California - Northern

[casportpony]

@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?

I have noticed something similar... It seems the eggs that are bad have more of a hollow sound *and* they don't retain heat the way a viable egg does. I can usually tell just by temp which ones are not viable. Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting that you toss any based on temp or sound of shell, just think about it and use your experience in the future.

Disclaimer: I am a complete novice when it comes to incubation and hatching.

-Kathy

 

[lizanne]

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?

I have done that, and then I candle them. Some times you can see into the hole a little bit, and it helps you figure out what's going on. Some times when you candle you can see them breathing(or moving a little), and can give them more time. I had a bunch of mal-positioned chicks in my last hatch. It was sad when I opened them, because they were perfect, just in the wrong position. I had a couple completely upside down in the egg. I knew some were in bad positions before lock-down. I could see little feet close to the air cell area.

 

[Robert Jordan]

Well, this is what I've done for the chooks. Nest boxes are in and very secured and the ladder roost is in and secured as well. Hope they like it.

 

[EZFarms]

@ronott1 which one might pip today? and yea i only have two set. the incubator we have is just a tiny one my mom just wanted something small that way we could watch the process from egg to chick.
and @casportpony both eggs retain heat and neither has. the hollow sound a fresh egg has.
@lizanne i think ill candle them tonight and see what i can see. the egg that was set on the 22nd was black inside for thw most part the last time i candled it and the other egg was like half black inside if that makes sense

 

[lizanne]

My first aid kit has an ax in it and that's all. I don't vaccinate, medicate (except medicated chick starter) or do anything else to save a sick bird. Because of that I don't usually have a sick bird and the average life span of a chicken here is 9-10 years old. I have a Call duck that is 16 going on 17 years old. This method is not for the faint of heart, but I have a lot of birds and don't have the time to play Vet with them. My birds die of old age......it's a lot easier this way. They are basically indestructible. Most of the chickens were standing out in this last weekend of rain.....they have cover. It rained well over a foot in a couple days and I didn't lose a bird out of several hundred birds.

It's not for everyone, but let me tell you it will make your life easier in the end. Most of the birds I have seen 'saved" are never quite right again.......if they survive at all. By survive I mean live for more than a year.

Walt

I totally understand the idea behind this, but for me I try to help them if I can. I also don't have a ton of birds, and I'm not breeding them though. I feel like if something I did caused their injury/illness then I should see if I can help. If it was something naturally occurring it is a different story. Natural selection/Survival of the fittest, and all that.I had a little chick that I got 2 years ago that was injured pretty badly. He some how got out of the chick area and ended up with a huge gash on the back of his neck. I thought there was no way he was going to make it, and was prepared to "off him" if it looked like he was suffering. I took him inside by himself, made sure to clean the wound and put bluKote on it. In about a week or so I was able to put him back out with the other. He grew up fine, and was one of my favorites.

 

[fowlman01]

Chickens can recover from massive mechanical injuries. I will fix that kind of thing if it is an important bird. By "fix" i mean I will seperate it and give it a chance to recover....on it's own. A chick can't recover on it's own, so your intervention saved it's life. I'm just against chemical intervention.....just my thing. I dont expect others to manage like I do.

Walt

 

[Happy Chooks]

Last year I was truly tested on flock management, and it taught me how to make the really tough decisions.

I sent 2 birds off for necropsies, neither had anything contagious, but I didn't regret taking them in. I realized that while I did put down one that may have survived, in the process I'm making the decisions needed to protect the rest of my flocks. It's certainly not an easy choice when it's happening.

Then I had to put some down here. First, there was a cockerel that broke his leg. He was only limping, but when I processed him, he had been bleeding internally from the break. Then a hen with maggots in her rear, even though she was kept neatly trimmed. There was no saving her, the smell was horrid, so I put her down. Another hen that doesn't get poopy rears had the same issue, but I caught it early enough and got her to heal from that via using Vetericyn on her and segregating her. She ended up passing away on her own from an impacted crop - by the time I found it, it was too late.

 

[KristyAnn]

Under what illness may they have that you can still eat the bird? for instance, if I were to put a bird down for it's time of harvest and butchered it only to find it had been sick internally as an example, would it be edible under any acceptation or shall it just be put into the compost at that time?

 

[sewandgrow]

I could not help myself and had to candle. There are a lot of Delaware eggs with Veins!

I can't wait until day 7 now to see how many are developing.

Good for you Ron. I love the Delawares. I haven't heard back from Lotspaints I may have to start begging for a rooster from Kim.....LOL

 

[sewandgrow]

I just set up my incubator no eggs in it yet though

Liz,
You are welcomed to come & get my eggs & try them I have been waiting for better fertility but I know how eager you must be. It would be an experiment & you could candle & toss what doesn't develop.