California - Northern

[CackleJoy]

Never just toss them!

If there are no pips, pick them up and listen to them after tapping gently and listen for chirping. You can candle them and there is a float test. If you do not find any signs of life and it it past day 23 or so, you can carefully open the eggs from the big end. I have been surprised to find a perfectly fine chick in a very late egg once. It must have been missing it's egg tooth.

Another reason to open the eggs it to try to figure out why they did not hatch. I make myself open up every egg--even if I do not want to. I often open them up inside a zip lock bag though....They can be stinky sometimes.

I was afraid to do this last time. Guess I gotta get tougher. Who knew this chicken adventure would require so much courage?

 

[CackleJoy]

Question for all you experienced hatchers -

I've gathered too many eggs.... I want them ALLLLLL!

With a hovabator 1588 auto turner, can I stack and then remove the ones that don't develop?

 

[EZFarms]

@ronott1 i did the tap test a few mins ago with no success didnt hear a thing :/ the sound of the shell sounds weird though if that makes sense. it almost sounds like taping on a ceramic egg is that normal?

 

[casportpony]

I was afraid to do this last time.  Guess I gotta get tougher.  Who knew this chicken adventure would require so much courage?

Malpositions are something I just learned about and the most common ones I have seen are foot over head and head over wing. Another problem I have seen is shrink-wrapping.

-Kathy

 

[ronott1]

Question for all you experienced hatchers -

I've gathered too many eggs.... I want them ALLLLLL!

With a hovabator 1588 auto turner, can I stack and then remove the ones that don't develop?

How many eggs?

Stack the eggs in the Genesis and tilt the whole incubator. You Lift one side and place a book under it. Next time, move the book to the other side. You can usually remove a bunch of eggs by day 7 to 10 and then get the auto turner back in.

Happy Hatching!

 

[EZFarms]

Im still somewhat new to chickens and to hatching eggs. there are definatly good times and bad times associated with chickens

 

[ronott1]

@ronott1 i did the tap test a few mins ago with no success didnt hear a thing

the sound of the shell sounds weird though if that makes sense. it almost sounds like taping on a ceramic egg is that normal?

The shell and the inside of the egg changes a bunch as the chick develops. If the chick was alive you would expect to here chirping from the shells. Not always though.

If you are sure of the temperature during incubation and it is day 22 or so one thing to try is to put a little hole into the big end of the egg. It is a last ditch effort but will sometimes get them hatching.

What day and time did you set the eggs?

 

[fowlman01]

Thank you for that. It was very uplifting. I felt bad refusing to take our bird to the vet. Said I wasn't going to spend $$ on a free, non productive animal. It felt a little cruel. We also don't help deformed or slow chicks. Figure nature culls the weakest from the start. It's nice to know that someone with so much more experience has taken this road successfully. Until now we hadn't thought much about a medical kit. I don't have the backbone to take this route entirely, but I think if my med kit is well stocked and I give it an honest effort then I've done all I can. If the bird is culled from the flock - that is just the way it is. We don't want weakness bred into them anyway. Hopefully

we never have to cull the family pet again. That's just wrong!

If your chickens are from good stock they will be very hardy. chickens are amazing creatures that can take a lot without ill effects. Good management works a lot better as a preventative than all the chemicals in the world. Sonoma County has had so many birds raised here that Mareks and Cocci is virtually everywhere, so my birds are challenged all the time. In addition I show birds and that exposes them to whatever may be around. I have never had a bird come back sick from a show...ever! I showed 61 birds at Stockton, so you might say I'm into this. I'm only showing 30 at Fresno. This is another reason that I can't have sickly birds around.

I'm not saying that the way I do it is the way everyone should do it, but this works for me ,so I thought I would throw this out for discussion. There is always more than one way to do things.

Walt

 

[EZFarms]

I actually set them ato. diff days because i wasnt paying attention but one was set on 1/22 and the other was set on 1/25. and i think they were set sometime in the morning i dont remember exactly. i know when i candled them last they still looked like they were devoloping so idk.

 

[ronott1]

I actually set them ato. diff days because i wasnt paying attention but one was set on 1/22 and the other was set on 1/25. and i think they were set sometime in the morning i dont remember exactly. i know when i candled them last they still looked like they were devoloping so idk.

The one set on the 22 is on day 23. The one set on the 25th is on day 20. You may see a pip in that one today.

Do you only have two eggs incubating?

We need to get you more eggs to hatch!