4th Annual BYC NYD Hatch-a-long

[cluck-cluck]

tadpole, what is the hen in your avitar, she is very pretty

I think that's a turkey tom? And yes, he is pretty! No idea about turkey varieties though??

So, I took this week off of work, partially as a staycation and partially to be on hand for the hatch. And I'm starting to realize that I suck at this whole 'staycation' business.

I'm roughly six and a half hours in, and I've cleaned the house, done repairs to the coop, hung a wall of our wedding pictures, emptied and scrubbed down the fridge, done laundry, vaccuumed, and packed away Christmas items.

It's becoming very very clear that I have no idea how to go about this 'relaxation' stuff. lol

I wish so much that I had your energy! I find it so hard to motivate myself to clean, and now, I think I spent at least 4 hours today playing with my chickens

Well then! I have a pip!! My eggs are due to hatch on Fri. I was hoping my one and lonly little Nankin would hatch and hatch early. Looks like it may happen. Just never know how long from the pip to zip. But, I'm thinking I may have me a baby by tonight or tomorrow. I wanted it to hatch early so it could be strong enough for those other 5. Those eggs are huge! Dad, a pure RIR and hens sex links. Good egg layers. I will be watching my bator sooner than later now.

Yaay, congratulations!

Oh good, for all I know you have a chick, I'm trying to catch up. I got sick today..stuff is going around. I got the tummy thing. So not fun.

Happy for you!!!!!

Oh, hope it's only 24 hour thing, and that you're better tomorrow!

Where do I post my hatch count for the best or worst or what not for hatches ? small maybe cuae I started with 8 eggs?

I'd like to know as well?

Where do we submit our hatched number?

Again, I Third the question???

UPDATE -- 7pm E

Note ALL apparent wetness of inner membranes is the result of me touching water to it in order to moisten & to see better.

I took the egg shell down to just above the air cell line so I could get a better look at what was going on it there!
I think they still need more time to absorb, I'm still seeing a fair amt of red veins in the membrane *when I wet it* -- ?? What do ya'll think?

Note they have NOT spun or moved relative to the shell AT ALL in the 5 hrs since I did the external pip,
I did use the twessers to make sure no bits of eggshell might fall into their mouths, and to widen the area so their nostrals are finally out of the membrane w/o rupturing any membrane just eased if apart ever so gently to give the beaks some movement.

OK here are the pictures - Eggs W, B & E as noted in pics
:
This first one shows Egg W BEFORE I re-wet the inner membrane, see how white & dry it appears...


After wetting w/ finger



Here is B - who bled a tiny drop at 2pm when I accidently took a piece that went below the aircell line -- i think now at 7pm it still needs more time?
note the whitness of the inner membrane just to the left of the beak , it was ALL like that again until I rewet (this w/ bator at 78% and wet towel over them all day)






& Finally Egg E the original loud one that saved them all






So given they still don't look "done yet" to me, I'm more & more thinking the internal pips (even though 24 hrs later than hatch time) were purely a result of the bator falling, and they never would have internal piped those dry membranes, but if they could have it would have not even have happened when it did, but later, as in they are both running late AND too dry. But that is just based on comparing to other pictures I've seen here -- this is all new to me...

All Advice Welcome = )

My first hatch, I had them opened up like that, then I wrapped them in wet towels, and when I wasn't looking, they climbed out on their own. They needed more time, and I did constantly check on them that they weren't drying out, and spritzed a bit of warm water around them and on their towel every once in a while... Hope they make it!!

Finally! I have two zippers ... these two were pipped sometime between 2am and 7am this morning and they are just getting around to zipping now after torturing me all day long Interesting though ... they both made new holes to start their zip from. Is this common in peeps that have waited quite a while before zipping? My humidity has been consistently between 62-67% so I don't think they dried out.

If anyone cares to watch ... http://www.ustream.tv/channel/ravenwoodacres

Welcome to parenthood,

Watching the cam now

Probably the worst hatch I've ever had. Started with 46 eggs, 19 at lockdown and only 4 hatched. The ones that hatched were all next to each other and were from my Silkie mix pen. I'm wondering if the picture that fell on the incubator did more damage than I thought to the bigger eggs. The eggs that hatched were small. Two were Serama/Showgirl mix and the other two were Silkie or Sizzle/Showgirl mix. My roo in there is a Partridge Showgirl. One of the Seramas and one of the Silkie or Sizzle chicks has a showgirl neck like their daddy. They are awfully cute! I'll have to get some pictures soon.

