Adventures in Incubating Shipped Eggs

[Colly1470]

Great news! Tiny found its legs! It still sits back on its butt quite a bit, but it's up and walking now! Eating and drinking on its own. I'll try to get a better picture once we're all more awake.

Fantastic!!!

 

[Ursuline Chick]

Okay! It took a collaboration of camera and flashlight, but; may I introduce to you, #1 of 13 potentials.

View attachment 1397722

Sweet little blonde baby

 

[Ursuline Chick]

FULL HATCH!!!
Well, 6 of 7 eggs actually; but I didn't really think the suspected quitter egg was going to hatch. I'll candle it again today and then open it up to see what's inside. Last night 2 D'uccles had hatched and everyone else (excluding quitter egg) had external pips! I'd been fretting over the quiet Cochin so feeling pips on all the eggs was a relief. This morning everyone was out of their shells and drying off! The Cochin egg with the saddle air sac had hatched, no sign of problems when I examined the membrane and shell after hatch. I haven't seen all the chicks yet, but mama hen let me grope around under her and I'm pretty sure I touched all the babies. They ran away from me so I'd say the chicks are all doing fine post hatch.

 

[Colly1470]

I'm starting to think that day the power went out and I sat in the hot car with the eggs may have set them back a bit. Only 1 more hour of day 28 and still no sounds to let me know they've poked into the air cell. They're still wiggling though, so they're alive.

 

[Ursuline Chick]

Day 28 officially started about an hour ago, so I'll hopefully be hearing some tapping/peeping very soon.

I'm trying to not spend the whole day sitting next to the incubator haha.

Hey, I spent the whole day in the chicken coop with only an old holey t shirt on, so I don't think anyone could fault you if you spend a lot of today near the incubator!!

 

[Ursuline Chick]

Great news! Tiny found its legs! It still sits back on its butt quite a bit, but it's up and walking now! Eating and drinking on its own. I'll try to get a better picture once we're all more awake.

That's all tiny needed was love and time to exercise those legs and you gave it to him. Congrats to you both!!

 

[WVduckchick]

I appreciate how much you know, and love learning from highly experienced BYCers. How will an underdeveloped CAM affect the hatch, and what can be done about it at this point?
-Cerise

Sorry, I've been absent. From what I've seen, if it doesn't develop properly, they usually fail to hatch. If they do hatch, they are usually very sticky from the goo that didn't get absorbed into the network. I think only being on day 10 (or they were at the time) there is still time for it to fill in.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorioallantoic_membrane

On the 10th day right now.

How are they looking now?

Been trying to figure out what could have gone wrong with the eggs, to have ten of them quit in the last three days. Everywhere I look, I come to three primary variables - temperature, low humidity, and the health of the birds the eggs came from. I know I had one temperature spike up to 101 F. on day 18, when I adjusted the incubator for lock-down, but that doesn't appear major enough to have been responsible. Humidity fluctuated between 40% and 50% during the entire incubation, but if anything that's high, rather than low. I don't rule out that I may have done something to cause the die-off, but what I keep coming back to is the three eggs I culled early on that appeared to have bacteria inside them at lay. That's a good indication of poor health in the parent stock, at least to me. So I'm tempted to order some eggs from someone that I know has healthy birds, and see how they fare.

Glad Tiny is improving. Don't forget about the possibility of lethal genes in seramas.

 

[chantels1]

Just caught up on this thread. I am so nervous about the eggs I purchased. They are shipping this week from the other side of the country! 2 separate breeders. 1 express from Florida. The 2nd is Priority from Mississippi. To California!!! I am reading everyone's posts and trying to determine what is the best approach to take. I am thinking I will take an individual egg approach. If the air cells are good, I will lay on sides and hand turn. If they are detached, I will put in a carton and withhold turning for 1-2 days. Turning is so vital, it is risky not to turn them. I am thinking the tilt method for those eggs. I know I have taken a big risk with the huge distance these eggs will travel! Hoping they do not freeze on the plane. That's an 8 hour flight! Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Zinjifrah]

Group photo, blurry due to a crappy camera, but it shows what's important (Excuse the goop on #3's head - it had a little blood on it from hatching, and I don't want to try and soak it off. It's coming off on its own, and the other two don't bother it.) Tiny's running around, coming off the heat pad to eat and drink, falling over and getting back up to run around again. Just like a two-day-old chick should. It's a little stiff on its legs, but they're working! The photo doesn't show it well enough, but it has white eyebrows.

I just weighed.
#1 (Yellow chick in the middle) is 20 grams.
#2 (Tiny, on the right) is 13 grams.
#3 (White chick on the left) is 21 grams.

 

[Colly1470]

Group photo, blurry due to a crappy camera, but it shows what's important (Excuse the goop on #3's head - it had a little blood on it from hatching, and I don't want to try and soak it off. It's coming off on its own, and the other two don't bother it.) Tiny's running around, coming off the heat pad to eat and drink, falling over and getting back up to run around again. Just like a two-day-old chick should. It's a little stiff on its legs, but they're working! The photo doesn't show it well enough, but it has white eyebrows.

I just weighed.
#1 (Yellow chick in the middle) is 20 grams.
#2 (Tiny, on the right) is 13 grams.
#3 (White chick on the left) is 21 grams.

View attachment 1400047

So glad to hear Tiny is doing so much better! All 3 are adorable.

There's nothing like fluffy babies.