December Hatch-A-Long 2014

[Skink]

You can hear it cheeping. That means internal pip correct?

You can hear peeping from internal pips often times, yeah. Sometimes not. Internal pips can also be candled for and are the earliest way to spot it, though it isn't something to go looking for on purpose, just a good way to catch early hatchers to be when candling before lockdown!

 

[ftpagain]

so I'm am confused again.

i want to candle mine tonight - day 15 and leave them alone till they hatch. or should i just candle them on day 18 before lock down?

either way i don't know exactly what i am looking for. first time i was hatching all i could see was blackness. is that all I'm looking for? are there specifics?

do any of you have a good picture of what an egg at 15 or 18 days should look like???

 

[Renee572]

so I'm am confused again.

i want to candle mine tonight - day 15 and leave them alone till they hatch. or should i just candle them on day 18 before lock down? 

either way i don't know exactly what i am looking for. first time i was hatching all i could see was blackness. is that all I'm looking for? are there specifics?   do any of you have a good picture of what an egg at 15 or 18 days should look like???

mine on day 14. You see mostly black with a few veins at the top near the air cell. All mine moved so I knew they were alive but even if they don't move doesn't mean they aren't alive. I thought you are suppose to turn them until day 18 but I'm not an expert.

 

[Renee572]

5 hours later and nothing from my pipped chick! I think it's a goner no other pips yet. Gonna be heading to the nutcracker in a bit so hopefully I can get my mind off of them for a bit.

 

[ftpagain]

mine on day 14. You see mostly black with a few veins at the top near the air cell. All mine moved so I knew they were alive but even if they don't move doesn't mean they aren't alive. I thought you are suppose to turn them until day 18 but I'm not an expert.

thank you! this is great!
yes i will be turning them till day 18, just won't candle them. i just want to candle them now so my hubby can see too cause he is leaving for work on the lock down day and will miss all the hatching

 

[Rainier]

We lost power last night (PNW storm with wind gusts up to 80) and had trees knocked down all over. We didn't get power back until 18 hours later. Incubator was down to 57 all I could do is wrap the incubator in towels and hope it didn't drop any further. Had 11 eggs with moving chicks before (day 13). As soon as we had power again and the incubator started to warm (got to 99) I candled the eggs and thought for sure every single one was dead, no movement at all! I candled again when it was at 101 (I have a still air) and the babies, all of them, are moving.

I haven't had good hatch rates before but I'm hoping this is a sign that this hatch will be different!!!

Will the prolonged cold make them hatch later (Day 21 is the 19th) or cause them to have deformities?

 

[ChickenLady2014]

Well it looks like I might not have a very successful Christmas hatch. I have 72 eggs set. About half are from my hens, the rest are from shipped eggs. As it stands today when I candled, I only saw 21 definite embryos. There a lot of mine that look clear, but I'm not too terribly surprised with that.This was a test run for my flocks fertility because I've only seen both roosters wih a handful of my ladies. My flock has the most fertile eggs out of the 21 embryos I saw. I'm hoping on day 14 candling that there will be some
more viable embryos. So discourage with the number of potential shipped failures

 

[Skink]

Will the prolonged cold make them hatch later (Day 21 is the 19th) or cause them to have deformities?

It is very likely to make them late! That late in development, I don't think you should worry about deformities. Hopefully everyone is still looking good come lockdown candle, they werent too far off so fingers crossed they were resistant and well along enough to just take some extra time to do the job instead of quitting. I hope they pull through!

 

[only1bgirl]

[@]PD-Riverman Thank you so much! I've got a batch going now at your recommended humidity levels. 26 shipped eggs, I quick candled on day 8 found 4 clears and two quitters, the rest have moving chicks in them! Another four have abnormal air cells but are still developing.
@PD-Riverman

 

[ochochicas]

so I'm am confused again.

i want to candle mine tonight - day 15 and leave them alone till they hatch. or should i just candle them on day 18 before lock down?

either way i don't know exactly what i am looking for. first time i was hatching all i could see was blackness. is that all I'm looking for? are there specifics?

do any of you have a good picture of what an egg at 15 or 18 days should look like???

Personally, I candle on day 16. If the eggs quit sometime between the 10th day and 16th day, I can toss them. After day 16 I try to leave them alone. You won't see much difference between days 15 and 18. The egg will be very dark and you should be able to see a defined air cell.

We lost power last night (PNW storm with wind gusts up to 80) and had trees knocked down all over. We didn't get power back until 18 hours later. Incubator was down to 57 all I could do is wrap the incubator in towels and hope it didn't drop any further. Had 11 eggs with moving chicks before (day 13). As soon as we had power again and the incubator started to warm (got to 99) I candled the eggs and thought for sure every single one was dead, no movement at all! I candled again when it was at 101 (I have a still air) and the babies, all of them, are moving.

I haven't had good hatch rates before but I'm hoping this is a sign that this hatch will be different!!!

Will the prolonged cold make them hatch later (Day 21 is the 19th) or cause them to have deformities?

Sorry you lost power! We were somehow spared from the wind yesterday, which was nice since we were without power for three days straight in November. Your eggs still have hope. Lots of people have hatched eggs that got cold or after a long power outage. I had an egg that got kicked out of the nest one night. It was completely cold when I found it in the morning. I stuck it back under the broody and it hatched just fine in day 21. Best of luck to you!