I will be done hatching for awhile now. Hopefully Spring will be here soon: Wishful thinking I know, but hey!

I'm glad you got 4 at least! Not completely empty handed, so congrats on them!

My little Nankin just may make it. The only one my friend gave
me. The other eggs are huge. I hope this one makes it out
by tomorrow, a day earlier than the others..pretty sure they
won't start until Fri..due date for them all. The pip on this one
is right under the X, on the right bottom x side.

Awww, sweet! Hope it does well with the larger chicks!!

Only two of my eggs developed and none of them hatched =( I'll leave them in the bator another day or two, and then I'm setting a new batch. So sad!!!1

Oh, that is sad I'm so sorry!

 

[cluck-cluck]

Yaay, we have hatching, Ravenwood! Congrats, there's a lot of activity there!

 

[RavenWood]

Probably the worst hatch I've ever had. Started with 46 eggs, 19 at lockdown and only 4 hatched. The ones that hatched were all next to each other and were from my Silkie mix pen. I'm wondering if the picture that fell on the incubator did more damage than I thought to the bigger eggs. The eggs that hatched were small. Two were Serama/Showgirl mix and the other two were Silkie or Sizzle/Showgirl mix. My roo in there is a Partridge Showgirl. One of the Seramas and one of the Silkie or Sizzle chicks has a showgirl neck like their daddy. They are awfully cute! I'll have to get some pictures soon.

I will be done hatching for awhile now. Hopefully Spring will be here soon: Wishful thinking I know, but hey!

I'd love to have some of your fancy eggs one day cold. Are the others still in the bator, waiting? I still have 2 that haven't pipped or anything. One more just hatched now and another pending.

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

We have 13 hatched now, out of 37...mayhem in the bator!


Made a make shift brooder box...took the first six wild ones out of the bator to give those drying a chance to rest!


This little one was all sticky, and not drying...so it got a warm bath! It is doing great now!


This one is still moving, but it has been like this for hours!

Thank you! I will try again. I will have to, as I have eggs coming in a couple months. Maybe I will get lucky and have a broody about that time.

I am glad I bought the silkie chicks now (I got them to be company for that egg, in case it hatched.) At least we have fuzzies in the house to love on.

STINK EYE!

Cuteness Overload!!

The new years hatch along serama

guess my eggies thought this was the January Hatch A Long...
I have five Jubilee Orpingtons out, a polish trying... and now a Barred Rock just popped out! I have some pips in there too...
the marans are being totally lazy tho... but I'm not ready to give up... I think they are just 'late bloomers'!!!

Pictures???

OMG SMARTER than chickens SHOULDA NAMED this video "I DONT FORGET YOU!"

Just wanted to share a pic of my littles. Other than the 4 RIR and 2 lav Ams, I'm pretty much clueless as to which are my black mutts and which are BR or BAs. Well it will become clear over time I guess.

Adorable!

Well, unfortunately the remaining eggs look like day 17 or 18 quitters. I opened them all and nothing viable was left. So sad, but at least I got 4 healthy babies! I really wasn't expecting super awesome results considering the source. It's not like grocery stores are careful about shipping. That, along with the low temps and the age by the time they get to the store, and I'm amazed I got 4!!! I originally set 11.

Here's some pics of them all fuffed up.

So darling!

This is just my luck. The fan in my room was turned off last night because it was too cool to have it on. Turns out that was the only thing between me and a massive temp spike.

I lost the three chicks that hatched and the six eggs I had left, 2 BA/RIRs and 4 serama. Nothing is moving in the eggs at all. I even float tested them again and got nothing. Maybe I just wasn't meant to have seramas?

I'm so sorry. That's awful!

~ Aspen

 

[coldupnorth]

I'd love to have some of your fancy eggs one day cold. Are the others still in the bator, waiting? I still have 2 that haven't pipped or anything. One more just hatched now and another pending.

Thanks! I've left the others in the incubator, just in case but I'm not too hopeful.

