Any hope for the anxious novice?

[Peskypigeon]

Some better pictures! Upon further inspection, Kazuko is most definitely a type of silver. Not sure how light or dark, or boy or girl, but..!

 

[Stino12]

Holy balls they are small!!!

 

[Peskypigeon]

One last comment before my summary oI still have two eggs in the incubator. Yesterday, I pulled two out that had very big airsacs I assumed were underdeveloped. Unfortunately, they had developed, but had stopped absorbing their eggssc. Fully grown, fully feathered. Little black one and another black backed (Like Hitoko).

the two remaining eggs are on day 22- one is too dark to see ANYTHING, the other, I can just barely makeouta healthy-looking airsac. Neither pipped externally, and of course I have no idea about internal. Do you suppose they’re just late deaths?

(Hitoko and Kazuko are doing great. Getting more alert, playful, and curious every day. 3 days old!)

 

[Peskypigeon]

AH! The woman who initially sold me the second batch is trying to offer me a discount on more already! I shouldn’t try for a better hatchrate already... right? Kazuko and Hitoko are just 6 days old and I can start to see signs of pin feathers. Hitoko is even making a little “hee-hee” Noise!

Final Synopsis
Out of 30 (two batches, one 9 and second 21), 2 babies made it. The 9 batch was cooked by a cheap incubator early on for 7 days, and they didn’t grow much if at all. Second batch was in The bad incubator for two days. The second batch was more scattered with quitting.

Many that developed died around day 10-12, but I’m not sure the issue. I didn’t have a hygrometer at the time, perhaps it was humidity. 6 initially made it to lockdown, but two didn’t completely absorb their yolksack and perished. They had large airsacs as well.

things to note:

• I’m at higher elevation (5,345), these eggs came from lower (413)
• No hygrometer or temperature gauge for the initial incubation (hygrometer for lockdown on second batch)
• Batches one week in age apart together
• One batch from farm, one batch from ebay. Both shipped. One from conneticut, second from pennsylvania
• Temperature was kept at 99-100, humidity was around ~60-70 at first, raised to 81-83 for 5(?) days under hygrometer.
• The two that hatched have no issues and are as healthy as if I hatched all of them.
  

 

[lu bantam chickens]

I would go for it try some more they would like more friends

 

[JaeG]

Honestly, your issues could all be down to the shipping of the eggs and not be anything that you've done. I've had some awful experiences with shipped eggs. Button eggs are so tiny it wouldn't take much of a bump to damage them internally, preventing them from developing properly. I've had chicken eggs shipped and despite them getting to me overnight, when I candled them before incubation my heart sank because in many of them the yolk was not where it should have been sitting so I was sure the chalazae was broken.

Hopefully your two gorgeous survivors will turn out to be a pair whose eggs you can incubate yourself. They are happiest as pairs, but can also be kept as all boy or all girl groups (mixed groups tend to have more issues unless given a lot of space.

 

[Peskypigeon]

Brief update: Hitoko is unbelievably human-friendly! This is particularly interesting because starting day six, Kazuko began refusing me and actively crying and trying to run even while I held her, despite being given the same amount of attention as Hitoko.

Hitoko, on the other hand, has behaved just as you would expect being held and pet every day. In fact- he typically prefers my hand to his sister!

seeing his feathers, I am fairly certain he is a tuxedo. Oh well~ I want more color variants, selfishly...

 

[JaeG]

Hitoko is adorable, and that is unusual that he's so calm and friendly. Usually, as you've found with Kazuko, then turn quite wild around the 1 week mark. They can jump amazingly well early on so make sure you have a good cover on your brooder.