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

[ChickenCanoe]

At midnight last night, still nothing.
At 7 AM I have 2 chicks out and at least 7 pips. They are between 12 and 14 hours late. Perhaps my temps have been a bit low throughout.
The two hatched so far are from eggs that had been stored 4 and 8 days.
None of those due today have pipped yet.

 

[ronott1]

Guess I'm a little late for this hatch, I only had four eggs to set, I put them on lockdown three days ago so they should of hatched by today =/ checked for pipping this morning and made the discovery that one of my kids played with the lever, so now they will need an extra day or so. On the bright side atleast the lever didn't get turned the other way.

I hope they hatch!

I did a quick candling and saw movement in 4 of the marans eggs! I can't express how thrilled I am to see life! The whole time I wasn't sure. I know many things can still go wrong, but I have hope!

Go Chickies!

We just have late bloomers, right? Maybe we will both have action tomorrow!

Chick number 7 hatched for me at 4 in the morning, a full day after the others. No one adjusted the temps on the hatch either.

for late bloomers!

 

[chicken pickin]

Now that we are a day late, now day 22, its nerve wrecking. I have 5 chicks out and 2 pips and still 14 eggs doing nothing. I sure hope today is a lucky day and we all get many bloomers.

 

[Wunjo]

The next two was not dripping wet. YAY!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I just had to share this with you all. I had 3 Dorking eggs that never pipped, so when everyone else had hatched I candled. 2 had already died, and 1 was alive. I opened one that was already gone, and saw that blood vessels were absorbed, and feet were right at the aircell no internal pip. I knew the one that was alive was in trouble. Filed a small hole on aircell end and same thing, no internal pip, feet right there. I was so upset because I knew death was imminent. I got on the assist article of Sally's and after reading and re-reading knew if I could find the head there was a chance. So, I eggtopsied the one that had died in the same position, and practiced pulling the head out. I went to the live egg and did the same. There was a little blood(from the membrane), but the head came right out, chick took a big breath, and is breathing steadily now. It will take all night for the yolk to absorb, but the shot the chick has now is better than what was going to happen. Now I PRAY!!

Update tomorrow!

The timing is everything. And sometimes nothing will help. Good effort.

How many eggs at one time and how often were you wanting to set eggs?
So far I like my 1588 but it is small time compared to cabinet ones. Also buying 3 with turners to complete weekly hatches as well as a still air for a hatcher would end up costing about the same as a sportsman.

Nothing listed on my area's CL. is there a different site for listing used cabinet incubators?

Would it be possible for you to link the good thermometers? I have spent a lot on trying different cheap ones, maybe I should break down and try the better more costly versions.

I saw this thread about chicken sitting. Since there are so many posters over here I wanted to link to it.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/845677/map-of-potential-chicken-sitters

If enough people add their location, who knows maybe taking a vacation could be less stressful.

We have a chicken sitting reciprocal program in our local meetup group.

ok it is 0hr and nothing no chirps no pips no moving eggs so i candled and i dont see anything moving but its still early ? maybe they were sleeping ? when should i worry ?

Get nervous now, start worrying at day 22, be very concerned day 23.

One is a Brinsea Spot Check http://www.brinsea.com/products/thermo.html recommended by Ron, and the other two were the ones ChickenCanoe recommended from Thermoworks (I bought two of these) http://www.thermoworks.com/products/low_cost/rt301wa.html. All agree, luckily

Both very good products. The thermoworks rt301 is accurate to 0.9 F and catibratable.
I found this one too. +-0.2C accuracy but I've not used it.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BQMIJOK/ref=biss_dp_t_asn

<sigh> I just lost the last one.

I don't know if I didn't help it soon enough or if it was just always going to die no matter what I did. It was fully formed, yolk completely absorbed. I've been reading all I can find on causes of mortality in the shell on the last day. It would seem that some sort of nutritional deficiency is the most likely culprit. I did notice that the shells on these eggs were really super thin and brittle. So maybe that was a clue.

Depends on if it had pipped or not or if it died a day or 2 early.
Nutrition is one culprit, also heredity, low humidity, inadequate ventilation or turning, etc..
Here is a good list to review.
http://www.natureform.com/kb/index.php?article=1011

Trader joes egg hatched, the other one is zipping! Nothing on the 3rd, so far.

