Day 23 or 24? Hatch still going?

[khark74]

First hatch....learning a lot!! I don't know what day I am on, I set my eggs at 8pm on Saturday Jan 25th. I had 2 chicks hatch on Sunday, they are fine and in our brooder. We lost one chick that had started to zip, the incubator was dry.

I floated the rest of the eggs, had 11 that seemed to be wiggly, refilled in incubator and added sponges to keep moisture better. Success, one more chick hatched this am. She was a shipped egg, so I am not surprised she's on the later side.

...once this 3rd chick dries off, any concerns with putting it with the 2 other chicks. It's been a couple of days they've been just the 2of them?

I am waiting to move this last chick before inspecting the rest of the eggs for pips....I was ready to close shop, but this mornings events have me hopeful more might hatch.

 

[khark74]

So the conclusion to the hatch...there was one more egg pipping when I checked, so #3 and #4 were born Wednesday. All are doing fine.

 

[ayschmidt]

Did you set all your eggs the same day?

 

[khark74]

Yes, all set the same day. It was our first hatch so I have no idea how/why things turned out the way they did. Some of the eggs were shipped, and shipped thru the "polar vortex" The 2 eggs that hatched Sunday -one was from my eggs ( not shipped) and one was shipped after the bitter cold. The other two were shipped thru that awful weather. 4 different flocks, all different breeds.
Percentage wise, it was a tough hatch as we went 4/40. Happy for the ones who made it thru.

 

[chickenman0806]

did you candle any of the eggs to make fertile

 

[ayschmidt]

Live Fluffy Butts are always better then none. Good Luck with your future hatches. We just set about 30 eggs on Thursday and hoping we have better luck then our last hatch. Hatched 3 of 8. 4 of the eggs that didn't hatch were fully formed but never hatched out. SO SAD!

 

[khark74]

Agreed, ayschmidt...happy for the ones I have. Chickenman0806...I didn't candle the eggs, I tried but all I saw was my hand's shadow. So all the eggs stayed in the bator. I did do the float test after the 1st two were hatched When all was done, We egg-topsied about 9 of the eggs, half never developed and half were somewhat so.

 

[khark74]

I thought I would post an update. The 4th chick did not make it, here legs splayed and despite efforts to help her was in a lot of pain and couldn't move well enough to find food or water. She survived 3 days post hatch, that was a sad day here. Of the 3 remaining, we have 1 roo and 2 hens. One hen is a polish, and the other two look like brother/sister. I think they mutts from our eggs. These 3 are outside in a separate sections of run and coop near the older hens. All are tine.