I recently lent my incubator to a 7-year-old friend who wanted to try hatching out some chicks from her Araucanas. I gave her mum the instruction booklet as well as some advice about when to raise the humidity and how to remove the automatic turning rollers. I don't think her mum paid too much attention to any of it, as we went round for a look on day 20 just after the first chicks had started pipping, and the humidity was down about 50% and the eggs were still sitting on the rollers. They hadn't switched the turner off for lockdown and the eggs had been turned every hour right up until a few hours after the first pip. They also hadn't candled at all and so we had no idea what to expect.
The kid was so excited that she forgot our advice and tried to 'help' the first couple of chicks out and at least one of them bled to death. There was a second very ropey looking bloody egg still sitting in the bator when I last looked in on Saturday night, but I don't know yet if that one made it out okay or not. I texted her mum for an update last night, which was the end of day 21...
And she has at least 9 chicks hatched out, from 14 eggs set.
Which is a better result than I normally get!
The kid was so excited that she forgot our advice and tried to 'help' the first couple of chicks out and at least one of them bled to death. There was a second very ropey looking bloody egg still sitting in the bator when I last looked in on Saturday night, but I don't know yet if that one made it out okay or not. I texted her mum for an update last night, which was the end of day 21...
And she has at least 9 chicks hatched out, from 14 eggs set.
Which is a better result than I normally get!
