Diary & Notes ~ Air Cell Detatched SHIPPED Chicken Eggs for incubation and hatching

[Sally Sunshine]

Hello all!

Sally Sunshine sent me over here so I though I would introduce myself.

I have four beautiful Silkie hens and one very handsome rooster! They are so sweet and bring so much joy to our yard! I got them on April 13th of last year.

I am hatching for the first time and it wasn't exactly planned so things have been a little hectic. I have ended up with eggs in various phases of development. I am always seeking advice and words of wisdom to get me through this. I am already addicted and thinking about my next hatch hahaha.

I brought my two broodies inside last night. One had a clutch of FOURTEEN (!) in a nesting box and the other had one lonely egg on the GROUND under their heat lamp. My nesting boxes in the coop are too high off the ground and I worried that the chicks would fall out after hatching so after much internal debate, I decided it would be safest to bring them inside to a warm storage room in the house.

I set up a still air LG incubator with stones in the bottom to help regulate the heat. I plan to keep the younger eggs in there and give the more developed eggs to the hens. I am hoping the hens will hatch them and I can add the chicks from the bator as they come along.

Candling eggs has become my new favorite thing to do... I think I might need help keeping my mitts (very clean mitts) off them!

My next hatch will be much more organized and hopefully all of the eggs will be started at the same time. Please chime in with any advice!

YAY!! and I love the pics! Look at you!! PERFECT set up! YAY!! Welcome to the thread!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote:

DONT YOU DARE! If your old that means I am too!! DO NOT go there! we are young "whooper Hatchers" he he he

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Oh Oz we all know you are a young whipper snapper!

So I left the house to go to an urban farming class. I just knew I would come home to a pip on my last egg. Ahhhh no pip! I know I'm being an ansy nancy but seriously, how long is "normal" for internal to external pip? When do they run out of air? I just can't get the image of that dead internal pipper out of my head! I do NOT want to see that again from waiting to long! Is there harm in giving it an external pip?

Here is an example, black betty has two eggs left, I picked them up everytime I caught her off the nest and tapped and listened, last night when I locked up the shed I heard a chick peep, so this afternoon there was still no external pip, so I quickly made a tiny hole and it chirped up a storm, if the chick is not out by tomorrow late morning I will bring it in to investigate because she has been off the next a lot today. Still nothing in the last egg. BUT I AM PRAYING that the little chick gets out all on her own tonight while momma is fast asleep on her! I don't think making a tiny hole hurts them in any way if you make it close to where they pip, I would be afraid to just do the exact top of the egg because a lot of times they fill up the area and candles don't tell the hole story of that chicks position in there, so I usually do it close to the lower dip in the air cell close to the internal pip on candle. I hope that makes sense! just a teeny hole!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote: Thank you!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote: BRAKES are on.... 36 hrs??????????????...... I will read ahead now

 

[ozexpat]

Oz now why on earth are you letting your child dangle like that, are you that old you cannot save her from her precarious position? Or was it the Bifocals that made you not see correctly again?

she was having a ball - and I left my glasses in the car

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Do you guys continue to hatch throughout the summer? I would like to try to do as many as I can.

Not sure, I think I need to stop hatching : ( but I have eggs due to me lol

Hope laid me another egg! Third day in a row! I think she is good to go! D

YAY!!

Quote: My LF basically 5 months including brahma (BUT I provided at least 14 hrs daylight!)
Cochin 6 months

Oh just random news, in about an hour I am getting some fish! I've saved up to get a really cool 10 gallon tank and a koi, goldfish, and a few others. I also have a separate bowl for a beta fish ^.^ I'm so excited!

YAY!!!! one of our tanks is a guppy tank! it has such tiny babies and tons of adults we have snails in it and a ton of green grass sorta stuff floating that keeps it spotless clear too!
kids tend to like that tank the best, because they search for the tiny babys and love looking at the snails! They ignore the mixed tropical tank!

Quote: NOTES: It’s a good idea to keep the incubator plugged into a surge protector. Use distilled water in your incubator to help prevent bacteria growth. Omphalitis, Mushy Chick Disease and Yolk Sack Infection may be caused by a bacterium that enters through the porous egg shell. Unfortunately, incubation conditions are ideal for breeding bacteria as well as incubating eggs. Brinsea sells a disinfectant, formulated to be used for cleaning eggs, incubators, safe and effective against yeasts, fungi, viruses and bacteria which can cause fatal damage to the growing embryo. Pennies can be added to water wells. Copper helps to destroy the cell walls of bacteria, thus keeping bacteria out of the incubator. Pennies before 1982 have more copper content and pure copper kills 99.9% of bacteria.

Quote: AGREE! no koi! lol Goldfish are cool, but I hate cleaning tanks so much! my goldfish were worse than my Oscar tank!

Quote: HOLY MOLY!!

Stubborn chick update! It went to town after I made that lil breathing hole. I can only assume it is resting now, but I can see it very clearly thanks to its hard work. But it was so erratic the way it was pipping/attempting to zip? It made a huge hole, like in a small circle. The two that are hatched and fluffing started pecking at it, so I put it in a bowl with a paper towel. Membranes look moist except around its internal pip? Strangest looking thing I have ever seen. Think my making a breathing hole caused this or is it just stuck/waiting?

Here we go.... You can kind see its beak at the very top of the hole in the pic... errr umm bottom of the pip line... sorry picture is upside down. Need more? Let me know! If it is normal then tell this newbie to sit down!

I will keep reading and if I know our gang this chick is doing fine!

i have a question ... its more for duck people but anyone who might know feel free to chime in ... we lost out male while i was away from town helping out with family... the female did not lay for two or three weeks and finally started back... is it possible any of the eggs would still be fertile after 6-8 weeks ? it looks like a bullseye in the two we checked but i am not certain ..... i just wanted to ask if it was possible they were still fetile that long after losing a male ?

I agree, SET THEM!!!! miracles happen!

 

[ozexpat]

she is no mystery you posted pics at the parade!

ok - she is the back row in the yellow tshirt. i forgot

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Today is day 20. I've been on lockdown since yesterday. No pips yet.

There was an incident last week though. Girl child discovered the incubator had spiked to 104! (totally my fault) Thinking quickly, she unplugged it. That would have been mostly ok (I don't think she knew I'd put a thermostat knob in) BUT instead of frequent monitoring of the temp...she went to read a book for a few hours. The temperature dropped to 83.

I came home from work to find an incubator back up to 100...but with a record of an incredible drop in temperature. I was a seriously unhappy momma.

There was definately a high decible behaviour correction. (this is a continuous problem. I love the fact that she reads, but the reading to exclusion of all else, chores, homework, EATING, yeah...she's grounded from books for the time being) If these were mutt eggs or barnyard beauties or what ever, well, that would be one thing. But these are cream legbar eggs. I saved for months to afford these babies.

So, cross your fingers for girl child. She may be doing a LOT of chores in the near future. (I'll be doing eggtopsies to figure out when they died. If it's day 14, she's in serious trouble)

chores are good

 

[Sally Sunshine]

So after moving my two broody girls into my house, my little Rosie went broody today! Apparently she was waiting for the middle nesting box to open up. I am going to collect her eggs and try to start them all together this time around. Three broody Silkies! How precious!


Little Rosy



My roo on the run!

YAY!!!! love that nest box too!