Hands on hatching and help

[Blooie]

Ah, thanks Friday! That's the picture I was going by and four of the 8 look more like that day 18, but the other four look to be right on track. That's the chart thingy I have hung up by the incubator because I was having so much trouble with the air cells. Good to know I can raise that humidity a bit.

By the way, I was told you were to the go-to expert on shipped eggs and altitude. Don't know if you saw my response but we really aren't that high here in the Big Horn Basin...just under 4000 ft so that's probably a non-issue. I won some eggs (again! I need to quit entering BYC contests and start buying lottery tickets!) and those were shipped yesterday, they are already in Casper at the moment and on route to destination, which means here tomorrow. They are coming from Colorado so maybe I don't have much to worry about with these!!

Thanks again. Gonna go up the humidity a bit.

 

[BigWeenMachine]

Agree on not&cool spots. Mine seems furthest row on right side(near Moter for turner) stays low. IF turning moter runs it gets way too hot we found,so I'm hand turning this batch.
Just sharing what I been learning past few weeks.

My cool spot is bottom right on mine

 

[BigWeenMachine]

my fan is very light. you could alway tape some little pieces of tissue paper near the fan to see if it is blowing. im sure it is, however, unless it is broken. is it a new bator? I have 4 thermometers throughout the bator and they all usually read different temps. there are colder spots in mine also. I sometimes move my eggs around after candling them and give them a turn in the warmer spots and give them time away form the warmer spots. kwim? right now my bator is set at 102.5, and the thermometers inside read at 99, 101, 98 & 91.. the 91 is in the far left corner and there are only a few eggs there. the rest of the eggs are near the higher temps. If my temps get too low, i just raise the bator temp on the heating unit, kwim? when i had my probe in a corner away from the heater that is when i got temp spikes. this is my story and im sticking to it, tee hee

Yea, it was brand new when I started 28 days ago. So these chicks are now into day 29 by about 4 hours. I have been watching the pipped egg since about 2 this afternoon. Still can't get through the shell and I can look in there and watch that bump go up and down, up and down every time I look in. I think he is stuck as he pipped 38 hours ago and can't even get through the shell. The other 2 I am betting are dead. No movement or progress since the first pip. Can't even get a peep out of any of the 3 in there. Gonna start pulling them out to see what is going on.

 

[BigWeenMachine]

So I finally had to do it since I couldn't sleep wondering if I was letting it die in there overnight. Were about 42 hours since pip and I finally had to check and see what in the heck was going on with the pipper. I opened a small hole with tweezers where the pip was and I don't know what I'm looking at. His lil beak is chattering at me with a really weak peep and is really weakly and slowly moving is mouth open and tryin to peck at the shell. He looks exhausted and I dunno if he is positioned right to get out on his own. The air sac membrane inside almost looks dried out and I was going to try and pull that sack membrane open for him but there was a big fat vein going through it. Not sure if that means I need to wait cos he's not ready or if there is supposed to be a vein in the air sack membrane or what.

He did take a couple of deep breaths which I read meant they are trying to absorb the yolk so maybe he isn't ready to come out yet. I put him back in there with the big hole in his shell and I am gonna try to get some sleep. Will he be okay with that hole I made now? Does that vein in the air sac seem right? Should I try to work him out of there or leave him be? Sooo confused and just don't know why it is taking so long when the longest I have heard an egg taking to hatch after pip is 36 hours..... We are now at 28 days and 7 hours.

 

[jlashaw]

So I finally had to do it since I couldn't sleep wondering if I was letting it die in there overnight.  Were about 42 hours since pip and I finally had to check and see what in the heck was going on with the pipper.  I opened a small hole with tweezers where the pip was and I don't know what I'm looking at.  His lil beak is chattering at me with a really weak peep and is really weakly and slowly moving is mouth open and tryin to peck at the shell.  He looks exhausted and I dunno if he is positioned right to get out on his own.  The air sac membrane inside almost looks dried out and I was going to try and pull that sack membrane open for him but there was a big fat vein going through it.  Not sure if that means I need to wait cos he's not ready or if there is supposed to be a vein in the air sack membrane or what.

He did take a couple of deep breaths which I read meant they are trying to absorb the yolk so maybe he isn't ready to come out yet.  I put him back in there with the big hole in his shell and I am gonna try to get some sleep.  Will he be okay with that hole I made now?  Does that vein in the air sac seem right?  Should I try to work him out of there or leave him be?  Sooo confused and just don't know why it is taking so long when the longest I have heard an egg taking to hatch after pip is 36 hours.....  We are now at 28 days and 7 hours.

First things first, if there is blood in the vessels of the membrane, it's not ready. Please don't assist the chick until the blood is gone. There might be a tiny bit in the bottom of the egg but when it's ready, you shouldn't see much by its beek. Your bator temps are too low so the development of the chicks is behind. It takes up to 48 hours for them to finish absorbing the yolk. They have to chew threw their membrane and work their way out. The hole the chick created is normal, however, the rest of the membrane could dry out where you opened it up. If it is turning yellow then it is drying so you can put Vaseline or Neosporin on it to help keep it moist. im sorry you're going through this.

