Crazy!!!!

[nhblond]

My Bob White eggs were supposed to hatch on Monday..... well as I posted in another thread, they didn't start hatching until Tuesday. I think the temp had been running a tiny bit low in my LG (grrrr). So, anyway on Tuesday the eggs starting hatching, and then more on Wednesday. So, I really figured that they were done. Last night I didn't even re-wet the sponges, because there were only four eggs left out of 15, and really thought I wouldn't see anything else happen.

So, about 15 minutes ago, I went in and unplugged the incubator. I decided to try and candle the four eggs. I don't have a good set up for that, and sure enough I couldn't see anything. But I noticed that the egg I was holding had a pip. But I figured for whatever reason the chick had given up and died in the egg....... and then.......OMG..... I heard a "Peep" and the little chip of shell at the pip moved!!!!!! I can't believe that it looks like the egg is going to hatch after all! I don't know if the chick will survive, given that today is day 26! But I promptly re-wet the sponges and plugged the bator back in.

We had to help two of the other chicks hatch (I know a lot of people disagree with that). One is doing great, but the other has curled toes. It looks like on of his feet has straightened out, but he keeps crawling under the towel to hide. So, not sure if he will make it

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

How are they doing?


I had a chicken chick hatch on day 25

The rest of the clutch had hatched out by day 22 and I had stopped paying attention to the bator - stopped putting in water and was just too lazy to pull the eggs. On day 25, I unplugged and candled before throwing the eggs out. One of the eggs had an internal pip! (rest were duds)

Like you I put in water and got the bator back up and going. Chick hatched within 6 hours and is a year old and still laying eggs

 

[nhblond]

Things got even crazier!!!!!

Yesterday I was gone all day. When I got back I looked in the bator and saw that there hadn't been a huge amount of progress, but the chick was peeping like crazy from inside the shell....really loud! So, I made the executive decision to help it. I used tweezers and carefully chipped the shell away and discovered that the membrane was totally dried out! He never would have made it out on his own. So then I wet the membrane and used the tweezers again and got it to where I could take the top off the egg. Well, within a minute of putting the cover back on the bator, he busted right out! He did have curled toes at first, but as of today his feet are now normal....YAY!!! We did lose one chick, the first one we had to help out. His toes never did uncurl and I don't think he had been eating or drinking

So out of 15 eggs, we had 12 hatch and now have 11 chicks!!!!!