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

[GAGE]

put a sponge in the water dish. The sponge will increase surface area and keep the chicks from drowning in the water.

Thank you, and that sounds like a plan, and I am heading to Wal Mart at lunch.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Oh my goodness, I haven't gone into lockdown yet (1:30...an hour from now)...and one of my eggs is rockin'! What does that mean, it will be an early hatcher??? Should I go into lockdown now and not wait an hour??????

If they haven't externally pipped, a day one way or the other won't make much difference.

They are just sitting there, looking egglike.

Do something, eggs!

Try doing one of your other hobbies for the next day or so.

LOL mine too. Very egglike, doing nothing but being eggs.

Embryo growth is over now. Organs, however, are finishing their development.

 

[chicken junky]

Not sure if this qualifies but had to take incubator with to visit my p's and my son accidentally stepped on it and only 2 lavender orps made it but on the way home I plugged in my heat light to van and it blew a fuse so no heat light!!! These little cuties rode on my Lavender sweater under my coat for 7 hours until we made it home and they are doing great now. One of them kept pecking at my skin tag on my neck so I kept having to cover my neck around with my sweater hood, too funny, lucky they are cute!!!!

 

[Myfourladies]

They are just sitting there, looking egglike.

Do something, eggs!

LOL mine too. Very egglike, doing nothing but being eggs.

How dare they look egg like!! LOL
I can't help but laugh at this one.

 

[Aphrael]

I haven't locked down yet, I have an egg that was 2 days behind all the rest so I thought I'd give it a day or so, plus I'm sick and haven't wanted to do anything but sleep. Lucky for me all kids are grown and not living here so I can sleep as much as necessary. but I'm going to lock down now and go back to bed as this is the only day off I have to get better, I have a sinking feeling that one of my 8 hour days over the holiday is going to turn into a 12 hour day due to the cry babies on second shift not wanting to work the holidays, oh well more money for me at double time plus holiday pay I can make over a weeks worth of money in two days, who passes up 38.00 an hour

So sorry your sick.

I hope you feel better soon.

It's hard to.
I worked a lot of holidays. My very first job when I started high school I had to work Christmas eve, Christmas, New Years eve and New Years, two years straight.
One Thanksgiving not long ago, my son went to Colorado to visit friends, my wife and daughter had Thanksgiving with the in-laws and I had to work so was unable to do any turkey day stuff. It was a 24 hour operation that had to be manned constantly. I told my 2 coworkers from the other shifts to take the day off and give me another day in return. I worked 32 hours straight. I couldn't do holiday stuff anyway so I thought they might as well have a good day.

Awww. That was a very generous thing to do for them.

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!!!

Sorry you lost so many at hatch.

But YAY for 19 new little fuzzbutts!

So I was standing in front of the bator, watching the eggs because about half my silkie eggs are shaking it up. My 11yo daughter just walked by and told me to stop being a peeper creeper and cook breakfast.

You just gotta love kids.

Not sure if this qualifies but had to take incubator with to visit my p's and my son accidentally stepped on it and only 2 lavender orps made it but on the way home I plugged in my heat light to van and it blew a fuse so no heat light!!! These little cuties rode on my Lavender sweater under my coat for 7 hours until we made it home and they are doing great now. One of them kept pecking at my skin tag on my neck so I kept having to cover my neck around with my sweater hood, too funny, lucky they are cute!!!!

They are darling! Can't wait till mine hatch!

 

[Whoops]

lol - blasted egglike eggs!

I have cleaned out the storage room, built several things, read, walked dogs, done laundry, cleaned house, visited friends, practiced flyball, hiked, done dishes, but all I really want to do it sit and stare at egglike eggs or read forums about other people staring at eggs behaving like eggs.

I think a part of the obsession is that I am distracting myself from the fact that I just scheduled surgery to remove a old dog bump gone bad on my 13 year old dog. I just hate to put him under anesthesia and I have been dithering about making the call for weeks. But I finally found the resolve to call the vet and schedule the surgery.

 

[bantambury]

the wiggling egg is wigging more.....then it chirped!!!! I may get a 19 day pip!


so what if the chick pips on the side of the egg that is laying down? will it sill be able to pip, or could the chick just reposition its egg?





SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO EXCITED TO HEAR CHIRPING FORM WIGGLES!!! (that's what im naming the chick in that egg) LOL

 

[Myfourladies]

I moved all my eggs into my little giant- day 20 for the two on the end, day 18 for the other 4.
So when I moved the two from my little incubator to the other I felt something on the bottom of the egg.... I have a pip!! But the poor baby is on the wrong end! The baby is still alive right now. I have read the assisted hatch articles, and I know it isn't time now to assist because there is some blood in the pip.... PLEASE baby....fight!

 

[ronott1]

Not sure if this qualifies but had to take incubator with to visit my p's and my son accidentally stepped on it and only 2 lavender orps made it but on the way home I plugged in my heat light to van and it blew a fuse so no heat light!!! These little cuties rode on my Lavender sweater under my coat for 7 hours until we made it home and they are doing great now. One of them kept pecking at my skin tag on my neck so I kept having to cover my neck around with my sweater hood, too funny, lucky they are cute!!!!

Good Job!

They look very nice too.

 

[ronott1]

Good Job!

They look very nice too.

My hatch cam is up!

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/ron-s-hatch-cam

The Genesis is warming up so the eggs are not in yet. They will be in there as soon as the temps and humidity stabilize.