HALLOWEEN HATCH!!! Anyone

[k2chickens]

Quote:
You would be surprised. Though, when the time comes you can hover. I never ever pip an egg for the chick, but this go round, due to our amazing weather, I had to help a few past the zipping stage. I have a few that didn't pip from Friday yet and I feel a little antsy about it, but not enough to ever open eggs that aren't pipped again. I usually don't find healthy chicks in those.

Have you ever cooked with Quail eggs? We had Pharaoh Quail for a while. The egg shells were very tough to crack, yet somehow tiny little quail chicks do it.

Quote:
Cool egg! Regarding the names, I can't say a word about it really. I mean, we have Buffy and Red. (There's also a whole cage of unnamed Rhode Island Reds, so Red isn't the only red chicken. He just happens to be Buffy's Red.)

lol...we have a buff polish pullet i named buffy lol. Yea...your right about pipping an egg ourselves...usually if they are not strong enough to pip..then they would not be strong enough in life all together. It's just bumming me out i guess. Of her 7 i set, 2 were fertile....so i was wanting to explore every option i could to have thoes two hatch..no matter what because they mean the most to me.

 

[eggsrcool]

Just candled. 1 is fertile

...and it would be the farmyard. I'm trying desperately to hatch out some Light Sussex's, but it aint gonna happen!

 

[classroomducks]

I have 9 pekin duck eggs in my bator due on the 31. Can i be part of the halloween hatch?

 

[kathyinmo]

classroomducks:

Of course you can join our hatch party! OOOOOhhhh, ducks; now that sounds like fun! Give us details. What kind of incubator do you have? How's your temp and humidity going for ya?

3chickens: How many do we have for our Halloween hatch now? Looks like alot!

eggsrcool: So sorry about your candleing.

Pink eggs, oh so cool! I like pink! I wonder what you would breed to make dark dark pink. Hey, we have olive green, so why not fuscia?

 

[classroomducks]

This is my first hatch. Ive never had any kind of poultry before. I teach special ed junior high in texas and my students are so very excited. We started with 12 pekins and 12 mallards. We have lost 3 pekin eggs. 2 were not fertile and one stopped somewhere between day 7 and 14. We will be candling our mallards tomorrow but they are due on nov 4. We have a top hatch incubator and our temps are staying pretty constant at around 99-100 degrees. Humidity is at 47%. We candled the pekins on friday and were shocked when we could see the babies moving inside. I was so surprised and the kids were so excited.

You chicken people think 21 days are bad...try 28. This is taking forever! Come on Halloween!

 

[k2chickens]

dang i must be the designated thread bumper lol.

Hey kathyinmo, get thoes pics yet??

It is getting particulary cold these new mornings here on the farm. I hate seeing frost. You guy's know anyone who i can get some speckeled sussex eggs from?? I have a VERY pretty hen and i want to start a trio and sell eggs.

 

[walkswithdog]

Quote:
You would be surprised. Though, when the time comes you can hover. I never ever pip an egg for the chick, but this go round, due to our amazing weather, I had to help a few past the zipping stage. I have a few that didn't pip from Friday yet and I feel a little antsy about it, but not enough to ever open eggs that aren't pipped again. I usually don't find healthy chicks in those.

Have you ever cooked with Quail eggs? We had Pharaoh Quail for a while. The egg shells were very tough to crack, yet somehow tiny little quail chicks do it.

Quote:
Cool egg! Regarding the names, I can't say a word about it really. I mean, we have Buffy and Red. (There's also a whole cage of unnamed Rhode Island Reds, so Red isn't the only red chicken. He just happens to be Buffy's Red.)

lol...we have a buff polish pullet i named buffy lol. Yea...your right about pipping an egg ourselves...usually if they are not strong enough to pip..then they would not be strong enough in life all together. It's just bumming me out i guess. Of her 7 i set, 2 were fertile....so i was wanting to explore every option i could to have thoes two hatch..no matter what because they mean the most to me.

A healthy chick, incubated under proper conditions gets to pipping through an egg easily. Eggs are never to strong, chicks are sometimes too weak. There's a difference.

That said, we make incubator mistakes, temps fall, power fails, temps spike, broodies abandon and shipped eggs suffer multiple challenges. They can get simply stuck due to operator error or shipping or mother nature and the poor stupid thing is backwards in a pullet egg with one leg over it's idiot head instead of a wing. (His name is Dopey.)

I have assisted and found a healthy chick that then thrived. But I don't jump the gun and freak at 19 or 20 days. And I've listened to a lot of hatches. I have candled and can usually see a problem when I do set them in the hatching tray. I mark those so I know to see if they're the late ones.

Unfortunately the things we put eggs through are not normal. Shipping complicates the problem. Sometimes it is true that a chick is not normal - a bad foot or other problems and would not hatch. And I have helped it out only to cull it.

Shipped eggs especially have a different value than my own flock's eggs. I can get more of my own simply enough and they tend to hatch well - they're unshipped. I started assisting on shipped eggs, and those birds have been strong and healthy. They're free range adults, not pampered cage pets. Their own chicks have hatched without problems.

When we change the circumstance, I happen to think it is right to give a hand. You give a hand. If it's not normal you cull it. The reasons are usually straight forward when you find them. Backwards in a pullet egg. Shipped and too much moisture loss early so stuck. I dropped a bunch of eggs (dog helping me) and broke two and cracked four in my last hatch. Those four eggs - yep three needed help out, they were stuck to where I had injured the eggs. The fourth didn't manage to pip and died. I usually only help after pip and stuck for 12-18 hours.

I know my bators. I always have my own eggs with any that I incubate as a control group. If my entire control group hatches ON time and completely but some of the shipped eggs have not - then shipping is at fault and they likely need assistance. That keeps me from premature panic.

They're made to get out. We sometimes create conditions in which they require help. On precious shipped eggs especially, or a project breed I need more pullets on, absolutely I will help to see if the chick is normal. Sometimes all they need is help zipping and the practically explode out of the egg, or like Dopey, with a leg over his silly head, he wasn't getting untangled unless I untangled him but he's fine and he's a hoot.

It's a personal choice. It can be done properly but requires patience and the stomach to SEE whether a chick is normal or not and cull it if necessary. If you leave the eggs alone and won't help, you never have to SEE why they don't make it. It is also information you won't have. When I know which birds lay an egg, and I see why a chick didn't hatch, if it persists in the chicks that bird lays, I know to cull the parent/s.

I'd just rather intervene in time to see it alive, to see if the fault is my incubation/shipping etc, or organic/genetic.

Each chooses what makes sense to themselves. I thought I would not assist but I have saved birds that I now love and who are themselves strong producers of good birds. I haven't found reason to regret it long term.

 

[akpeeps]

I candled the one egg last I put under Olivia last week while she was off it eating last night and it is fertile.

 

[evonne]

YaY!!!!!!


i didn't candle last night... but the 6 i have seem to be doing great each time i check so i figure i can let it go a day or two without candeling.. lol....

OMG... there's like 10 days left huh???

 

[kathyinmo]

Quote:
I did take new pictures. But, what pictures are you talking about?