February Hatch-A-Long

[LadiesAndJane]

I have 24 quail eggs in my incubator. This is my first time using an incubator. I have hatched out Silkie chicks before the natural way with broodie hens with a 50% hatch rate. I am hoping for a better hatch rate with an incubator.

Hatch rate depends on so many things. Good luck with them! When are they due to hatch?

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Day 14 on my four shipped egg survivors! They all look great. Still have a little jiggle on the edges of their air cells but they are stabilizing. They will continue to incubate and also will hatch upright hopefully.

Photo attached is #4, you can see the foot on the left of the photo.

 

[gimmie birdies]

I still have 5 eggs from my hens in incubator to go another week or so, diff days. (spotty hatch dates because of the roosters not fertilizing all the hens.) I also set some to hatch next month just to experiment with my incubator, but only 2 of those were fertile. They are on day 2.

 

[PioneerChicks]

The first chick hatched! It was my friends blue egg, probably a mix. I see a couple more pips too!

It was really cool because I checked half an hour before and saw nothing, they I came and saw a large zip! Within the next ten minutes, it was out and we watched the whole thing!

 

[LadiesAndJane]

The first chick hatched! It was my friends blue egg, probably a mix. I see a couple more pips too!

It was really cool because I checked half an hour before and saw nothing, they I came and saw a large zip! Within the next ten minutes, it was out and we watched the whole thing!

Yay! So exciting! Love watching them hatch!

 

[LowcoMatt]

Couple questions.
Anyone had an egg get so rolled around by the ones that first hatched that the air cell became detached and it starts rolling around? I think that’s what happened. I poked a hole in the upper portion figure in grilling liquid and NO chick movement for the last day and a half equaled a dead chick. I could see a almost completely formed chick plenty of fluids including blood, separate from veins and still no movement. So I figured it’s probably passed already, but I case I’m wrong and it’s napping... I put it back in the incubator in a egg carton. I’ll check for movement again tonight and discard if things don’t look any different.

All 5 are eating and drinking. How soon do you introduce chick grit? Do you put it in at all. I find pasta lids are a pretty good size for food.

 

[El Paso Linda]

Hatch rate depends on so many things. Good luck with them! When are they due to hatch?

They need 18 days so I put down March 8. They go on lock down on March 3, I think.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Couple questions.
Anyone had an egg get so rolled around by the ones that first hatched that the air cell became detached and it starts rolling around? I think that’s what happened. I poked a hole in the upper portion figure in grilling liquid and NO chick movement for the last day and a half equaled a dead chick. I could see a almost completely formed chick plenty of fluids including blood, separate from veins and still no movement. So I figured it’s probably passed already, but I case I’m wrong and it’s napping... I put it back in the incubator in a egg carton. I’ll check for movement again tonight and discard if things don’t look any different.

All 5 are eating and drinking. How soon do you introduce chick grit? Do you put it in at all. I find pasta lids are a pretty good size for food.

Congratulations on your new littles!
I start sprinkling chick grit over their food at about 2 weeks of age. As long as they are only eating chick crumble, they do not really need it. Others pull sod up and let them scratch around in it at a few days of age. I vaccinate my chicks for Mareks, so they can not be exposed to the outside, including soil, until they are about 2 weeks of age.
I do not think the aircell can detach so late in incubation. Nothing much to do for the egg you describe except wait and see what happens in the next few days.

 

[AusHen]

Do pigeons count in this hatch along? I recently got a call for some squabs and eggs that needed relocating due to house maintenance and one of the two viable eggs I put into an incubator hatched over night. I'll take 100 chicks over just 1 newly hatched squab any day

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Do pigeons count in this hatch along? I recently got a call for some squabs and eggs that needed relocating due to house maintenance and one of the two viable eggs I put into an incubator hatched over night. I'll take 100 chicks over just 1 newly hatched squab any day
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I raised a dove that we found that was about two days old, they are a lot of work! Yes of course pigeons are welcome!