good luck with Karen's eggs early this year also. I am super bummed about the other eggs that I bought and have nothing going on. Porous eggs.... bad air cells.... old eggs? poor handling by the PO? Some of the eggs could have been damaged by a temp spike in my LG bators but that's never happened to me before. I can't wait to get my new cabinet incubator. I know it's a gamble to buy shipped eggs but to get a big zero is disheartening. I'm very thankful that my Kelar and Bargain eggs are doing so well.

Melissa, I know what you mean about the late quitters. I only ended up with 2 chicks even though I had 18 make it to lockdown with my last hatch. None of those were shipped eggs. I kept the bator running for a few extra days but nothing. Go figure.

 

[gryeyes]

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Ditto! Double ditto, as a matter of fact. Sometimes I don't even candle at lockdown, depending on how many eggs were originally set and how much room I have in the incubator...

 

[BHep]

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I've eggtopsied every one of my non hatchers and every one has been a perfectly formed baby that just didn't hatch. I've been setting about a 12-18 eggs a week since September and I have between 1 and 4 die like that out of every hatch. It's frustrating.

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**** raises hand **** I do!


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Which species of tortoises do you have? I had a redfoot and a leopard....Redfoot was 5 y/o, raised her from a baby, and the leo unk. age, but he was the size of a basketball. It was about an hour after dark one night when I remembered that I hadn't brought my torts in from their daytime pen. I go out to get them and came upon 3 raccoons fighting over my torts' dead bodies.

One thing that can cause the chicks to die at the end like that is bacteria in the hatcher. You really need to clean the hatcher between hatches. I use a product called tek trol. There are plenty of product to wipe the hatcher & incubator down with. Just a thought.

 

[Melissa Rose]

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I've eggtopsied every one of my non hatchers and every one has been a perfectly formed baby that just didn't hatch. I've been setting about a 12-18 eggs a week since September and I have between 1 and 4 die like that out of every hatch. It's frustrating.

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**** raises hand **** I do!


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Which species of tortoises do you have? I had a redfoot and a leopard....Redfoot was 5 y/o, raised her from a baby, and the leo unk. age, but he was the size of a basketball. It was about an hour after dark one night when I remembered that I hadn't brought my torts in from their daytime pen. I go out to get them and came upon 3 raccoons fighting over my torts' dead bodies.

One thing that can cause the chicks to die at the end like that is bacteria in the hatcher. You really need to clean the hatcher between hatches. I use a product called tek trol. There are plenty of product to wipe the hatcher & incubator down with. Just a thought.

I've been using the oxine to clean with but I will most certainly check out the tek trol

Thanks for the tip

 

[craz e laid e]

SCG, I've never raised ducks, but what if you put bed pads on the bottom?