April 2020 Hatch-A-Long! All are welcome!

[Ted_Harrell]

So far, I have hatched 15 out of 2 dozen in my Chinese 56-egg incubator. I will check when I get home to see if I have gotten anymore. Here they go;

 

[gmjarvi]

Going to get a new toy today
Husband said "go get that incubator" and I am NOT going to argue!

 

[BluebirdHomestead]

I think the 1st and 3rd chicks have a good chance and just need to keep the navel area clean and antibiotic ointment on them. I've never tried it but it might be worth using a q-tip to spread antibiotic ointment on the one with the exposed yolk sac as well. If you plan on continuing to hatch as often as you do I would grab a bottle of chlorhexidine. It really is my favorite product for this use and on some of my worrisome or expensive hatches I dab it on each chicks navel as I take them out of the incubator and put them into the brooder. Just as an extra precaution. One bottle will last an eternity. I'm still on my first bottle and I've used maybe 1/8 of it since last year, lol.

The higher temps are more likely to cause the unabsorbed yolk sac and premature sealing of the navel, that's why I asked and I know the IncuView can be finicky with temps. I keep 4 thermometers in mine to adjust for every hatch. The size and number of eggs are what seems to change the temperature so any time you add or remove eggs it's good to double check it after a few hours because this is usually when I see the changes in mine. I had to adjust it 2.5 degrees with the goose eggs.

Yeah I think this was my issue. I had them in our guest room and for some reason that room gets weirdly warm sometimes and the incuview wouldn’t adjust for it so I was constantly fiddling with it. I did my first hatch in our kitchen and had no issues with having to adjust it. So everyone is just going to have to deal with all my incubators in the kitchen for now haha.
I’ll definitely get a bottle of clorahexadine. Sounds like something I should definitely have on hand.

 

[BluebirdHomestead]

Still just 1 pip in the Sky Girl eggs. I’m setting 26 of my own eggs whenever I get my assist babies out of the incubator so either tonight or tomorrow so those will have a hatch day of the 26th or 27th and be BBS Ameraucanas and Olive Eggers. Sky Girl Farms is sending me a dozen eggs for half price. She does that when people get less than %50 hatch rate which is really nice of her. I’m going to go with BCM and OE since it was a hassle for her to collect just the black ameraucanas. And then I’m trading my 3 Birchen Marans cockerels from my March hatch for a dozen hatching eggs from a breeder I know. I’ll be getting BBS Ameraucanas, “Ice Cream Bars” (Silverudds Blue Isbars x Cream Legbars) and OEs.

 

[CindyinSD]

I keep mine in a stable room but what I find frustrating is that the incubators thermostat doesn't adjust when all 4 of the other thermometers show that the temps have indeed changed. It's confusing to me because I felt like if I calibrated it once it should be the same all the time but it differs in almost every hatch. I still love my IncuView, don't get me wrong. It's better than a lot of the other incubators I've used as far as inconsistency goes. But it was pricey to be such a finicky incubator.

Totally agree. I've only had Incuvues, but you are right. They do take a heckuva lot of piddling with until you get them settled.

 

[2102Simm]

Help! So these 2 just hatched. One has toes that wont uncurl and weird white stuff coming out its butt, and what is an unhealed navel?

Chick 2 has a little bit of an unhealed navel? But I was wondering about what was left in the egg again.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Help! So these 2 just hatched. One has toes that wont uncurl and weird white stuff coming out its butt, and what is an unhealed navel? View attachment 2077921View attachment 2077923

Chick 2 has a little bit of an unhealed navel? But I was wondering about what was left in the egg again.View attachment 2077926View attachment 2077927

Egg waste in the egg again, definitely. Looks like small hernias on the two with open navels. Hopefully they will finish absorbing while they dry. As for the chick with curled toes this usually sorts itself out but sometimes you have to make little booties for the chick to keep it's toes straight. Band-aids work well for this but give it some time first. I would also put a vitamin supplement in their water just in case it's vitamin related from the breeding flock.
Were these eggs sourced from the same place as your last hatch?
Do you use a secondary calibrated thermometer in your incubator?

 

[2102Simm]

Here are better pics. I moved them to a quarantine bucket in the brooder with Dos so they can "talk" to each other. Here's crooked toes

And here is my SLW cross baby with the navel issue?

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Here are better pics. I moved them to a quarantine bucket in the brooder with Dos so they can "talk" to each other. Here's crooked toes View attachment 2077989View attachment 2077991
And here is my SLW cross baby with the navel issue?View attachment 2077993

Hernias look even smaller than in your original images. They should seal up just fine I think. Be careful with a "bucket"? In the brooder, it can get quite hot under a heat lamp, especially in a container and they can get overheated easily.

 

[2102Simm]

Were these eggs sourced from the same place as your last hatch?
Do you use a secondary calibrated thermometer in your incubator?

Whew I was worried when I saw that thing in there.

Yes these were the same breeding flock as last time. They're all my birds/ in laws birds that I'm taking care of. Five of the girls are 6 yrs old and the other 6 are all 9 months old.

If I don't have a vitamin supplement can I put apple cider vinegar in their water till I can go to the store tomorrow and get them some?