December Hatch:Who is going to have Christmas babies?

[Tala]

I'm setting more black sexlinks tonight. Hopefully the weather won't be as wild this time around. It would be easier to maintain the right temp if I were using only the heat or only the a/c in the rest of the room

 

[BooBear]

Just candled for day 7. Only 9 have embryos out of the 19, of the 9 I am not too sure on 3 of them but am letting them continue to see if they turn out ok. I am hoping that all 9 do make it.

The ones that did not pull through 2 had the bacteria ring where the embryo just stopped. The rest were clear. I opened them up for the learning experience. The clear ones do look like they were fertile but just too old to hatch. I did not receive the eggs until they were 10 days old. The lady I got them from shipped them to me late in the week from when I won the auction and then to top it off the USPS took 7 days to delivery them.

 

[JustAChickenLittle&More]

I have some going in tomorrow. Can we still buddy?

 

[Tala]

Ok 12 black sexlinks just went in. They are fresher than the last ones I set, all collected from Nov 19-today. I am trying something new to me, I put a couple of Mason jars in full of 100* water on the sides of the bator to act as thermal mass/temperature buffers.
Now the wait begins!!!

 

[bigdawg]

i have 84 rhode island reds and two dozen brahma project eggs due to hatch dec 18th so count me in

 

[ctsanders1]

I just placed 100 Tuxedo Coturnix quail eggs in my incubator yesterday. Due around the 11th or 12th.

I will go ahead and add a piece of information that I think is very important for everyone to know...

On day 17 and 18 of my last set of quail, they started hatching in large numbers.... then it was extremely slow for the next 12 - 15 hours....

I noticed several eggs had a very slightly noticeable chip in the egg from where the beak had penetrated the membrane and reached the shell, but that bird was not going to be able to hatch itself for unknown reasons....

I began very carefully peeling these eggs, starting at the beak mark, revealing their beak, and then taking tweezers to break the membrane (careful not grab feathers), and removing the film and egg from the bird, and placing it in the incubator. Very important not to pull / tear the membrane from the bird if it appears to stick. It will eventually dry and fall off the bird. What is going on, is these birds are trying to absorb the last of the yolk into their stomachs. I noticed that I opened one a little too early and it's stomach was kind of pushed outward still, so I did not touch it. I laid it in the incubator with the rest of them that I helped out of the egg. They lay on their sides and don't move much for a few hours, but 12 hours later, all birds were dry, and hopping around like normal.

The next day, I thought I'd go ahead and try to go through the rest of the eggs to see if I could save anymore of them. I found several dead birds, and one that was barely alive. They stayed in their shell too long. This will cause death or deformities, such as curled toes, or the birds will have deformed legs and it's sad to watch them try to learn to walk with them.

Ok so the moral of the story..... don't do this until you know it's at least day 18 & 1/2 and most of your birds have already hatched. 70% of the birds you attempt to help out of the egg would have died had you not, so you're not risking much, and if careful, you will end up with many more birds that would have died a needless death otherwise.

Also, all eggs will show blood in the membrane as you tear it away carefully to release the bird. This is normal. It's not because the bird is bleeding.

But, use this advice carefully and at own discretion. Basically, a last resort after your main hatch to try to save the last few. Don't do it too early, but if you do it too late, they're dead.

 

[Dallas206]

I to hope to be having December keets and chicks I just added 22 guinea eggs at 8pm and i will be adding 50 black copper maran eggs in 7 days this will be my first hatch. I don't know if i can wait 28 days

 

[CrazyCatNChickenLady]

I have 2 due sunday/monday, and one due wednesday.. a test(fertility) hatch of one of my girls and the newer roo(a gorgeous BCM/Ameraucana X)..



Then I have 13 olive eggers(plus I had 1 clear, 1 scrambled yolk, and 2 bloodrings..) an unknown, and 4 more developing from my bantam cochin(out of 4 set!!) due Dec. 7th! Hopefully I will have some new chicks soon!!!

 

[Tanichca]

Great! Mine are due around the 13th, right around when my sister comes home from college for Christmas! Candled a few of the eggs today, day 3, and the ones i candled all look good, developing nicely. Ugh, the waiting is killing me

 

[shellyga]

Just put 9 BUFF ORPINGTON eggs in my incubator.. looking at December 15/16th. I have some coming in the mail too that will be added when they arrive and I already have plans for dividing the space between the turning trays and the 9 on Lockdown day.. these are my first so we will see.

Shelly