Don't feel bad. I bought an actual candler from Double R Supply, just a normal one, and I can't see squat in my marans eggs and my EE eggs. I can tell when it is day 18 and they are dark and take up more of the egg and the air cell is getting big, that is all I know. The rest is just set 'n wait.
Well, we had a chick die Sunday night. We left for church at 6:15 pm and everything seemed fine. When we got home around 11:00 one was laying on it's side gone... Don't know what happened or why. There is one more chick that is not growing as fast as the others and walks backwards sometimes. So for now we have 6 chicks.
Stopped turning the remaining 13 eggs ( I know I reported 16 earlier.... I can't count sometimes...) Turned the humidity up and will be waiting to hatch in the next 2 days.
Another one of the White Leghorn chicks (the one that wasn't really growing) died this morning around 3:00 am. So I'm at 5 out of 10 eggs.
The second group of eggs, well,
Let's just hope they pull through. I'm pretty sure what I'm about to explain is a result of not turning them durring the first hatch. 3 pipped (2 of them at the wrong end) yesterday on day 19. I could tell by the position of their beaks that they are in there sideways. I picked a little of the shell away to start them zipping and left them for the night but checked on them every couple of hours to seen no progress at all. There are 2 membranes or maybe just 2 layers of the membrane. The one closer to the shell is white and then there is a clear, stickier one enclosing the chick. I would wet the outer membrane with warm water and it would move around but the inner membrane stayed intact. At 9:00 am today I had removed 1/2 of the shell and the outer membrane on the buff orpington, layed it on a warm wet washcloth in the incubator and then got called into an emergency meeting at work so I had to leave the little guy. He still had the inner membrane all around him except where he had pipped his beak through. I hoped he would be alive when I got home at noon and thankfully he is and looks great, he is up moving around. The yolk sack is completley absorbed.
The other wrong-ended pip is an EE. I went through the same procedure with it when I got home from work (the last 2 hours) and it has just now broken the inner membrane and come out of the other half of the shell. I'm worried about this one. Today is day 20, but it looks very small, and it almost looks like there is an under developed twin in the other half of the shell. I don't want to touch anything at this point because it could be the yolk sack, but is is literally taking up 1/2 of the egg shell. No blood on any of the membrane though. I've taken pictures and will post soon.
Just a little thing I've found helps me to assist the hatch with out opening the bator: I use Shish-ka-bob wooden sticks through the vent hole in the top to chip away shell or membrane and then put warm water in a straw and insert it through the vent holes to moisten the membrane or add warm water to keep humidity up. It's not easy but it works for me. Kind of like using a coat hanger to open a locked car door when you leave your keys inside (which I've done plenty of times!) If I ever build a wooden incubator I'm going to make it with gloves attached in the side like you see on T.V. so I can get my hands in there without opening anything.
There is one more White Leghorn and 2 Barred Rocks pipped right now too. 7 more waiting to pip.
Here are the pictures of the chick I was worried about. It did turn out to be the yolk sack but I have never seen one present like this before. I took several hours to absorb but 2 days later the dried sack is still hanging off chickies hind end. I thought if I put him in with the rest of the chicks it would get pulled off, but not yet. Don't know if I should just snip it off or not.
Update for the rest of the hatch. 2 more hatched yesterday on day 21 seem to be doing well, one barred rock looks smaller than the others though. We will watch him.
9 live chicks out of 18 eggs sent from Leghorn Dude so far, 4 more are still in the bator hoping something will still pip.
hmmm looks like a barred rock but a little smaller well i did get one out of the last batch that looks like a cuckoo leghorn could be #2 now i just need to figure out which birds together are creating this
definatly want to see pics of that one in a few months
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The chick in the picture above hatched out of one of the green eggs Leghorn Dude. Only one of the 3 you sent that hatched. The dried yolk sack finally fell off by itself.
Another chick from one of the dark brown, sort of speckled eggs was real small too. I found it upside down in the water bowl this am. ( I have a small custard dish filled with glass marbles as a waterer cause my ice chest brooder is small) He was soaking wet but still alive so I took him in the bathroom and dried him with the blow dryer then held him for awhile then set him back in the brooder. When I got home today he looks GREAT!! Nice and fluffy, eating & drinking, running around like the others.
