Day 21 Hatch Day! Only 1 sole survivor I believe.

[Birdys Barnyard]

First time hatcher here and couldn't wait for this day to come. I bought 36 RIR eggs and only 2 developed. On day 18 I candled both and placed in my hatcher. From day 19-21 only one of the eggs are wobbling back and forth. I had to add more water just now and decided to candle the unresponsive egg. To my disappointment it appears to have stopped developing because of the amount of airspace in the egg and no movement can be seen. If I have a successful hatch with the one egg will the chick be ok by itself? Should I purchase some mail order chicks for company?

 

[jimnjay]

Oh NO, I am sorry about your hatch. It is almost more disappointing to have none than just one. The chick will be lonely. I you live in an area where TSC is getting chicks already you may find a chick or two there. You can call around to feed stores in your area. I have kept my solo hatches with a beanie baby for company until I could find a chick.
Don't give up on the second egg just yet some just take naps and I have rarely seen them move while candling during the last part. You can see where they have pipped the internal membrane and can see the beak in the air space, however.

 

[Birdys Barnyard]

Thanks for your reply, I called TSC and no shipments of chicks till at least February.

I'll keep the other egg in there for a few more days. The other egg is only about 75% full of chick, I'll hope for the best though.

 

[Frizzledhen]

Hello Birdy and welcome to BYC. So sorry your hatch isn't going well. I have 1 lone RIR chick. I tried to give it away to a home with other chicks but no takers. Lone chicks don't usually do well and are not happy chicks. To my surprise, Lonesome is doing quite well. She has a teddy bear and a mirror. I wanted her to know what other chicks look like.

She is very quiet and quite content. I figured she would be peeping all the time but she does not. She likes to talk with me when I visit her but other than that, I wouldn't even know she was here. I do not know how she will do when the time comes to introduce her to the flock though. They learn so much when they grow up with others that I can't teach her.
Good luck with your loner. If you can get at least one more chick for it to grow up with it would probably be much happier and more educated on how to get along with other chickens.
Of course it is a good excuse to buy more chicks.

 

[lady chicken whisperer]

What humidity did you incubate at? Normally, a large air cell indicates that your humidity was too low. And I find it hard to believe that you would only have 2 develope out of 36 eggs!! When you candled what did you see that would make you throw the eggs away?

 

[Birdys Barnyard]

I held humidity at 45% to day 18, 60% 18-21. I candled at day 10 and took out the ones that didnt have any mass or blood vessels.
I cracked open every single one and they were either not fertile or didnt develop past day 1.

 

[lady chicken whisperer]

Wow that is crazy!! I would definitely call and complain about the horrible fertility rate!

Oh, if the other egg makes it, put a mirror and a stuffed animal in there. A feather duster works great actually. I had a hatch with just 2 birds and they quite enjoyed sleeping under the feathers.

 

[Birdys Barnyard]

I have a pip on the good one!