chick hatched, day early, first hatch EVER

[Ema]

lockdown was yesterday I used dry incubation method because the last incubation we tried nothing hatched, we thought the dry method might work and lo and behold I am home sick with the flu and I hear peeping from the incubator. Hatch day is tomorrow night and I looked and there is a beautiful chick peeping about in the incubator, I got another one that zipped through the egg but uhmmm I see no more progress in the one that zipped, no movement etc...

I wonder how long to leave the chick in the incubator before taking her out and putting her in the brooder and giving her feed. and secondly, what about the other egg, just leave it and see what happens?? I got another 13 eggs in the incubator and of course I have to leave them there to hatch, I am worried and I have no clue what to do....I wasn't expecting them tonight at all.

Ema

 

[Chiko]

It's normal for some chicks to hatch earlier than others. Usually when one hatches, his peeping encourages the others to start hatching. Before the chicks hatch, they absorb all the yolk into their system. This supplies them with food and nutrients for up to 72 hours. You don't want to open an incubator during lockdown with chicks hatching inside it. It lowers the temperature and humidity and lets cold air enter and thats bad for the chicks. The other chicks should hatch tomorrow and once they are ALL hatched and fluffed up walking around, you can take them out and put them into the brooder. If some chicks take longer than 72 hours, chances are they won't make it. But don't leave a chick in there longer than 72 hours if the others aren't hatching. He'll probably die also if he doesn't get some food and is in the high humidity for too long. As for the chick that zipped but didn't do anything else, I'm not sure. Try to keep an eye on it. I usually make clucking noises like a mother hen and the chicks get so excited. lol. Hope your chicks do OK, first hatches are so much fun but can be so sad also. I hope you feel better soon!

 

[Ema]

thank you for the response, I was worried about having to open the incubator...I will wait it out,

I still see no more movement on the other egg that zipped through the shell, so I am thinking it just wasn't strong enough to make it, we will see..I am not going to remove it anytime soon will wait till tomorrow, and see what happens. ??

 

[Ema]

the one chick was removed from the incubator last night, and placed into the brooder, at the same time the one that zipped but was not moving was taken out. turns out it got stuck like glue and didn't make it out. had I heard anything earlier on I am sure it would have made it.

this morning I woke up to 2 more, one had zipped half way and the other had a tiny external pip. after many hours there was no progress, and I was adamant in not intervening until I saw some thick brown stuff beginning to form on the one that zipped half way, from what I gathered it was the beginning of becoming stickied or what ever its called. I gently helped her out till her feet were exposed but then I realized it was her head that was beginning to get glued to the shell. I managed to add some moisture on there and she got out. since she was already in my hand she went straight in the brooder, she is wobbling about with her sister just fine and already drank on her own.

the other one with the tiny hole, I could hear loudly peeping, we left her alone for now,

I wonder if my fan is causing an issue with drying them out, AM I SUPPOSED TO HAVE THE FAN STILL RUNNING OR SHUT OFF???

out of 15 2 have hatched, 1 died, and one is actively trying to zip...

 

[Chiko]

Oh my gosh I'm so sorry your babies are having such a hard time! I usually leave my fan on during hatching. I turn the humidity up by filling the whole tray in the bottom of my HovaBator with WARM water and just leaving it there. Sounds like your babies are in a bator with a high temp or a low humidity. I have to go now sorry! I hope your babies make it ok!

 

[Ema]

temp has been a constant 99.5 and I did dry incubate, at lockdown I brought the humidity to 60 percent.

I got three chicks now that hatched. I wasn't sure about my last candling because I didn't have a good candling method. but tonight I candled the rest of my eggs and turns out that out of the 15 I placed in there only were actually fertilized :-( one died as previously mentioned, 2 are still in the incubator, as I did see chicks in there when I candled but uhmm not really sure if they are still alive, they didn't pip yet and I hear nothing coming from them, I will give them till tomorrow night. the three that did hatch are all doing really well.

as I mentioned this is my first time hatching anything successfully. the last time I attempted it nothing hatched.

