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

[abpatchy]

Since last night I have chicks hatching. I have no idea how many so far... because I can't see them well enough. There are some eggs up front that still need hatching. They got until tomorrow morning... that's when I pack them all to get their mareks shot. Today is day 21.
Sad to say, these will be my last ones for this year. But on the other hand.. if all ot the 27 hatch, I'll have 89 chicks ... that's enough! There will be more next year

 

[MelissaRose]

I candled my quail egg last night. It is definitely the only one alive

I couldn't really see movement though. Should it be moving a lot? Yesterday was day 10. I did see what looked like a heartbeat, in one place. But other than that not really any signs of movement. I also cant see an outline of a chick. There are some veins, and a darker spot but I don't really think its an eye. It also got darker around the area with veins and so its harder to see and I can't really see the embryo...
I know its really hard to candle quail eggs, but does this sound normal?

 

[Minky]

Melissa- I have zero experience with quail eggs, sorry. Im sure someone will be able to pipe in with more experience.


You can get your chicks marek shots? Can you tell me more?

 

[LulusLayers]

Ok I need HELP! Here is the link to my notes, but something wonky is going on. Several of my eggs seemed to have gained weight. I THOUGHT my incubator temp was accurate, I checked it with 2 thermometers the first day and all looked good, but today I put 4 probes in between 2 different temperature readers and left them awhile, and they all came up with my incubator as being at 89 degrees! 10 degrees too low.

I'm on day 10, and some of the eggs I'm still struggling to see through the shell, but most of the silkie eggs which are white still look viable and alive with good veins. I upped the temp 5 degrees for now, I don't want to shock them. Not sure what to do or if I will have surviving chicks. Advice please!

 

[Phillyndilly]

Everyone how long before assist if externally pipped?

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Everyone how long before assist if externally pipped?

I usually wait to assist until I'm down to any remaining stragglers in the incubator. This is a good gauge for me personally, plus basing my decision on what I'm seeing. Some chicks just take their time. It can be up to 24 hours from internal pip to external pip and another 24 hours from external pip to zip. So in examples where you see an external pip but say the chick is pipped in the wrong end of the egg or if it's below the air cell, this is both the internal and external pip in one go so you may see the external pip twice as long as what you normally would. If you haven't already read them, these are both great articles to read on assisted hatches before stepping in.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/step-by-step-guide-to-assisted-hatching.64660/

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/guide-to-assisted-hatching-for-all-poultry.72886/

 

[CluckNDoodle]

I candled my quail egg last night. It is definitely the only one alive

I couldn't really see movement though. Should it be moving a lot? Yesterday was day 10. I did see what looked like a heartbeat, in one place. But other than that not really any signs of movement. I also cant see an outline of a chick. There are some veins, and a darker spot but I don't really think its an eye. It also got darker around the area with veins and so its harder to see and I can't really see the embryo...
I know its really hard to candle quail eggs, but does this sound normal?

As the chick gets larger it becomes harder to make out parts. Quail can be very difficult to candle because of the large speckles on them. I didn't really candle mine much beyond discarding blatantly clear eggs so don't give up!

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Ok I need HELP! Here is the link to my notes, but something wonky is going on. Several of my eggs seemed to have gained weight. I THOUGHT my incubator temp was accurate, I checked it with 2 thermometers the first day and all looked good, but today I put 4 probes in between 2 different temperature readers and left them awhile, and they all came up with my incubator as being at 89 degrees! 10 degrees too low.

I'm on day 10, and some of the eggs I'm still struggling to see through the shell, but most of the silkie eggs which are white still look viable and alive with good veins. I upped the temp 5 degrees for now, I don't want to shock them. Not sure what to do or if I will have surviving chicks. Advice please!

Are any of your thermometers calibrated? You may want to calibrate a meat thermometer to check against any digital ones before relying on the others just to be sure.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...incubator-thermometers-and-hygrometers.73634/

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Ok I need HELP! Here is the link to my notes, but something wonky is going on. Several of my eggs seemed to have gained weight. I THOUGHT my incubator temp was accurate, I checked it with 2 thermometers the first day and all looked good, but today I put 4 probes in between 2 different temperature readers and left them awhile, and they all came up with my incubator as being at 89 degrees! 10 degrees too low.

I'm on day 10, and some of the eggs I'm still struggling to see through the shell, but most of the silkie eggs which are white still look viable and alive with good veins. I upped the temp 5 degrees for now, I don't want to shock them. Not sure what to do or if I will have surviving chicks. Advice please!

As far as them gaining weight that seems very odd to me. I haven't made a habit of weighing my eggs but when I did they all steadily lost weight. Could you have written down the wrong initial weight or something off on your scale? I know you can change the weight measurements on my scale, maybe you accidentally bumped that and it's actually on a different unit of measurement?

 

[kelseyk]

Mind if I hop on the HAL? I didn't know there was an April HAL until a week or so ago. I was going to try and play catch up before posting, but I am only on page 20 and the Easter HAL is almost over. I currently have Appenzellar, Copper Marans, and Bielefelder eggs in the hatcher for the Easter HAL; Sapphire Gem eggs set to hatch on the 18th; Silkie eggs set to hatch on the 21st; and some Barnyard crosses from my own flock set to hatch on the 30th.