DAY OLD PICS! post #225. 12 hatched!

[jossanne]

I wish you'd get fancy and get a hatch cam! I wanna see 'em rocking! How exciting!!!

 

[Mahonri]

Sorry no hatch cam.

Next best thing. Imagine the rocking.

Final group.

7 Leghorns
4 Blue Wheaton Ameraucanas
3 Cuckoo Marans
6 Salmon Faverolles
2 Speckled Sussex
22 Total

I'm praying for at least 15.

Dear son #4 says we'll get 20! I hope he is right.

 

[L*A*G*]

i can imagen rocking in that bator but not mine

 

[pbjmaker]

Mahonri - The three chicks I just hatched were in a bator that hasn't had water in it for about 1 1/2 weeks - maybe even two. And they hatched all by their lonesome. So I think your humidity sounds fine!

 

[grundail01]

Good luck with your hatch, sending some hatching vibes your way

 

[pasofinofarm]

Quote:
It has been my experience that sometimes during hatching all the guages go nuts... It is so frustrating. Once while using an LG it was so bad that I turned the therm/hygrometer over face down and just wouldn't look at it, the stress was going to kill me.

I have also opend eggs I thought were dead and had an immature wiggly peep come out only to die... Makes you want to scream or cry but really if there were ruptured air cells or air on both ends those were probably not going to hatch anyway. There will always be at least one that just does not hatch... or pips and then doesn't make it.

The 'dark' feathers on the Fav would not be normal... they should be yellow... there can be blood and junk in the egg that can stain them temporarily but by the time they fluff you should be seeing a yellow chick... I had one person get a Fav with a dark spot this year... weird and it means I am going to have to seperate my layers, mark eggs and try to hatch a chick with a dark spot... then cull the hen that produces it... fun, fun! Almost like meeting with the tax man!

I hope every one of these hatch and am praying they will. Really you have done fine for a first hatch and are not bad at this at all.

Congrats on the rocking... a great sign... Oh and we got 22!

 

[Mahonri]

Thanks for your kindness and caring Melissa, it is truly appreciated.

 

[ranchhand]

I am holding my breath, waiting for your hatch! Well, almost. I gasp every now and then. Sending all the positive hatching vibes I can to you.

 

[danielnv]

I hate to jump in here and contribute to your paranoia, but maybe you can learn from my mistakes, IF we can figure out what they were. I am using a forced-air LG, and my thermometers have been all over the place-too cool on one side and too hot on the other. Anyway, I had 12 gcm's that seemed to be developing fine from candling, and then had 1 hatch on day 18. A second one was pipping on day 20, but didn't make it.

I finally removed the rest today, day 25, and saw that 6 more were fully formed but failed at the last minute. I am assuming I must have bumped up the humidity too high, or had the cover off too long when I removed the 1st chick...not sure. I incubated between 40-50%, and then bumped up to 60-70% on day 18.

Also, I had khaki campbells incubating in there, and the first hatched today, again day 25. So this is making me think that perhaps my temps were too high all along, causing the hatch to be early, and because I was still turning or maybe because my humidity wasn't high enough early enough, something went wrong at the end. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed for more ducklings, and I do have an incubator full of less expensive eggs on the way to try next.

I think I am going to be inclined not to candle at all so that i don't risk contaminating anyone that way, and of course I know now to let the eggs settle after shipment (although with so many babies fully developed it's doubtful to me that was the only issue). I may block off the holes on the bottom of my LG, so that I can use the majority of it for my water, and I will hook up a tube so I don't have to open up to add water. The water channels on the bottom of this thing only cover like 1/4 to 1/3 of the bottom, so I had to use sponges to keep my humidity up , and I think messing with those might have sabotaged me too. Frustrating, but a learning experience nonetheless.

 

[jossanne]

Quote:
OK, Got my imagination running wild. That bator is rockin' and rollin'!