I am getting the eggs from my own hens and I think maybe the roos are just not fertilizing all the eggs, and obviously impossible to tell if they are all fertilized by looking at them from the outside lol.

in 2 days time I will clean out the incubator and try again, another batch and this time I will add a tiny bit of moisture throughout the fist 18 days and then back to 60 percent during lockdown. and hopefully I will be more successful. Only way to learn is to do it, so I am not discouraged yet, we will see with the next hatch how things go.

the last chick that hatched was really downed, the membrane was dry but the chick on the inside was really wet, I placed her right away under the brooder lamp I was afraid to leave her in the incubator with the fan running as wet as she was I felt the humidity and fan might be detrimental to her. the dryer heat of the brooder lamp helped her out immensily and she is doing well.

they are crossed between a columbian X roo and Rhode Island red hens. we will see what they turn out to be like eventually.

thanks for your help,

Ema

 

[gryeyes]

I'm kind of a strange individual, as I consider ANY chick hatching a successful hatch. 77 eggs set, one chick hatches - that's a success! If two hatch, I'm ecstatic. If, like the time I actually DID set 77 eggs, 34 hatch, I am just over the moon.

We always want at least two chicks so they aren't lonely, but the fact that the miracle of life emerges from an egg which I could just have easily eaten for breakfast 21 days earlier is simply awesome. As in a real sense of "awe."

Congrats on your miracles!

 

[Chiko]

I'm kind of a strange individual, as I consider ANY chick hatching a successful hatch. 77 eggs set, one chick hatches - that's a success! If two hatch, I'm ecstatic. If, like the time I actually DID set 77 eggs, 34 hatch, I am just over the moon.

We always want at least two chicks so they aren't lonely, but the fact that the miracle of life emerges from an egg which I could just have easily eaten for breakfast 21 days earlier is simply awesome. As in a real sense of "awe."

Congrats on your miracles!

 

[Chiko]

When I hatch eggs I mean LOL.

 

[Ema]

I'm kind of a strange individual, as I consider ANY chick hatching a successful hatch. 77 eggs set, one chick hatches - that's a success! If two hatch, I'm ecstatic. If, like the time I actually DID set 77 eggs, 34 hatch, I am just over the moon.

We always want at least two chicks so they aren't lonely, but the fact that the miracle of life emerges from an egg which I could just have easily eaten for breakfast 21 days earlier is simply awesome. As in a real sense of "awe."

Congrats on your miracles!

you are sooooo very right....these 3 little ones are a definite miracle, and they are so handsomely beautiful, we are over the moon over them, and my 6'2 big tough hubby is just in love with them, more so because last summer we almost had to put down this tiny little hen who was injured by one of our turkeys, she looked different than the rest, was all white and soo much smaller then all other hens. but I could see for some odd reason this one he didn't want to do away with, so we, more I really, laboured over it, patched it all up, afixed her broken legs and cleaned her wounds on her wings....for a month I helped this bird eat and drink and because it couldn't stand up I had to bath her every day in warm water to get all the stuff gunked up all over her behind off and then had to blow dry her so she wouldn't catch a chill. After a month she finally stood up on her own, could barely walk, but we figured she would have weakness in her legs from being down for so long....so we started putting her outside for fresh air and green grass, a few weeks later she returned to the flock, but was quickly run out, and fearing she would get hurt again, my dh made her a stall int he barn to herself and allowed her to go about the yard following him wherever he went to work. This bird would hobble all over the place following him...

within a week we found that our older flock rather accepted her and she went in with them, the only white chicken amongst the rhode islands. It wasn't until a month later that we realized SHE was not a SHE but a HE. A very docile, and loving Rooster that he named Chicken Roo, turns out he is a columbian X and these three little chicks that hatched are his babies. so now you can see how much more my DH loves these babies

Ema