Yay for your hatchlings!

 

[Bettacreek]

UPDATE -- 7pm E Note ALL apparent wetness of inner membranes is the result of me touching water to it in order to moisten & to see better. I took the egg shell down to just above the air cell line so I could get a better look at what was going on it there! I think they still need more time to absorb, I'm still seeing a fair amt of red veins in the membrane *when I wet it* -- ?? What do ya'll think? Note they have NOT spun or moved relative to the shell AT ALL in the 5 hrs since I did the external pip, I did use the twessers to make sure no bits of eggshell might fall into their mouths, and to widen the area so their nostrals are finally out of the membrane w/o rupturing any membrane just eased if apart ever so gently to give the beaks some movement. OK here are the pictures - Eggs W, B & E as noted in pics : This first one shows Egg W BEFORE I re-wet the inner membrane, see how white & dry it appears... After wetting w/ finger Here is B - who bled a tiny drop at 2pm when I accidently took a piece that went below the aircell line -- i think now at 7pm it still needs more time? note the whitness of the inner membrane just to the left of the beak , it was ALL like that again until I rewet (this w/ bator at 78% and wet towel over them all day) & Finally Egg E the original loud one that saved them all So given they still don't look "done yet" to me, I'm more & more thinking the internal pips (even though 24 hrs later than hatch time) were purely a result of the bator falling, and they never would have internal piped those dry membranes, but if they could have it would have not even have happened when it did, but later, as in they are both running late AND too dry. But that is just based on comparing to other pictures I've seen here -- this is all new to me... All Advice Welcome = )

No offense, but I think you moved too soon to help them. I don't start counting until the external pip. It can be two days from internal pip untilactual hatch. The veins in those eggs tells me that they were opened too soon.

 

[Bettacreek]

I finally decided to change brooders. Made a big box of several boxes taped together. They were fouling the small brooder each day!

 

[RavenWood]

Yaay, we have hatching, Ravenwood! Congrats, there's a lot of activity there!

Thanks. Now if only the last two would do something. With these last two that's 11 out of 14 put into lockdown.

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

Okay so the total count so far is: 39 Chicks (32 mixed brown egg layers: Sussex/Basque/Orpington-5 Olive Eggers-2 Seramas), 8 Ducklings, and 1 Button.

Two of the ducklings, and a couple more chicks are still in the 'hatcher' drying off, then there are still a lot of pips and 1/2 zips....some I started to help out and others are working on hatching. Finger's crossed that all the babies that haven't hatched yet will tonight!

One of the Seramas and the Button baby are inside in a brooder, all the rest of the chicks and ducklings out in the building in brooders.

~ Aspen

 

[TMNfarm]

The casualties are beginning to mount...

I came home to find that one more egg was just about hatched. I saw that the two I helped earlier hadn't made any progress and the membrane was dry. I wanted the one to finish hatching before I took them out to wet them down, but as I watched, the Mystery egg one got weaker and weaker. It stopped breathing just as I de died I couldn't wait any longer... I wasn't able to save it. It hadn't absorbed its yolk sac yet. I had only taken the shell around the air sac off... Feeling terrible.

The other one I had helped earlier was ready. All of the veins were absorbed, but the membranes were dry, so I took that one and wet the membranes and teased it back. She's really weak, but laying in the bator. She freed herself from the shell and I have heard a few really loud cheeps from her, so hopefully she is getting stronger!

I was worried about all of the others, so I took one out to candle. No movement, no peeping when I tapped on the shell... I opened the shell, and the inner membrane was dry and shrink wrapped! I started opening the pips of all that had pipped, and opened the air sac of all that hadn't... They were all shrink wrapped!! I guess having to open the bator came back to kick me in the rump...

One of my tiny white eggs from Mr.Heinz was dead... Never pipped... Two more of my Mystery eggs were dead.... One of mine died shortly after lockdown, and another never pipped. I have 9 left in my bator, which is more like a chickie hospital now...

Two OE's, 1 mystery chick, and 6 of mine... One had pipped at the wrong end, and the rest had pipped internally right in the center of the membrane, then shrink wrapped.... I sure hope some of these babies make it.... Everyone else has been moved to the brooder... There are 16 healthy chick in there...