April Hatch Along

[Kyanite]

Where's the pics??

Haha. Ok, I must oblige with a pic of the tide me over until my hatch chicks.

 

[WVduckchick]

So we candled in place this evening. Five eggs taken out. Three clears and two blood rings. All three of the Wyandotte eggs came out and two of the Barred Plymouth Rocks. That leaves all of my Sussex still in the mix. (Woot)

There were a couple I was unsure about so I left them in and will check again in 3-5 days. I've gone over candling pics a bunch of times, but still not really sure what I'm looking at.

Feeling cautiously optimistic.

Bummer on the ones you removed.
As far as candling, early on, it can be questionable, but by about day 10, it will be obvious if they are growing or not. (As long as you can see into the shell) Be sure to candle in thru the air cell, that's where you will see the most details. You can candle all around, but especially from the air cell end. When in doubt, leave it in.

 

[Calichicken2015]

I just checked on her, she was helping the farm store chick to preen her brand new wing feathers! Yes, it has indeed been yet another up and down day. I think I prefer plain old boring days from now on!!
I know what to look for now - she was behaving a little oddly right after she hatched - keeping her eyes closed a lot more than normal. I can hopefully preempt this type of thing if it happens again!

YAY!!!

So happy to hear it!!! Here's to plain ole boring days for you here on out!!!! Hatching is an adventure for sure!!!

 

[WVduckchick]

So I was a little worried about some eggs that had internally pipped, but hadn't externally. So I put a safe hole in one (somewhat experimenting), and left the others. A few hours later, a couple more had pipped. These slow ones just so happen to be older eggs, so maybe that's why they have been slower. The safe hole one hadn't done anything, so I opened the air cell end and cleared its head and lubed up the membrane. Well I'll be darned, it started rotating without the end on the egg! Usually they just flop out when they are ready. I worried, but watched patiently, while it rotated like it was zipping! It was actually pretty neat! It's out, and fine. #13!

 

[mich9510]

Question about "stargazing". I've never heard of it until just now but I had two chicks in my last hatch do it. I didn't know what was going on. I knew it wasn't normal....
I give all my hatches rooster booster and some sugar in their water. Did that fix It? It only lasted a few hours and they are 2 weeks old now and doing fine. The one chick looked up so much she kept rolling on to her back.
What causes stargazing?

 

[Kyanite]

So we candled in place this evening. Five eggs taken out. Three clears and two blood rings. All three of the Wyandotte eggs came out and two of the Barred Plymouth Rocks. That leaves all of my Sussex still in the mix. (Woot)

There were a couple I was unsure about so I left them in and will check again in 3-5 days. I've gone over candling pics a bunch of times, but still not really sure what I'm looking at.

Feeling cautiously optimistic.

Bummer having to pull that many. I feel you on going over candling pics though. I Google then like crazy hoping I'm doing things right and seeing what I'm supposed to.

I'm at day 7. Just candled and everything pretty much just looks like a dark blob on one side. I built a makeshift brighter candler for my marans eggs, and it combined with my old candler at the same time lets me also see blobs in them... kinda. LOL

I'll post a pic of my creation when I'm not posting from bed. Teehee

 

[Jennrz]

What day are you on with your eggs?

We are on day 7. Most had definite vein-ing. Others had some but were harder to tell....darker shells? The very obvious clears, I pulled out. We cracked them open and I dont even think they were fertilized.

 

[melnjerm]

My Sage Eggers hatched on the 6th! Being CL over Welsummer, I THINK I have 6 pullets and a cockerel. What do you think?

The possible boy is in the front in this pic.

 

[melnjerm]

I also did my 2nd candling on the CL's and the Polish, Pulled 2 Polish, 1 quitter and 1 clear, and 11 of the CL's, 3 blood rings and 8 clears. I swear, that lady must not bother to check her fertility! This is the 2nd clutch I've gotten from her, and the 1st only had 3 with any development at all, out of 18 eggs!! Now she's selling on ebay as well!

 

[orrpeople]

Question about "stargazing". I've never heard of it until just now but I had two chicks in my last hatch do it. I didn't know what was going on. I knew it wasn't normal....
I give all my hatches rooster booster and some sugar in their water. Did that fix It? It only lasted a few hours and they are 2 weeks old now and doing fine. The one chick looked up so much she kept rolling on to her back.
What causes stargazing?

It's a vitamin deficiency - E and Thiamine (which is one of the B vites) and some think selenium possibly? There were a lot of varying opinions on the topic when I researched. Some think it's hereditary, or that it comes from a deficiency in the hen who produced the egg, or that certain medicated feeds block vitamin absorption... leave it to the web to really be confusing and all over the place as far as causes go... but, they all agree it's vitamin related, so a straight dose of vitamins is the antidote. (Oh, there is also a general consensus that shipped chicks suffer from it more often because of the stress (and lack of good nutrients during shipping.)
I have always used vitamins in my waterers for my new chicks, but sometimes the severity of the deficiency calls for a more direct approach. And as wvduckchick said, severe cases often do not recover - and I was so grateful to have her depth of experience here, at my fingertips when it all happened.
This chick exhibited the early signs right from the get-go, only, I had never encountered it, so I just thought she was an extra sleepy chick. I wonder if all the trauma the eggs in that shipment went through played a part? It truly was miraculous that she and her brother hatched at all... so perhaps. (I don't feel particularly inclined to do a study on the topic.)
Hope that muddies the water for you a bit more.