Day 17/18/19 here... CHICK PICS!!

[speckledhen]

How odd. I've had some very large chicks hatch from my Orps, but all have hatched pretty cleanly, no yolk issues.

 

[Cara]

Cynthia, one of Skye's has pipped..early!

 

[speckledhen]

Yipppeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Cara]

The one that had pipped didn't make it

I couldn't hear or see any movement so I helped it out, and it had the same problem as the other one. I have another chick that doesn't look too good but might perk up, and a healthy one. So 4 Blue Orpingtons and a Sultan so far. Silver's baby is on its way out and very noisy.

 

[speckledhen]

Sorry about the baby. I'm wondering if this is why it's so hard to find Blue Orpingtons. It took me two incubations of eggs(shipped) to get just a few chicks hatched, although the ones lately are doing pretty well. Any I've had trouble with have been Skye's chicks-maybe because she's younger than Velvet, who knows? I have one in the hatcher now on Day 18, Velvet's, but I will be incubating maybe 10 of them later in December.

 

[Cara]

I think I have 4 or so that died in the shell before hatching, there's been no movement or sound from them at all. None of them have been as active as my last hatch, they were wiggling all over the place and cheeping. One of the chicks looks an unusual color to me, almost a pale lilac all over

 

[speckledhen]

Maybe that lilac is a splash, which you can get from two blues. Is that one a Catalpa or mine? If mine haven't pipped by the middle of Day 21, I always pip the aircell and see if they are alive but I've hatched enough that I'm confident doing that. How has your humidity been?

 

[Cara]

It was one of yours, I can't remember who from though. Now that it's drying out it has a yellow breast, but the rest is a silvery lilac color.

I haven't had any humidity issues this hatch, or temperature, which is making me wonder why it's going so badly. The humidity is at 69 at the moment, and was 45 - 50 for the first 18 days.

Silver's baby hatched with a little help, as the membrane was drying out. It's recovering right now, but looks ok. I lost the other Blue Orpington.

 

[speckledhen]

I did hatch a couple of lighter blues lately out of Velvet and Suede so it could be a light blue. Blues come in all shades, but I'm hoping to get a black pullet hatched out of my eggs or EweSheep's eggs to bring my blues back darker with more defined lacing.
Sounds like your humidity values were good throughout, so I'm not sure what's happening with the hatch. Temps were okay, too?

 

[Cara]

My temperatures were slightly too low (99.2 -99.4). I just tried helping one of the Catalpa ones that hadn't pipped, and it had died before absorbing the yolk. The yolk was enormous, I thought it was a double yolk for a minute. There's another one that hasn't pipped, but I don't feel like finding another dead chick right now. One of Velvet's has pipped, so i'll leave the incubator alone, and let Silver's baby dry out too.