Fantastic. I think the TJs in CA are closer to their sources. TJ doesn't carry them here and WF eggs take a long circuitous route to get to the stores here.

Got a new camera for Christmas!

Great picture.

I had no idea hatching eggs would be a source of so MUCH DRAMA!

First is the paranoia and the worry.
Then the estactic joy of that pip.
Then the horror.

Oh how horrible! One of the dried out ones attacked one as it was coming out of the shell! Then they all got in the game and were flinging this poor thing around until it got a bloody wing. After some debate we decided we had better remove the dried chicks to save those coming on. Afraid to open the bator - but it must be done. I wet a dishtowel with hot water and flopped it in the bator as it was opened and the four dried out chicks quickly removed to allow the next ones coming on a better chance. There were 4 pipped at that time and I knew it was dangerous. Temp and humidity barely fluctuated and due to the warm towel went back up and stabilized quickly.

Then one hatched with a little umbilicus issues. It had a small bloody protrusion. I thought to myself that it didn't look too bad and I hated to open the bator again. Went to town and came home to carnage. Blood all over the incubator and this chick is hopping around dragging its insides after itself.

Of course it had to be culled and quickly. The last chick also had a little bloody bum but I separated it by putting it in a bowl on newspaper shreds (still in the bator). What should I do for the last chick? I hate to cull it if a trick will fix it.

Are these bloody umbilicus issues from opening the bator?

Also, I have 6 unpipped eggs left. Set on the 12th at 12:08 a.m. I didn't candle before lock down. At what point do I candle these last eggs? The incubator has been opened 3 times today already. Kind of don't want to mess with it anymore.

Can anyone help with ID-ing cause of umbilicus issues? Our 1st hatch = huge learning curve. Thanks for input!

Not sure about the umbilical but an unhealed navel and rough down can be high incubator temperature or wide fluctuations in temperature, low temperature in hatcher, high humidity in hatcher or inadequate breeder nutrition.
A bloody navel is usually high temperature in incubator or hatcher.
Unhealed navel and lethargic chick can be inadequate ventilation.
If it is also smelly, it would be contamination.

The membranes were like dried glue stuck to them and I got them out. They are back in the incubator to dry - I hope they'll be okay

Sounds like low humidity. Primarily during hatching but it could also be low humidity during storage and incubation.

 

[Bama1]

I still have nothing....

I think you and I tie.. set 21 .... 3 lockdown... and nada .... hmmm I've already thought if my next batch

 

[ronott1]

Can anyone help with ID-ing cause of umbilicus issues? Our 1st hatch = huge learning curve. Thanks for input!

These problems are from stress usually. Poorly packed shipped eggs, temps too low and bad Genetics.

anti biotic ointment without pain killer is good for it. I use Vetricyn gel on them.

I believe your camera has shifted and its pretty much un-viewable

The chick hatched after 4 this morning and found the camera down when I got up.

Very exciting!

 

[mstricer]

Have 3 hatched and still holding out for a couple late hatchers. 2 were iffie when I locked down

 

[ronott1]

So I got woke up this morning by a loud cheeping chick. There was lots of clear liquid in the bottom of it's shell. About 30 mins later another hatched and again lots of fluid in the bottom of the egg shell. The egg flat is wet. It started raining here and I'm affraid my chicks are going to drown but I'm not sure. Advice would be very much appreciated! I have 4 more pips and I did a quick candle and I can see that they are all still breathing. Should I crack open their pip and look in to see if there is lots of fluid in them? Should I leave them? I do not have a hygrometer. There was water literally dripping from the last two that hatched.

Out of 31 in lockdown

12 have hatched
4 more pips
some more have internally pipped
looks like 3 have stopped

What does the humidity gauge say? It does sound wet. You can remove sponges and etc. Try removing water from a tank. Another thing would be to put in a cup of popcorn(absorbs more water than rice).

At midnight last night, still nothing.
At 7 AM I have 2 chicks out and at least 7 pips. They are between 12 and 14 hours late. Perhaps my temps have been a bit low throughout.
The two hatched so far are from eggs that had been stored 4 and 8 days.
None of those due today have pipped yet.

l

I hope they hatch for you!

 

[abmaddox1981]

So I'm out of the running for best hatch (I gave a friend 3 babies yesterday) but my hatch rate is almost twice what it usually is! So I guess from now on I will hatch up right in cartons and hand turn. Woop!