Hey!!
First off, I just wanted to say thank you for all of the information in these forums, and all of the education that you guys have put out there over the years. I received a bachellor flock as my introduction into chicken keeping in August and ended up with a flock of hens past their laying days in October. I took one inside, where I already had a special needs roo, to see to some of her health issues and she started laying again. In my bed, specifically. That's a whole other story.
Noticed she and the roo were getting it on occasionally, and both have superb personalities. I've also had folks ask me to let them know if I hatch any chicks. So I figured what the heck! I'll try it. I incubated seven eggs, using all of the steps and information I've found in these forums. One was not fertile. Five have hatched, and one had development slow after power was knocked out during a storm for about a day.
First, there's no way I'd have five out of seven eggs hatch successfully without this place and the education in here. Second, the fifth ended up being an assisted hatch, which I'll detail here in a moment, in case it helps someone else in the future. So far, all five fluffballs are glorious and doing well. Fifth is still drying in the incubator as I type this.
So, first pip started yesterday at 4 am. First chick hatched at around 10 am. I noticed three others pip externally around six am, and kept an eye on them. One had internally pipped, but had not externally yet.
By yesterday evening, all were out of their shells and waddling around like tiny drunk people, except for one of the pipped eggs. There was movement and chirping, but no zipping yet. I behaved myself and left it be.
This morning around six am, I got up and checked on the last one. There was still no progress, but it was chirping and pecking at air. I popped the incubator, took it out and inspected it, to find that a piece of egg shell at some point, had lodged itself in through the pip and was jabbed into the baby, where it had restricted head movement.
First, I used tweezers to gently remove the shell from around the air cell. After this, I got a good view of where membrane had dried and essentially sealed the little one inside, to where it couldn't move. Removed the shard first, then worked on moistening the membrane until it no longer locked the chick inside. Made sure the humidity was still around 70 percent and then put the chick back inside, to see if it could finish the hatching process itself. Came back an hour later and it had!
Slow and steady definitely works. In action, as well as mentally when assessing.
First off, I just wanted to say thank you for all of the information in these forums, and all of the education that you guys have put out there over the years. I received a bachellor flock as my introduction into chicken keeping in August and ended up with a flock of hens past their laying days in October. I took one inside, where I already had a special needs roo, to see to some of her health issues and she started laying again. In my bed, specifically. That's a whole other story.
Noticed she and the roo were getting it on occasionally, and both have superb personalities. I've also had folks ask me to let them know if I hatch any chicks. So I figured what the heck! I'll try it. I incubated seven eggs, using all of the steps and information I've found in these forums. One was not fertile. Five have hatched, and one had development slow after power was knocked out during a storm for about a day.
First, there's no way I'd have five out of seven eggs hatch successfully without this place and the education in here. Second, the fifth ended up being an assisted hatch, which I'll detail here in a moment, in case it helps someone else in the future. So far, all five fluffballs are glorious and doing well. Fifth is still drying in the incubator as I type this.
So, first pip started yesterday at 4 am. First chick hatched at around 10 am. I noticed three others pip externally around six am, and kept an eye on them. One had internally pipped, but had not externally yet.
By yesterday evening, all were out of their shells and waddling around like tiny drunk people, except for one of the pipped eggs. There was movement and chirping, but no zipping yet. I behaved myself and left it be.
This morning around six am, I got up and checked on the last one. There was still no progress, but it was chirping and pecking at air. I popped the incubator, took it out and inspected it, to find that a piece of egg shell at some point, had lodged itself in through the pip and was jabbed into the baby, where it had restricted head movement.
First, I used tweezers to gently remove the shell from around the air cell. After this, I got a good view of where membrane had dried and essentially sealed the little one inside, to where it couldn't move. Removed the shard first, then worked on moistening the membrane until it no longer locked the chick inside. Made sure the humidity was still around 70 percent and then put the chick back inside, to see if it could finish the hatching process itself. Came back an hour later and it had!
Slow and steady definitely works. In action, as well as mentally when assessing.
