April Hatch Along

[rookhomestead]

He's convinced were going to save the twin ducklings from their eggshell prison, I'm kinda thinking I'd be happy to save one of them.

 

[slantrhymes]

I..I have a pip! She's talking to me! She is, however, malpositioned (shipped eggs, abandonment by broody...I was expecting this). The membrane still looks moist and she's moving and peeping up a storm, so I'm...umm... some people say to just observe for a while? Should I do that? I don't want to intervene too early and hurt my first ever baby!

 

[WVduckchick]

Yeah, I'm leaning towards waiting a bit.  My 9 year old daughter is taking on this project with me.  Hopefully I can hold her off an extra couple of days.  

I'm finding this process so fraught with a strange mix of excitement and anxiety....  :/   

Why not day 7 and 10?

I used to candle almost daily. Till I had so many going, it actually got tiring! Lol

Well I love that this thread has taken off so well. Thank you to everyone for answering questions and keeping up. I will catch up soon. I wanted to update that this morning I decided to candle everything and I'm glad I did. I had an oozer. I ended up tossing 24 eggs! I wasn't going to risk my other eggs. I have 74 left. 12 are still ??? and separate from the good eggs. 50 look really good. 12 more are Marans and are probably fine.

I'm done candling unless a stink arrives. 11 days til lockdown.

Good reason to candle often - stinkers! Ugh. Glad you caught it.

Oh, and a bunch of us hopped over from a March thread. Thanks for having us

Groovy... Haha stupid auto correct, BROODY

I hear Silkies are the grooviest. 

Sillies are the stupidest.

I thought about sillies, but my birdies are free range. I think I read sillies don't do so good in rain and cold. I've got enough to worry about without that too!! Oh my, sillies hahahaha.

please don't start proof reading. This is awesome!

Oh my. We have a baby Bielefelder and it's a girl!!! When I think about the poor condition of the packaging, the terrible air cells, how they traveled half way across the country, and how they really all just looked like a terrible mess at the first candling (I really scored myself a zero hatch rate and kept three in the bator on the slimmest chance those awful blood ring looking veins might produce something) this little baby is a huge miracle!!

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[WVduckchick]

I..I have a pip! She's talking to me! She is, however, malpositioned (shipped eggs, abandonment by broody...I was expecting this). The membrane still looks moist and she's moving and peeping up a storm, so I'm...umm... some people say to just observe for a while? Should I do that? I don't want to intervene too early and hurt my first ever baby!

Give her some time. Watch the membrane for browning. It should stay paper white to wet grayish. Not tan or brown.

And remember, since she didn't use the air cell, she may take longer. Patience is tough, but trust me, you don't want her out of there before that yolk is absorbed.

 

[orrpeople]

I..I have a pip! She's talking to me! She is, however, malpositioned (shipped eggs, abandonment by broody...I was expecting this). The membrane still looks moist and she's moving and peeping up a storm, so I'm...umm... some people say to just observe for a while? Should I do that? I don't want to intervene too early and hurt my first ever baby!

They can be "in the pip" for a llooonnnggg time and as long as it has air and god membrane, it's fine.

Give her some time. Watch the membrane for browning. It should stay paper white to wet grayish. Not tan or brown.

And remember, since she didn't use the air cell, she may take longer. Patience is tough, but trust me, you don't want her out of there before that yolk is absorbed.

X2!! Yeah, that was a lesson I learned the hard way. Totally makes sense that with a malpo there's no internal pip and then the wait time for the external - so they have much more yolk and vein absorbing to do!!

 

[slantrhymes]

Give her some time. Watch the membrane for browning. It should stay paper white to wet grayish. Not tan or brown.

And remember, since she didn't use the air cell, she may take longer. Patience is tough, but trust me, you don't want her out of there before that yolk is absorbed.

Thank you. I've been reading the Assisted Hatching 101 in here over and over for most of the hatch (again, I expected this). She's clearly breathing air, hence the peeping. There was no pip this morning when I went to work so she's been out 8 hours maximum. Fingers crossed for this baby...a Blue Andalusian! Hopefully!

 

[slantrhymes]

They can be "in the pip" for a llooonnnggg time and as long as it has air and god membrane, it's fine.
X2!! Yeah, that was a lesson I learned the hard way. Totally makes sense that with a malpo there's no internal pip and then the wait time for the external - so they have much more yolk and vein absorbing to do!!

Thanks so much. I'm trying not to panic, as she made good-sized pip on her own and is pretty noisy about coming into the world. Not bad for a chickie who came from Ohio all the way to California!

 

[WVduckchick]

Ok, I need votes....

I loaded my bator about 48 hours ago with Serama and SDW OEGB eggs. Today, I sold a couple of Serama cockerels, and the guy gave me 4 eggs from his girls. I definitely want to set these eggs, but I don't have space for them.

My choices:
1. Toss 4 eggs that are already set, and put these 4 in.
2. Wait a couple days to be able to check development on the current ones, pull any clears, and add these 4.
3. Put these 4 in the other incubator until I pull clears from the full one.

I don't really want to fire up the other bator, but I guess for a few days, that's probably my best option, to not make these any more behind, developmentally.

 

[Kyanite]

Oh my gosh! Loving this thread tonight. Groovy silkies and a baby bielefelder. Nice! Plus I learned a bit about malpositioned chicks.

 

[PeepsInCarolina]

Hi! I am a newbie, and I'm SO EXCITED! My husband used to raise chickens, but being born and raised in the city, I never had that experience. We retired and moved back to hubbys hometown and now we have begun our adventure! We put 8 Leiper Hatch shipped eggs on lockdown Wednesday, and 3 have hatched. They are so precious! I've read that we should leave the babies in the incubator temporarily, but for how long? We did not candle them, but these three came out like gangbusters. A couple more have pipped.....what do we do now? I am wearing out the floor to the 'nursery', looking through the incubator window. Help!