19 chicks and counting.
Haha!
Sorry no photos yet...been using my new tablet but not sure how to use it but too busy between chicks and unpacking the house. My usual dinosaur laptop overheats and shuts off randomly. >
I will get on it tonite to post my cute pics after work.
Well, we had 3 that died after pip. One had zipped all the way around and stopped. The second was the pip in the shell equator. We assisted 15-16 hours after pip and it lived for 15 minutes and died in my hands with us talking to it. I had just started to cry when I was interrupted by loud peeping from the incubator and a new one hatched! The third was pipped for 12ish hours with no further signs of life. I try to be hands off, but we realized we were waiting too long to assist. I think our humidity fluctuations are an issue... it will drop to 45% easily here in the desert... but when several are hatching at once will spike to the 90s with condensation... Then back down again. So for next time maybe a humidity pump?
We had two others that pipped and stopped, but we didn't wait so long and assisted them at 6 hours and they are vigorous in the brooder. Also, we didn't have this problem with chicks until we were down to 14 or so in the bator. ??? I think it was the humidity fluctuations... but we really try hard not to open it up much and wait to collect 3-5 chicks for the brooder.
So we candled the remaining 7 intact eggs last night and cleaned stinky debris out of the bator. One looks like a 17-18 day quitter. The rest look ok but no sounds or movement so we reset and will let nature take is course. But I am more than happy with 19 and grateful for the experience... made our Christmas so memorable!!!