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

[Fatimetta]

I say "meh" on them being in 40 degrees for an hour. I've set eggs that were laid when it was in the 30's in my coop, and they hatched fine.

Your temps and humidity seem fine. Did you have your turner in from day 1? "They" claim the most important days to turn are the first 7 (although I've had shipped eggs with detached air sacks I had to incubate upright with no turning for 7 days, and they turned out fine). Also, if your turner is an upright, it's always pointy side down, air pocket up.

I didn't have my turner in until today because I had an extra egg in there since it only holds 7 and the breeder gave me 8. I had been hand turning them 3x a day though. My turner is just on its side and rotates. Thank you for your help!

I agree the temps may have done something, but also, they may have been already developed and then sat in the cold. I think there’s things to temperature fluctuations in storage.

also, even local pickup eggs are sometimes like shipped eggs. While not like shipping across the country, it’s still transportation, and it still can mess things up.

lastly, it could be nutrition of tbe parent flock....


a lot of things out of your control. I’d lean much more to something out of your control with a Brinsea and calibrated measurement tools.

Thank you! I'm glad it's hopefully not something I did... I have been monitoring the temps and humidity like crazy... I would feel terrible if it was me.

 

[jolenesdad]

Candled all 12 eggs - day 12

6 from the incubator
1 marans egg that is either an early quitter or non fertile
5 good to go

6 eggs I brought in yesterday from the broody that was sitting on the wrong eggs and were cold to the touch:

ALL bouncing and active!

11/12 good to go!

 

[jolenesdad]

Hello please i need help in my help my baby chick is dying post.
This chick is having gasping breathing last night and today. I inspected more and the navel maybe is infected is there anything I can do ?
I’ve been doing save a chick dropper tiny drops to the side of the beak it’s not taking it as much as it was last night. Seems to be rapidly declining

Yes antibiotic ointment (no pain relief) and that can be fine.

is it a gasp or pant?

 

[elizabethu42]

so far we have one duckling with 4 others pipped. I still have an egg that pipped over 50 hours ago that’s still lively but i think it’s having trouble. should i assist hatch and if so can i have tips as i’ve never assisted before

 

[SongBird1798]

After hand turning, would it be a bad idea to set the eggs up in an egg carton? For lockdown

 

[blackandtan]

So it’s the end of day 21, I have 7 bouncing chicks and 6 eggs left. I candled cause I couldn’t help myself, I see drawn down air cells in all but nothing else, these shells are so dark. I don’t hear anything. How long should I wait? I don’t want to kill chicks that only needed a few more hours...

 

[FluffyBottomBantams]

Hello i made a seperate thread on this but got no responses so I decided to post here I joined the hatch-along earlier this week and my chicks were due to hatch this Sunday or Monday but upon opening the incubator this evening to place them into lockdown wouldn’t you know it a NH chick had already externally pipped..we panicked and shut it immediately but then decided to open it again to detach the turner and take out the partition between that row of eggs and another row. The humidity is the same it’s always been..43-50 % (our hydrometers are crap so it’s pretty random) now I know that’s a bit low for hatching so should we risk opening the incubator again to add more humidity. If so how should I do that? I have a janoel 12 incubator and for that you just pour water in the bottom of the incubator and hope for the best I’m sorry this is already so long but I’m worried that I just shrink wrapped this chick. Our hatch is quite staggered so this egg and another egg were supposed to hatch on Monday I believe. Any info or advice would be greatly appreciated, I know I didn’t ask a particular question...stay safe everyone!

-FluffyBottomBantams
(Currently spazzing a bit)

Hello again! The chick in question hatched great and is running around currently, I also had a d’Uccle hatch this morning...Her toes are rather curled in and she sits on her hocks rather than stand up on her feet. I did some research and it seems a boot or a “chicken sandal’’ is in order. But because she isn’t actually standing, should I do something to fix that as well or will that fix itself when the toes are fixed?(side question, their motor control isn’t great yet so they don’t have water in their dish because I don’t want them falling in it..how long can they go before they need to drink?)

 

[CindyinSD]

Put pebbles/marbles/etc. in their water dish to keep them from drowning. You probably won't need them more than 2-3 days. They're already fluffed, right? Once they get fluffy they're usually no longer lurching around.

Technically they can go 3 days w/o food or drink since they've just absorbed the yolk sac. IMO, it's nice to not make them wait that long but it probably doesn't matter. Once they do eat/drink, after that they need it. This last is what I've been told. Not sure whether it's true--I haven't tested it and it doesn seem to make sense to me but idk.

I have not had a curly-toe one yet, but people here often say they often heal on their own in a day. If not, then apply boots and, if needed, hobbles. I do not like vet wrap. I've found it to be too stiff. Scotch tape (split in two) has worked for me. It doesn't stay on well, but my luck has been that by the time it comes off (about a day), it's no longer needed. If you do the hobbles, make sure to give the chick a wide enough stance. If you shackle the legs too close together, it will not be able to walk, and will not help. I try for the body's width (incl fluff).

 

[FluffyBottomBantams]

They’re almost all the way fluffy but don’t quite have their sea legs so I think I’ll wait until tmr to give them water.
I’ve never heard of hobbles...I’ll have to do some googling. How on earth do you manage to get those little tiny toes in the tape? Do you tape the toes straight? Thanks CindyinSD for your help I’m sorry I have so many questions!

 

[KateGoad]

One baby dinosaur, one pipped, waiting on 9 more.