December Hatch-A-Long 2014

[ftpagain]

When is hatch day?

today is day 22.
Since nothing has hatched since yesterday I asked grandma to disassemble the incubator we have a smaller brooder box set up inside and in the morningthe plan was to take them to their brooder at the barn. Well I got woken up just now by the chicks screaming and started to call for grandma why they were freaking out. "Oh they are just soaking wet" what I got. After asking her to please put them in another dry box and 20 minutes of asking me questions on how to set that they were moved but she showed them to me and one was so wet I asked to put him back in the incubator. Which is still running because there was one really defective and two that had all kinds of nastiness and eggshells glued up to them so I asked gma to see if she shouldtry to wipe some of it off. Well they ended up being soaking wet and went back into the incubator. From what I'm told all three look like they r dead. I am not complaining about my helper because I know she is trying she just has no idea what she is doing. (Poor lady was feeding my quail cat food, really flipping expensive cat food...) I am just so angry that I had to get sick at the wrong time for everything. So I just lay here listening to my chicks die and the world fall apart.

 

[Rainier]

Five hatched, four externally pipped and one rocking but no external pip yet

 

[The Colonel]

today is day 22.
Since nothing has hatched since yesterday I asked grandma to disassemble the incubator we have a smaller brooder box set up inside and in the morningthe plan was to take them to their brooder at the barn. Well I got woken up just now by the chicks screaming and started to call for grandma why they were freaking out. "Oh they are just soaking wet" what I got. After asking her to please put them in another dry box and 20 minutes of asking me questions on how to set that they were moved but she showed them to me and one was so wet I asked to put him back in the incubator. Which is still running because there was one really defective and two that had all kinds of nastiness and eggshells glued up to them so I asked gma to see if she shouldtry to wipe some of it off. Well they ended up being soaking wet and went back into the incubator. From what I'm told all three look like they r dead. I am not complaining about my helper because I know she is trying she just has no idea what she is doing. (Poor lady was feeding my quail cat food, really flipping expensive cat food...) I am just so angry that I had to get sick at the wrong time for everything. So I just lay here listening to my chicks die and the world fall apart.

So none of them are making it? If you think the rest of the eggs are junk, drop it enough for them to be able to dry off. How many eggs are left? Were you able to help the ones having trouble getting out? I'm assuming they're the wet ones in the bator at the moment. How long have they been out of the shells?

 

[ftpagain]

So none of them are making it? If you think the rest of the eggs are junk, drop it enough for them to be able to dry off. How many eggs are left? Were you able to help the ones having trouble getting out? I'm assuming they're the wet ones in the bator at the moment. How long have they been out of the shells?

out of 35 eggs that went in lock down 1 eggs quit half way, 6 were bad when I checked them earlier the was no sound or movement, 2 chicks defective and 2 that were two dirty look like they are not going to make it and they are still in the incubator. The other 24 are in boxes drying up from getting wet in their waterer somehow but looking ok. Ugh ugh ugh I'm looking at a 50% hatch ratio not to happy and wishing I was the one taking care of them.

 

[Renee572]

Two are out and five external pipped! This is a special hatch as it's the first time I've had more than two external pip and my daughter turned 18 today!

Yay, how exciting. Congrats!

 

[The Colonel]

out of 35 eggs that went in lock down 1 eggs quit half way, 6 were bad when I checked them earlier the was no sound or movement, 2 chicks defective and 2 that were two dirty look like they are not going to make it and they are still in the incubator. The other 24 are in boxes drying up from getting wet in their waterer somehow but looking ok. Ugh ugh ugh I'm looking at a 50% hatch ratio not to happy and wishing I was the one taking care of them.

24 is still apretty good number given the circumstances involved. Are they drying off ok? Did you take them out of the incubator because the hatch was over or was the excess humidity keeping them from drying off?

 

[Lamancha]

Five hatched, four externally pipped and one rocking but no external pip yet

They are so cute. Good job chicken mommy.

 

[The Colonel]

Yay, how exciting. Congrats!

X2

 

[Renee572]

Hope everyone's hatches are going well, looks like some are having a better outcome than I did.

Peppermint has some pasty butt going on and to me and my friend her wings look a little small (neither of us have had day old chicks before though so they may just be normal) but other than that she and her friend Chikadee are doing well. I'm still amazed that peppermint made it out of her shell knowing that all the others were shrink wrapped in theirs.

Anyway I am posting tonight because before I set more eggs on Jan 17th I am going to try to mess with my incubator and thermometer/hygrometer and work out any kinks if I can. I have read how to determine if my hygrometer is reading accurately but I cannot for the life of me seem to figure out how to tell if my digital acu rite thermometer is reading correctly. It's like $9 you can get at walmart. I did read that it can be +-4 degrees :O I'm hoping that since all my eggs made it to lockdown and did have plenty of times my thermometer read 102 that if anything mine is reading up to -4 rather than +4 degrees. I posted pics of my eggtopsies and was told that my chicks looked a little small so I'm wondering if the temp may have been too low at some points.

Anyway my question is how do I know if my thermometer is correct and also what thermometers/hygrometer everyone else is using and that maybe gives a better reading?

 

[ChickenLady2014]

Hope everyone's hatches are going well, looks like some are having a better outcome than I did.

Peppermint has some pasty butt going on and to me and my friend her wings look a little small (neither of us have had day old chicks before though so they may just be normal) but other than that she and her friend Chikadee are doing well. I'm still amazed that peppermint made it out of her shell knowing that all the others were shrink wrapped in theirs.

Anyway I am posting tonight because before I set more eggs on Jan 17th I am going to try to mess with my incubator and thermometer/hygrometer and work out any kinks if I can. I have read how to determine if my hygrometer is reading accurately but I cannot for the life of me seem to figure out how to tell if my digital acu rite thermometer is reading correctly. It's like $9 you can get at walmart. I did read that it can be +-4 degrees :O I'm hoping that since all my eggs made it to lockdown and did have plenty of times my thermometer read 102 that if anything mine is reading up to -4 rather than +4 degrees. I posted pics of my eggtopsies and was told that my chicks looked a little small so I'm wondering if the temp may have been too low at some points.

Anyway my question is how do I know if my thermometer is correct and also what thermometers/hygrometer everyone else is using and that maybe gives a better reading?

Hi Renee572, I can't help you with the hydrometer thing. Can't figure out how to check to see if mine is acurite. Just wanted to ask if your litte Peppermint might be getting too warm. That can cause pasty butt problems. Sometime if your brooding area is too small the heat lamps can overheat the area. I try to have a warm area for babies to go, but also an area where it is cooler. Let them be the decider on which area they want to be in. I've only ever had a problem once with pasty butt, but that was with shipped Hatchery birds. I treated them by holding them over a small dish with warm water. Using a cotton swap I cleaned their bottoms, dried them off well and applied a pea size drop of Bacitracin ointment (just make sure it doesn't have pain relief added). This seemed to do the job, sure hope your little ones clears up. Sometimes over-handling can cause this problem as well. Stress is hard on the little ones.