End of day 22?

[Rachnicko]

That's reassuring. I got her some friends - they can see each other but not yet contact. The friends are a bit bigger. Shall I just put them all together now? I need a more efficient food and drink system. They are making such a mess.

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I remember the food and drink thing being a never ending battle too!
I used a nipple drinker most recently and that worked well... I just had to show the chickies how to use it but they soon caught on. Other than that, I raised the feeder and drinker off the floor of the brooder with some wood or a brick... something they can’t knock over but will raise it out of the bedding just enough so they can still reach.

I would try integrating. Hopefully at such a young age they should take to each other.

 

[Trisseh]

So sorry she didn’t make it! You did nothing wrong with investigating. I highly doubt she would ever have been able to pip positioned like that. And with that much unabsorbed yolk, there was definitely something gone wrong for her to be at that stage at day 22/23. I’ve never had one survive that hadn’t internally pipped on their own. (except that sebright, it was ready otherwise, just couldn’t reach.)

my last chicken hatch that I just completed a little over a week ago, I ran it dry and only increased the humidity once I had an internal pip. Duck eggs like higher humidity throughout incubation but I rarely run my chicken eggs over 30% (it’s usually close unless they’re losing too much moisture/weight too fast. Lots of ways to track moisture loss; some go by the size of the air cell, some weigh them on a scale to measure weight lost. Then you can adjust your humidity from there based on their progress.

Here is a link that details weighing for tracking moisture loss. It’s especially helpful for eggs you can’t see well into or if you have saddled or irregular air cells that are harder to judge by.

I weighed all my eggs when I first started and after a few batches you tend to be able to eyeball it better.

Loving the new siblings for your singleton! The little ones tend to integrate fine with no issues. Have fun with them!!

 

[Trisseh]

Thank you so much. I have another incubator with two weeks to go. Shall I leave it as it is, or remove the water to bring humidity right down?

It will depend on where your air cells are at. But it certainly would be possible and easily corrected at this early stage. What’s it running at now? I would shoot for 30-35% at this point and you can adjust it from there based on what the air cells look like in a few days, day 10 or 14. There’s not a magic % either, because every time you incubate eggs there will be different variables, with the eggs themselves, and the conditions surrounding the incubator.

below is an illustration I pulled off of google to show the general size guidelines for different stages of incubation. Your eggs should be around the 7th day mark. Decreasing humidity will increase air cell size, and vice versa.

 

[Trisseh]

The translation is idiot proof... For me

Lol, sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. xD I tend to go into too much detail and most of the time nobody wants that. Haha! ask a simple question and all that.

I’m just one of those weirdos that likes to go pull up scientific studies and papers after someone asks me a question. ( I once spent the entire afternoon reading case studies and papers on fallow deer antler management and the effects of castration on antler growth...)

 

[Chuckkeeper]

Lol, sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. xD I tend to go into too much detail and most of the time nobody wants that. Haha! ask a simple question and all that.

I’m just one of those weirdos that likes to go pull up scientific studies and papers after someone asks me a question. ( I once spent the entire afternoon reading case studies and papers on fallow deer antler management and the effects of castration on antler growth...)

No no I meant it! Science & detail is fab, as is any translation to ensure I've interpreted it correctly! Not weird... Fab!

 

[mcdze]

those look dead to me .. if your not using a secondary themometer actually inside the unit near or on the eggs i would do that next time to be sure temps are right .. humidity isnt as critical except in the last 3 days imo ..

 

[Chuckkeeper]

Sometimes things just happen; every hatch, good or bad, is a learning experience. I’ve had hatches where almost everything develops, and all of those hatch, and I’ve had hatches where none of them develop or a bunch quit some time through. They were all shipped eggs though, which definitely makes a difference sometimes.

Were these eggs from your own flock, or from someone local? Or were they shipped eggs? I’m not familiar with your incubator, but you mentioned you have a secondary thermometer/hygrometer in there. Were the secondary ones calibrated/checked for accuracy? How high was your humidity throughout incubation? So many factors that can make a difference. Have you hatched from this incubator before?

If you’re comfortable doing it, you can take egg 4 and make a small hole in the air cell end so you can see in there. If you see movement against the membrane when the egg is still, pop the egg back in the incubator and leave it be a little longer. I wouldn’t bother opening any of the others unless you want to look at various stages of development and/or decomposition...

Hi. They were shipped. I cracked open the two clear ones - one looked like a normal egg and the other did too but with a very small black lump. I've left the rest for now. I've only compared the internal display to the secondary and vice versa. Nothing else. It's a Brinsea Covina 12. I ran at 37.7C and 50% and then 37.5C and about 65% in lockdown.

 

[Trisseh]

Hi. They were shipped. I cracked open the two clear ones - one looked like a normal egg and the other did too but with a very small black lump. I've left the rest for now. I've only compared the internal display to the secondary and vice versa. Nothing else. It's a Brinsea Covina 12. I ran at 37.7C and 50% and then 37.5C and about 65% in lockdown.

So being shipped will often make your hatching rate decrease. Occasionally you’ll get good hatches with shipped eggs, but 50% is considered good, with most being below that.

I set close to 2 dozen eggs that had a rough trip and wound up with a single chick. I considered it a win. Lol.

makes sense that the contents you found were as such. Now you know what a clear or early quitter look like when candling.

so you’ll want to check your thermometer/hygrometer either against a known correct one, or test it if you don’t have an known accurate one. I can find the links for directions to do that for you. Proper temps throughout are, to me, the most important aspect of incubating. Humidity is important but not as much to keep it steady all the way through. I typically run dry throughout the summer when the ambient humidity is high. When it’s cold out and the heating is on, I have to run it higher because the ambient humidity does affect it.

your singleton chick hatched fine, not sticky, not shrink wrapped?

 

[Trisseh]

Oh, sorry, didn’t see the pipping question. Yep, I usually use a small screw or nail, and set the point against the air cell end of the egg. Then I just rotate it back and forth until it breaks through. Then I chip a small piece off and take a look in there.

 

[Trisseh]

In my pics would I do it in the light space at the bottom of the photos x

Yes, exactly. In the air cell which is the light space. There aren’t any blood vessels in that end. Try to make your hole kind of in the very end of the egg to stay as far away from the contents as possible. The nail doesn’t have to go through very far, just enough to make a hole in the shell to be able to pry up a couple little pieces. Start small, and if when you hold the egg still, you see any movement against the membrane in there, pop the egg back in the incubator. If you do it slowly and carefully from that end, if the chick IS still alive, you won’t harm it.

there’s an excellent article about assisted hatching that you can reference. It has good pictures and instructions. I’ve linked it below.

Here it is