December hatch along

[CacklingRanch]

Serama will be going into lockdown in the morning.

I had 10 but dropped two so we’re down to 8. The two I dropped probably would’ve been fine if it had just been cracks.... instead I managed to drop them 5 foot to the floor.

Oh well.

 

[mandelyn]

I'm sitting on my hands trying not to candle too soon. It's an eye strain trying to see immature veining and the Marans portion wouldn't show this early anyways. Trying to wait until next Sunday!

The new set-up has been running pretty good so far.

Those little Seramas are cute! I've hatched them from shipped eggs once, of 12 I got 6. Not bad at all! Turned out to be 3 pair too, so it was a blessed hatch! LOL

I've changed my ways on helping chicks hatch. I used to be very involved/too involved, leading to issues for later chicks getting shrink wrapped. I don't open the incubator for at least 24-48 hours from first pip unless I spot an issue. I did have to break my rule for removing a string off goo that had wrapped around a leg, if the goo dries/hardens that way it could have been problematic to the leg.

Took awhile for me to learn the part about being patient. When I do have to help, dabbing warm water on the membrane let's me know if enough absorption has occurred for me to proceed without hitting a bleeder. I give them ample time to have that phase done.

Usually though, once a hatch is done and I finally open the lid, the only remaining eggs are those that failed to pip at all. Upon further inspections they had passed before starting to absorb the yolk. So now when going into lockdown, I candle for movement and position them in the incubator based on if I had seen movement or not. For example, movers on the left and quiet ones on the right. If the left side hatches on day 21 and there's nothing from the right side at the end of day 22, then I know that hatch is pretty much done. It works great until an especially perky baby rearranges all of the eggs!

 

[Matieus27]

I'm sitting on my hands trying not to candle too soon. It's an eye strain trying to see immature veining and the Marans portion wouldn't show this early anyways. Trying to wait until next Sunday!

The new set-up has been running pretty good so far.

Those little Seramas are cute! I've hatched them from shipped eggs once, of 12 I got 6. Not bad at all! Turned out to be 3 pair too, so it was a blessed hatch! LOL

I've changed my ways on helping chicks hatch. I used to be very involved/too involved, leading to issues for later chicks getting shrink wrapped. I don't open the incubator for at least 24-48 hours from first pip unless I spot an issue. I did have to break my rule for removing a string off goo that had wrapped around a leg, if the goo dries/hardens that way it could have been problematic to the leg.

Took awhile for me to learn the part about being patient. When I do have to help, dabbing warm water on the membrane let's me know if enough absorption has occurred for me to proceed without hitting a bleeder. I give them ample time to have that phase done.

Usually though, once a hatch is done and I finally open the lid, the only remaining eggs are those that failed to pip at all. Upon further inspections they had passed before starting to absorb the yolk. So now when going into lockdown, I candle for movement and position them in the incubator based on if I had seen movement or not. For example, movers on the left and quiet ones on the right. If the left side hatches on day 21 and there's nothing from the right side at the end of day 22, then I know that hatch is pretty much done. It works great until an especially perky baby rearranges all of the eggs!

I like to make a mental note of where pip will most likely occur and then I set eggs in hatcher part of incubator with where I think the pip will be facing up and then day 19 to 20 I start looking for internal pips and insure I have pip side up and then I just closely monitor and only help if I have to my last two that hatched I had to help the membrane dried to them and as hard as they tried they couldn’t turn. Then I found out that my youngest son opened the incubator on top and bottom so I had a significant loss in humidity for I don’t know how long I came in and found the lid slightly opened and the bottom half slightly opened as well so that may be why I had to help them not sure but guessing so

 

[Matieus27]

Here those cuties are in brooder

 

[Matieus27]

My next 8 eggs are in lockdown now

 

[Ginmary]

Of the 3 eggs that were under the hen. Candled last night and all were moving. One was peeping. This morning we found one hatched and was ok as of this morning. We heard peeping from one of the other 2 eggs. Checked early afternoon and found another had hatched but was dead. We left to go to a holiday function. I hope we find another live chick when we get home.

 

[Ginmary]

Came home from party to find that the other egg hatched. So we have 2 chicks. The new one was still wet and seemed a bit weak. They are sleeping now. I hope both are Ok in the morning.

 

[Matieus27]

Came home from party to find that the other egg hatched. So we have 2 chicks. The new one was still wet and seemed a bit weak. They are sleeping now. I hope both are Ok in the morning.

Awesome hope they are all good this morning

 

[Compost King]

Tomorrow I get to start candling. Although its early and I won't be able weed out the infertile ones. Seeing the early spider web of veins helps with the waiting.

 

[Ginmary]

So this is what I found this morning:

Here's the coop they are in (indoors):

I ground up chick starter food for the chicks. We left this afternoon and will be back Wednesday nite. Buffy appears to be a good mom so I am hoping they will be OK.

I put some Nutridrench in their water.

So, there was 4 eggs which resulted in 2 chicks dying and 2 who seem OK right now for a 50% success rate.