August Hatch-A-Long!

[Heidisgran]

well I ended up with 7 bantams, 10 guinea and my peafowl have internal pips....one has tiny external pip....due Sunday! fingers crossed I get a chick!

 

[turkenlurken]

Good luck today and tomorrow! Hope I see some baby pictures soon. I am still planning to lock down Sunday unless something happens. May do it Saturday PM as I work all day Sunday. I will see what they ate up to.

 

[Gen9]

This is only my first hatch, but I am dry hatching with a few variations. I started with 41 eggs - 27 that are my mutts, taken from my fridge, and 14 that were shipped eggs. They aren't hatched yet, but so far things seem to be going well. I have mine in staggered batches and am moving them to a separate bator for a hatcher. I found 2 of my mutts that died (blood ring) and 3 infertile shipped eggs, and 2 scrambled shipped eggs. So down to 32 for both batches combined. I just moved batch 1 (20 mutts) to the hatcher. I actually moved them a few hours earlier than I had intended because the heat they were generating was causing my bator to spike up to 102. I took them out and put them in the hatcher leaving batch 2 in the original bator at the original settings and it immediately settled back down to the correct temp. I had the hatcher set to 99 and 65% humidity before putting the eggs in. It immediately climbed to 101 and 80% humidity. I turned down the heat and added no more water. It settled into proper temp over about 3 hours with a few more tiny adjustments and then dried down to 65% humidity. When it finally got down to 60% (Took 16 hours) I added 1/4 tsp water and it went back up to 65%. I have no oozers etc. Now anything could happen in the next 5 days, LOL! But I wonder if its actually a result of some bacteria that pre-existed in the bator? I wonder about using a colloidal silver and water spray to clean it all out before the next hatch?It would not create any fumes or contaminate any eggs and it kills darn near everything. I've even considered putting a few drops in the distilled water I use for humidity.

Anyone tried this?

Actually, the distilled water is a good idea, I think I'm going to use it from now on~ both times I have disinfected the incubator, and everything that went into it. I don't understand where the oozers came from, I actually replaced the hardware cloth the jars of water and the sponges, and soaked the shelf liner in hot water and bleach! I also wash my hands before turning and use a paper towel to dry my hands, and wipe down the lid before I touch it. I really don't understand! unless it was on the actual shell for some reason. I only pick the clean eggs though, any dirt or debris on them I don't use.

Dry hatching has nothing to do with this. I prefer the week genetics to die before I hatch out a mess or chicks that suffer and die.

Me too, the eggs I had to pull out, a couple were from one of my hens that are starting to have problems with egg shapes, these ones were normal looking but she's been laying a few odd balls lately, and the chick that hatched out of her egg last time died due to a prolapse. The 2 oozers are from my so-called RIR which one of her hatchlings died from the same thing. I'd much rather deal with bad eggs than dead chicks!

 

[DeannaA]

I have been debating on where to draw the line on helping a chick. It was so hard losing a chick I helped out of an egg, then nursing it twice to have it die at a week. He was such a cutie.

How many of you have helped a chick out of an egg? How often do they become a strong healthy chicken? How often do you end up losing them anyway?

I have nursed sick chicks that became great healthy chickens but they hatched on their own. I'd like to save any I can but it's so sad to lose them. I can also accept an egg loss easier than a chick.

Anyone with expeirence with this, please let me know how things went for you.

 

[jnjmanning]

I have been debating on where to draw the line on helping a chick. It was so hard losing a chick I helped out of an egg, then nursing it twice to have it die at a week. He was such a cutie.

How many of you have helped a chick out of an egg? How often do they become a strong healthy chicken? How often do you end up losing them anyway?

I have nursed sick chicks that became great healthy chickens but they hatched on their own. I'd like to save any I can but it's so sad to lose them. I can also accept an egg loss easier than a chick.

Anyone with expeirence with this, please let me know how things went for you.

99% of the time, the ones I help live and thrive. But with saying that, you have to know when to help, and when to wait just a little longer. You can actually cause more problems by helping too early.

 

[jnjmanning]

Ok I'm here to pick your brains again. Lol. I've been incubating my eggs in a carton since I read it sometimes helps with shipped eggs. Now here's my dilemma... I have an egg who has a HUGE air cell that goes across the top like it should....then dips halfway down the egg on one side. Is this normal? When I go into lockdown should I take everybody out of the carton and lay down? All the others that are developing so far have very normal air cells except one who has a very small one but is developing alright. I'm not sure how to help that one either. My humidity was running mid 30's for the first 9 days or so and now it's running about mid 40's. Should I lower it again? Or leave it alone? I'm seeing excellent development in all the living eggs including the wonky cell guy so I'm not sure if I should try to change anything at all....

Oh and I'm on day 13...Any advice for a anxious soon again to be chick momma (hopefully) would be greatly appreciated.

If you incubate in a carton upright, then you need to hatch the same way. The chicks get acclimated to being in that position. Plus, keeping them in a carton keeps chicks from rolling the eggs that have not yet hatched, keeps them from stepping and rolling eggs that are pipped or are zipping. And big plus, a lot less mess!

 

[AParmer]

I have been debating on where to draw the line on helping a chick. It was so hard losing a chick I helped out of an egg, then nursing it twice to have it die at a week. He was such a cutie.

How many of you have helped a chick out of an egg? How often do they become a strong healthy chicken? How often do you end up losing them anyway?

I have nursed sick chicks that became great healthy chickens but they hatched on their own. I'd like to save any I can but it's so sad to lose them. I can also accept an egg loss easier than a chick.

Anyone with expeirence with this, please let me know how things went for you.

I just had to help a chick out of it's egg. The outer membrane was drying out. So I had to hatch the poor baby in my hand. Didn't think he was going to make it at all. Was very weak for the for 14 hours or so. I'd already had my heart set on loosing the poor guy. But he made an amazing recovery. I named him Tyson, because he's a fighter..





Tyson is bottom right! He keeps up with the other three like nothing happened.

 

[BY Chicken Lady]

I checked my lockdown eggs at 5am, the two with pip holes looked the same. at 7:45am i heard a chick peeping! One baby chick hatched!!

Four eggs left in the incubator.

 

[AParmer]

Congrats! I hope to see pictures soon!

I think if your pips go 24 hours without doing anything they may need help. Our fellow members directed me to this awesome assisted hatching guide. Read and understand completely before going in.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/step-by-step-guide-to-assisted-hatching

 

[BY Chicken Lady]

I just had to help a chick out of it's egg. The outer membrane was drying out. So I had to hatch the poor baby in my hand. Didn't think he was going to make it at all. Was very weak for the for 14 hours or so. I'd already had my heart set on loosing the poor guy. But he made an amazing recovery. I named him Tyson, because he's a fighter..





Tyson is bottom right! He keeps up with the other three like nothing happened.