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

[kelseyk]

And to the lady who just found her little rooster friend had been attacked- Im so sorry. Yes, it is almost always our favourites that go first... Why is that? I hope it was just him and than you haven't found more. I always feel so much worse if I lose a hen and don't even realize for. a few days... Im so sorry, I know what its like to have a kid balling her head off because of a coyote attack.
I hope one of the babies looks just like him!

Yes, it was just him. It did try to get one of my RIR or Buckeyes too as there was a whole bunch of red feathers by the door. I now have "yet another" alarm set on my cell phone to tell me to go put the chickens/ducks in "NOW" before it gets dark. I have some motion lights ordered to put up around the chicken yard, 2 live traps, and am planning to put up my husbands game camera so that we know exactly what we are dealing with (Guessing a large raccoon, a fox, or a coyote. We are also going to put some more posts in the fence and stake in between the posts to the ground with 12 inch stakes (once they arrive - ordered with the lights). If need be, I will borrow one of our electric fence chargers that we use to fence corn stalks for our cows over the winter and run an electric fence around the outside of the day pen about 4-6 inches off the ground. So far, out of the 6 silkie eggs, 4 have hatched - 2 white ones, a blue or lavender, and a dark grey. So none that look like him (he was a black silkie), but hoping they all have the best little personalities like the others we have. All the silkies I have hatched from eggs from this ebay seller have just had the cutest little personalities! There are 2 eggs left to hatch - One is still moving around in the egg, but I am wondering if it is malpositioned and the other I think is a late quitter as I don't see any movement and some really dark veins that look like they have leaked. I told my daughter we can order some more if these 2 don't hatch. I will post a pic of them when I take them to the brooder. I am leaving them in the hatcher for encouragement for the chick that hasn't hatched yet.

 

[kelseyk]

Good Morning! I have been reading along all month but now I have a question. We are on Day22. I don't even have a pip : (. We candled on Day 15 and took out the nonfertile eggs. I candled a few yesterday and they definitely are fuller eggs. The brown shells makes things so difficult to make out. What is the latest hatch you've ever had? I don't want to throw the babies out with the bathwater.

Definitely wait until at least day 23. I had some Appenzeller's that I hatched out for the Easter Hatch a long that went late. Out of 6 eggs, 2 hatched on day 21, 2 hatched on day 22, and one hatched on day 23.

 

[kelseyk]

Silkie eggs are hatching! So far 2 white ones, 1 blue or lavender colored one, and one dark grey one. 1 Egg that is still showing movement that has not pipped, and 1 egg that I think quit late. My barnyard mix from my flock is still in the incubator (on day 12)....They are starting to get company. LOL! Set 7 Svart Hona eggs today and have some Gold neck d'Uccles, Gold Appenzeller, and Delawares eggs on the way. (And maybe some more silkies too).

 

[Trisseh]

The first of my 3 ducklings is out! I’m assuming the other 2 will follow tomorrow, since they were almost a full day behind in pipping. But yay! I’ll have to watch that gimpy foot though...

 

[CindyinSD]

Brisnea only added the feature in 2012. Lots and lots of people to this day don't have or use one and hatch successfully. Quitters can occur for myriad reasons. I don't have enough experience to say if the cooler gives better hatch rates. This is my first hatch! plan not to use the coooler on my next hatch so I can start gathering some comparison data.

My daily cooling period happens when I candle the eggs. I think it makes sense, though. Mama hen gets off the nest to eat, drink, poo--once a day, hopefully though I just about have to shove my broody turkey hen off as she tries to pierce a hole through my hand. I make sure my face is inaccessible.

 

[CindyinSD]

Good Morning! I have been reading along all month but now I have a question. We are on Day22. I don't even have a pip : (. We candled on Day 15 and took out the nonfertile eggs. I candled a few yesterday and they definitely are fuller eggs. The brown shells makes things so difficult to make out. What is the latest hatch you've ever had? I don't want to throw the babies out with the bathwater.

That's pretty late. It could be your temps are a bit low (thermometers are more often wrong than right unless you've been able to calibrate them). I would give them another day, maybe two.

To candle eggs at this stage, try to obscure the whole air cell with your hand as you shine your light into it. The air cell lights up so much when you put your light against the broad end of the egg that it becomes nearly impossible to see the border between air cell and chick. That border is what you want to look at. At this late stage of incubation, that's where you will see any movement or healthy, still-absorbing veins.

If you see a dark mass, kind of sloshing around with no bright veins, that egg is dead. If you see a small (usually trangularish) poking into the bright air cell, that egg is internally pipped. Some people call it shadowing into the air cell. If the chick hasn't broken the membrane into the air supply, it will soon.

It can take 24 hours from external pip to zip, so be prepared to wait. And wait...

 

[eastereggerlady]

5 of them are from Meyer hatchery and one I hatched out myself Still waiting on 5 in my incubator! Only one has externally pipped hoping tomorrow morning we will have more pips and one hatched out

 

[Knighstar679]

Here we go at least i think so. I have one egg that is showing shadows on the air cell now. The others look like they are starting their draw down. What do you guys think?

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

Here we go at least i think so. I have one egg that is showing shadows on the air cell now. The others look like they are starting their draw down. What do you guys think?

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Yup, they're coming along.

 

[beth1004]

Today is day 21, over night the 3 Easter Eggers hatched. During the day, 2 silkies hatched and the other 2 are pipped. Hope I wake up tomorrow and find the other 2 silkies hatched. Don‘t have any pics of the 2 silkies yet.