Cynthia eggs

[seminolewind]

I have one Caroline chick born. There was a skinny piece of yolk attached that got pulled off with movement. Very active and noisy. I have another Caroline egg starting to zip, and one Charlotte egg pipped but not zipped, which I am helping a itty bit, I mean itty bit. I can't believe how close in time they are doing this! I am watching them really closely. Karen

 

[speckledhen]

Ok, I couldn't recall if I sent you one of each of the Ameraucana girls' eggs or just one. Sounds great-Caroline's babies in particular are very robust! Funny, we're hatching my girls' eggs at exactly the same time.

 

[speckledhen]

Silver's egg just hatched in my bator and it's another BLUE baby! Yea! I wanted some blues to balance out the blacks in the nursery coop and brooder. So, this time, both Charlotte and Silver produced blue chicks and after clean up, and getting the hatcher re-settled at temp and humidity, I have eight eggs going in there today, due Saturday.

 

[seminolewind]

Update: seems like I have been doing caesarian sections all day. Out of 9 eggs, one was clear, that doesn't count. I now have 5 babies, two in the process of hatching, one no noise, no movement. When I had listened to the other ones, I could hear their heartbeat.
4 needed help. They pipped and that was it. Over the hours, I chipped away at the hole, and wetting it with saline. It looks to me like these chicks are way too big and healthy to fit in the shell. They are so snug in there. It's like they can't get out. My humidity in there has been 65-80%, after chipping, I have to keep the membranes moist, they dry out so fast. Thank goodness this will be over before I go to bed! Karen

 

[speckledhen]

Wow, Caroline's eggs haven't needed too much help, but the babies are large. Charlotte's babies, on the other hand, I'm now finding out, are growing so large that they do seem to need help sometimes pipping and zipping. In fact, today's needed a little help. Silver's babies never seem to need any help at all, however, and zip out like there's a real zipper on the egg most of the time. Sounds like you have it under control, though, Karen.

 

[seminolewind]

My 2nd Silver seems to be zipping right around now.
Could not have survived this alone! I was such a basket case, but they should be done by bedtime.
We went to my mom's for an hour, and I don't drink, but I had 4 shots of sherry over there! Now I am just glad to be thru my first time. Karen

 

[speckledhen]

So, the chicks are driving you to drink, huh? I bet Silver's won't give you any trouble. Give us the full report when they're done!

 

[MaransGuy]

For what it's worth, I have had chicks pip and not zip for over 24 hours. Each chick is different and some are out just a couple hours after pipping while other can take much, much longer.

Richard

 

[speckledhen]

So true, Richard. My very first ever egg I incubated pipped a day early and zipped out in 15 minutes, spoiling me from the get-go, LOL. Usually, I allow them to take their time, but I have had a couple of instances lately with one hen's eggs in particular, where I had a fully formed, yolk-absorbed, beautiful chick crammed in so tight, it couldn't pip. Two died in two different incubations and the last one had just expired apparently right before we decided to go in after it at the end of Day 21. It simply ran out of air, we think. The next one of her chicks we incubated, we went in earlier and pipped the aircell on D-Day so it could at least breathe and it worked out well. BUT, we are pretty sure what the deal is with her chicks and wouldn't usually do that until we gave it a day or so to get out on its own.

 

[MaransGuy]

Cynthia,

I had that same problem with my last batch a few days ago. Some of the later ones hatched on day 22 while 4 were left on day 23. 2 were DIS, fully develpod/absorbed, and the other two I could hear peeping but had still not pipped. I pipped them (on day 22)and then monitored them though day 23. Once I saw the blood vessels shrivel I popped the top of the eggs and let the chicks work themselves out. I hate interfering and find it is not normally necessary but some lines do seem a bit more prone to problems. My humidity was a bit too high during incubation so this may also have led to the large chick size too.

Richard