APRIL FOOLS HATCH, give or take a day.....who's in ??

[MobyQuail]

6 hatched, and 6 of 8 remaining, are pipped. yippee kai-yeah!

 

[chickpeaz]

Quote:
HURRAH! My one "pip" started around 4:15pm and now at 10:26 I can see his beak and hear him better! None of the others yet but at least we are getting some action!

So glad you have one too!!

YAY fife! I'm glad you've joined in too.

Egg #1 has made ZERO progress. Still just a few flakes of shell off, and there is a hole in the membrane but no zipping action. It's been 21 hours. I'll give it to 24 hours and then I'm going to start helping (which I've never had to do before). I have two more pipped, I can hear peeping -- but I'm really worried about #1.

 

[Coexcharlie]

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I agree! still not sure about the rest.... I had 41 eggs in the bator and 3 have actually hatched now. I hope some more start pippin soon. gettin worried

 

[txmel]

hatching duck eggs due on the 28th! will be my second attempt 1st try had 2 pip then die so... fingers crossed this time is a lot better

 

[fifelakelooper]

Chickpeaz I think I'd be a little worried too about #1. I have read that after "pipping" it usually hatches 15-24 hours. In fact..I read that a good hatch will all be done in 24 hours...However....from everyones postings it doesn't sound true. I have a 2nd pip now.....the first chick has rolled over that egg but it seems to right itself so the hole is near the top.
I get my 2nd bunch of eggs next Thursday and my last hatch will be first of May.
Hope everybodies hatch dreams come true today...speaking of which..I had a nightmare last night. Dreamed my one chick was so dehyrated from staying in the incubator that it looked like a pipe cleaner! I was upset and sprinkled it with water and it poofed back like a dehyrated mushroom and came back to life! Thus...I got up at 5am this morning to go check!

 

[chickpeaz]

I started helping the little BCM that was getting nowhere. I've pulled the shell away about halfway around the egg (like a zip) and the membrane underneath is just soooo thick and completely dry and white. I'm dampening it periodically, chipping away tiny bits more shell, and I have the whole egg sitting atop a damp paper towel in the bator in between surgery attempts. I don't want to go too fast -- I haven't seen any blood but I also don't want to get ahead of myself or her, so I figure if it takes a few hours it's better than going too rapidly and pulling her out before she's ready.

Baby cheeps frantically whenever I pick up the egg and talk to it, so I think she wants out!!

I also unplugged the 'bator fan. It really seemed like it was speeding up the drying process (it's a pretty strong fan) so I'm going to watch the temp and humidity carefully -- I can always plug it back in if something spikes or plunges suddenly, but I really think it's making things too dry in there. I've got two others that have pipped and 14 more that haven't done anything yet -- I need to do everything I can to maximize success at this point.

This is by far my most nerve-wracking, nail-biting hatch yet. Don't let anybody tell you newbies that it gets easier -- just when you think you have it all figured out, everything goes wonky and you're back to square one.

 

[fifelakelooper]

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Do you put in the "wet sponge" like I read other people do? Seems like that would help with the humidity?

 

[chickpeaz]

Yes, I have two wet sponges and two wet paper towels (I took out the water container at lockdown -- I worry about them falling into it and drowning so I just use sponges from lockdown on). I ended up having to plug the fan back in because the temp spiked up to 102*.

She's about 2/3 of the way unzipped now...

 

[jettgirl24]

Day 19! So close yet soooo far

Three of 6 eggs went into lockdown last night and temps/ humidity are doing good. Im a little disappointed in my fertility (2/6 infertile) but he's a young too with quite a few hens so im cutting him some slack

I finally worked up the nerve to crack the third egg and it was a very early quitter. The egg was mostly yolk with a tiny little mass of chick kind of fused to the shell. Not sure what happened but I'm confident it wasn't anything with my incubator conditions since the other fertile eggs developed just fine. Here's hoping for a strong hatch in the next few days!

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

I have 47 eggs due in April!!

I have 3 or 4 B/B/S Orpington Project, or "Test" eggs due on the 6th, and 6 of my Buff Orpington eggs due on the 6th as well.

14 Lavender Bantam Ameraucanas, and 6 B/B/S Ameraucana Bantam eggs due on the 7th.

Then I have 10 Olive Egger eggs due 12th or 13th.

And last but not least 5 LF White Ameraucana eggs due on the 14th.


I think I have all my dates right, but I'm not sure on the OE and the White AM eggs.