We had a small hatch of misc chicks .... about a 50% hatch rate .... let the homemade incubator go to day 25 and then shut it down ....it sat in an extra room for a day before I went to dispose of the unhatched eggs and give it a good clean.
Well I decided candle/open any unhatched ones to see what was going on I went through a few and then I picked one up with a hole in the bottom .... and a tiny beak right there ... sad I thought ya know he almost made it ... then the beak moved a little .... mind you the temp in the cooler was 61°f ..... so I removed him from the egg and membrane and held him(her?) under the heat lamp until the temp in the cooler came up to 100° then set him in there to cook! .... 24 hours later and hes still doing pretty good I guess ... acting like any other just hatched chick. There was a bit of yolk on his butt - looked like cooked yolk but that seems to be mostly gone now.
Giving it some thought I probably should have re warmed him shell and all , not sure though would he have had enough energy to hatch the rest of the way on his own after that?
Boy somebody looks tired huh -
Well I decided candle/open any unhatched ones to see what was going on I went through a few and then I picked one up with a hole in the bottom .... and a tiny beak right there ... sad I thought ya know he almost made it ... then the beak moved a little .... mind you the temp in the cooler was 61°f ..... so I removed him from the egg and membrane and held him(her?) under the heat lamp until the temp in the cooler came up to 100° then set him in there to cook! .... 24 hours later and hes still doing pretty good I guess ... acting like any other just hatched chick. There was a bit of yolk on his butt - looked like cooked yolk but that seems to be mostly gone now.
Giving it some thought I probably should have re warmed him shell and all , not sure though would he have had enough energy to hatch the rest of the way on his own after that?
Boy somebody looks tired huh -
Last edited:
