5th Annual BYC New Year's Day 2014 Hatch-A-Long

[abmaddox1981]

So I have 6 silkies pipped and making the most unholy racket. All of a sudden one of my LF eggs just zipped. No pip, no noise. Just zipped. Really? Lol. I'm just excited for healthy hatch in chicks. Up date on my hatch: set 9 silkie eggs, 3 hatched 6 pipped, 11 JGxRSL, 2 hatched, 1 zipped, 4 AM/EE set, 4 hatched. This is what made it to lock down, I started with 35 total.
Hope everyone who's still waiting gets peepers soon!!!

 

[chickengirl1193]

LOL - Probably they will always hatch in the middle of the night if you're watching!!!

yeah I couldn't fall asleep listening lol

some brooder questions... what temp should the warm spot be? and what color light bulb? I have lots of options. also I got probiotics and electrolytes for their water, should i put it innow or let them have fresh water first? or should i offer both? I think I need to go to the brooder soon cuz they are pecking my poor Styrofoam bator

 

[Pozees]

Wow, I looked at the computer and I was 375 posts behind.
Y'all are posting faster than I can read.
I'm 9 hours from due date and no pips yet.
With all the chicks out already, did a lot of you set early?

I just had number 9 hatch. I set at 7 pm local on the 11th (so I think that would be 8 pm where you are). My Silkies will often hatch early, the Barnyard Mixes I didn't know what to expect. I had 15 eggs go into lockdown Monday night, I always lock down day 19 instead of 18, have just had better luck with that here. Of 7 Silkie eggs, 4 have hatched; of 8 Barnyard Mixes, 5 have now hatched completely and the 1 that wrecked its yolk sac during hatch I had to euthanize, it was dying, so I still have 5 eggs in the incubator. Will soon move the chicks to the brooder that are dry, and do a quick candle of the last 5 eggs to see if any are still alive.

 

[Pozees]

Quote:
You may get some variation in answers, but here I try for 95 degrees warm spot, red bulb (limits pecking at one another), and you can go ahead and add the probios/electrolytes to the water. If they are dry they are ready for the brooder.

 

[chickengirl1193]

okay thanks! it's about 90 right now, they are still drying tho, at least some of them. ill switch to a red bulb. I got my brooder lamp online and it came with a white bulb (i ordered it off a goat website when getting goat stuff so they probably didn't know )

 

[LogCabinFarm]

Things are picking up here and getting eggciting... 1 hatched 10hrs ago ...4pips 1 unzipping now and a lot egg movement in others

 

[marmca]

Me too. I have 6 silkie eggs pipped. Waiting on the rest of my LF mixes.....

I have 4 totally out of shell, (3 in brooder) all Silky; one zipped Dorkin? nope RIR I think now.
and 3 more silky taking their time to break out completely. 2 I feared had dried out, tapped with fingernail and broke shell a little more, causing them to make noise and struggle again. Rolled all of the eggs still in hatcher, several more are trying, even though condensation on windows has dried off, I obsess about them 'drying out' being 'mummified'.

(help) (!)

I have some still in Turner, so will be Jan 7th before this hatch is complete - that's IF they are all on time.


Happy New Year everybody.

I just noticed NoNe of my Silky's from this hatch: don't have feather feet.

 

[JLaw]

Well went to bed with 5 chicks and some pips woke up to 12 chicks and more pips. One chick I'm not sure about came out so wet it was stuck to the screen inbetween egg carton and wall I pulled it off screen sat back in a shell to dry back off more. It's now out of shell and moving along the back of carton again but not stuck now at least. Hate when they dry to the screen some.

 

[Chickencame1st]

I am hearing small little chirps! I have 17 Crested Cream Legbar eggs and they are all looking great!
My eggs are stabilized in a camping egg carrier, and the moisture is helped to be maintained by a diaper with the elastic and tabs trimmed off laying in the largest part of the trough under the wire--which is covered by the open weave drawer liner. The eggs are on the side of the little carrier that has spacers so the egg has air circulation completely around the egg. Humidity is abut 70% and temps are probably just about 99 degrees.

 

[ronott1]

Hey Ron, your chickies are poppin!!!!!

I woke up at 4 and saw 5 hatched! At 7, one was still pipped so I checked on it. It is alive! Added water and misted the incubator. Now I need to do some chicken chores but will catch up soon!

There are four out now, including the one that lost a lot of blood. The hatcher looks like a little slaughter house now. The bloody chick is clearly weak and lethargic. I moved it to a warmer corner away from the main airflow. I'll just have to wait and see if it makes it through the night

Great news! It is amazing how much blood they can survive.

This are such bad photos but they're what I could catch with my cell phone a few days ago and then right after the first chick hatched about 12 hours ago.

Lovely!