Against the odds hatching thread (with pictures and questions)

[adirondak5]

One less thing to worry about them dying from.

I talked it over with my daughter and we watched some videos on administering the vaccine and figured we could do it . I'll probably order it from Meyers as their price with shipping is not bad . Like you said one less thing to worry about .
Can't wait to see your chickies hatch out .

 

[K0k0shka]

I talked it over with my daughter and we watched some videos on administering the vaccine and figured we could do it . I'll probably order it from Meyers as their price with shipping is not bad . Like you said one less thing to worry about .
Can't wait to see your chickies hatch out .

I ordered the vaccine on Wednesday, and it arrived on Thursday (yesterday). Fast and well packaged. It is a vial though, so not easy to separate... I'll ask them for recommendations on how to do it best. I really do want to save some for re-vaccinating, to get the biggest bang for my buck because otherwise it would be such a waste to throw so much of it out...

 

[aart]

in case it impeded airflow

It will.

and the propellers themselves are some kind of floppy silicone material, so at most they'll bruise, they won't cut.

Then I'd not worry about it...leave it as is.
Hopefully it comes apart for cleaning, cause it will likely get pooped and/or gooped on.

 

[K0k0shka]

Then I'd not worry about it...leave it as is.
Hopefully it comes apart for cleaning, cause it will likely get pooped and/or gooped on.

I’m not very attached to this fan... I got it for this purpose and it was cheap. If it gets too poopy and isn’t easy to clean, I’ll just throw it out... (wasteful, but maybe the plastic can be recycled?)

Now I wonder if it will be flinging poop all over the place if somebody perches on it and poops into the spinning blades... I guess we’ll see the literal meaning of “when the sh** hits the fan”!

 

[K0k0shka]

I'm picturing the perpetrator proudly perched up there looking at the other chicks hatching at that moment: "Welcome to the world, brothers and sisters!" SPLAT in the face

 

[K0k0shka]

On a related note, how do you clean poop from a newly hatched chick? Warm water on a cotton ball? Would I put the chick back in the incubator to dry off after that, or would it be too humid in there for it to dry? I've read about not getting chicks wet because they may get chilled... (especially with the poop fan going).

 

[aart]

On a related note, how do you clean poop from a newly hatched chick? Warm water on a cotton ball? Would I put the chick back in the incubator to dry off after that, or would it be too humid in there for it to dry? I've read about not getting chicks wet because they may get chilled... (especially with the poop fan going).

Case by case basis. Wetting the chick would be last resort.
Have never had to clean poop off a newly hatched chick.
'Hatching gunk' on the other hand can be a challenge, but not a big deal.
Damp cloth is the best bet if it's copious.
Dry toothbrush, or gentle finger tip 'preening', for dried on hatching gunk.

 

[K0k0shka]

Case by case basis. Wetting the chick would be last resort.
Have never had to clean poop off a newly hatched chick.
'Hatching gunk' on the other hand can be a challenge, but not a big deal.
Damp cloth is the best bet if it's copious.
Dry toothbrush, or gentle finger tip 'preening', for dried on hatching gunk.

Toothbrush is a good idea for dry stuff, thanks. Hadn't thought of that.

 

[K0k0shka]

Candling, Day 18

(belated post... that was from a couple days ago)

Things looked good on day 18, or so I think. All the eggs had movement in them, though some were moving more than others. I noticed something very surprising and reassuring - the air cell shapes suddenly looked SO much better!! Compared to day 15! Almost all the weird odd shapes had evened out to actual circles!!!! I almost couldn't believe it. All the hearts and dips and loops are now even, round circles going all around the egg. Well, almost all - there's still one egg with a non-circular air cell. It used to be the most extreme heart shape. And of course, it's one of my last two remaining Partridge Orpingtons, which I really really want to save, so I hope it makes it! (and is a girl!) Even that air cell looks much better though, and a lot less like a heart. Here it is - on the left, day 15, and on the right, same egg on day 18:


You can see the pencil lines, how there used to be a sharp point between the two dips, the sharpest being at the first candling, and over time it has mellowed out into a much gentler curve.

Here are some other improved air cell shapes - you can see the pencil lines showing what they used to look like:




I have a question about what the bottom of the egg is supposed to look like at this point. I only realized on day 18 that the way I'm candling the eggs, placed in a Tylenol bottle to act as a stand, I can't see the pointy end of the egg. So I hadn't been looking at it to check it... and now I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to be seeing there. I've read in some places that by day 18, the pointy end should be completely dark. Well... It is in some of my eggs, but not in others... Some have a lot of "empty" space down there... and there's some kind of clumps floating in there... What are those? Egg waste? Is it normal? Here's what it looks like:




Is it normal that some of them show so much of this space with the clumps, and others don't? There are a couple that show a lot of empty space down there, with very little of the clumping:


The egg in the first picture is on its side because that's one of the local eggs I got from 8 minutes away, from the batch belonging to the incubator owner. Since they don't have any shipping stress, I turned it on its side to candle it better. None of mine have ever been candled on their side or upside down, only fat end up.

All the eggs that have that "empty" space at the bottom were moving inside and looked otherwise okay... What can you guys tell me about that? Should I worry that the chicks aren't filling enough of the egg?

That's my main concern right now. To end on a happy note, here are a couple of last videos:

 

[K0k0shka]

I HAVE AN EXTERNAL PIP!!!!!!!!!



The first egg to pip is one of my shipped eggs!! Wohoo! One of the Lemon Cuckoo Orpingtons. The pip is right in the air cell. I have no idea when it happened, because I hadn’t examined the eggs closely since lockdown, but it’s day 20 so it makes sense. Man, I’m not gonna be able to sleep tonight! The kids wake up first so they’ll be the first to see it if it hatches by morning... not fair