 

[jlashaw]

Maybe I need to just put some weight on in to prevent air leaks then

I have this same bator. It is a still air so I put my own fan in it and I placed it inside a fruit flat and I cover it with one also. My hatch rate is insane now. These are not insulated good at all so if your house isn't at a steady 70* without drafts, the temps bounce around. My temp doesn't move at all since using the box. I don't use either one of my red plugs either.

 

[BigWeenMachine]

First things first, if there is blood in the vessels of the membrane, it's not ready. Please don't assist the chick until the blood is gone. There might be a tiny bit in the bottom of the egg but when it's ready, you shouldn't see much by its beek. Your bator temps are too low so the development of the chicks is behind. It takes up to 48 hours for them to finish absorbing the yolk. They have to chew threw their membrane and work their way out. The hole the chick created is normal, however, the rest of the membrane could dry out where you opened it up. If it is turning yellow then it is drying so you can put Vaseline or Neosporin on it to help keep it moist. im sorry you're going through this.

Thanks for the info. You are the first person to tell me it could take up to 48 hours, although it appears we would eclipse that soon too. 45 and counting..... Thought we had something wrong but I am gonna wait it out. Guess I will just have to deal with my 3 hours of consistently interrupted sleep thanks to Noisy McPeepsalot, our lone hatcher who screamed all night from the brooder because he wanted someone to hold him..... Ugh, this is getting really annoying waiting for these lil turds....

 

[CyndiD]

Yea, it was brand new when I started 28 days ago.  So these chicks are now into day 29 by about 4 hours.  I have been watching the pipped egg since about 2 this afternoon.  Still can't get through the shell and I can look in there and watch that bump go up and down, up and down every time I look in.  I think he is stuck as he pipped 38 hours ago and can't even get through the shell.  The other 2 I am betting are dead. No movement or progress since the first pip.  Can't even get a peep out of any of the 3 in there.  Gonna start pulling them out to see what is going on.

sorry you are having troubles.. did you pull your eggs? what did you find? are any alive? i sure hope so.

 

[lovesanimals101]

Hi! Any tips on how to raise humidity in incubator...having trouble raising humidity and what should I have it at, it is to low now

 

[Laurel Meadows]

Sorry I fell behind and I see it's been fixed. I was going to say, see if the black cord is stuck in the back between the lid...I've done it too!! 50 eggs! All due at different times! Wow, you're brave! Where the heck are you brooding all these messy duck babies? And a pregnant wife! She's going to kill you! Yes, I was wanting to use the octagon 20 as the incubator and get a still air as a hatcher. I thought the still airs were supposed to be better with humidity? Why are you having issues with it? I'm a stay at home mom too, so I prefer to hand turn 5xday. I actually am not liking the results in the 20 with the cradle. I have better results with the same eggs when I turn them in my brinsea mini, so next batch in the 20 I will try laying them down and hand turning. What is this Lyon incubator you speak of? I've never heard of it....going to Google now! Good, I'm glad! They look for trouble when they hatch, I swear!! Amy convinced me awhile ago that it was safe to move chicks whenever I want. I've done a few small, staggered hatches and I didn't want the chicks knocking the eggs around that were shipped and not due yet and I literally moved them as soon as they hatched. I just kept a blanket over the brooder so there were no drafts and kept it at 100ish and they were fine. Can't wait to see the pics!

Yep my Hova is consistently lower every time. In my house, ambient humidity is usually 45-50% on average so we're kind of low to begin with. When I am first heating up the bators before adding eggs, the Hova is usually 35% then goes up to low 40's when I add the eggs until after about 7-10 days it will drop into the low 30's then I add a sponge. I incubate Marans a lot so I run lower humidity with them, otherwise the air cells are too small at lockdown.

I used to travel from Charleston WV to Toledo a few times a month for business, so I went through there often! Now I'm in Parkersburg WV, so we aren't too far apart. ------ I just locked down 7 golden sebrights, 4 OEGBs, and 2 lavender orpingtons!

Well we are pretty close then! My husband is from WV

He lived in the Mannington area back in the day when he was in high school lol. Can't wait to see your babies! Any activity in the bator this morning?

Here he is. I tried to get a good pic of his face to show his beak. You can kinda see the line down his beak in the 2nd pick. He's already a spoiled rotten lil ducky. I held him for a few minutes when I took him out of the hatcher and now he screams if I put him down. He has to snuggle up against my neck and thats the only way he is quiet, lol. Hope his siblings hatch soon so I can put him down.....

Aww what a cutie!!

So, I went ahead and candled and marked air cells. All 14 of the shipped silkie eggs that I thought were developing are. A couple of them look real faint though. Almost like the membrane is thick and makes it hard to see. I can see the veining, but not the embryo itself, so we will just wait and see. those veins have to go to some place. All 9 of the Spitzhauben eggs are developing and from what I can tell 5 out 6 of the green ones are developing. The air cells of the green ones actually look decent too. So we've made it one week so far. The air cells on the silkies vary widely, so they give me a little concern, but overall I t hink they are doing well.

That's amazing all the shipped silkie eggs are developing!! The others sound very promising too!

Hi all. Caesargirl, I wish I could help you. I'm definitely not an expert and get sticky and hard and gooey all mixed together, so can't really help. It is day 20 on my 2nd hatch attempt. Last time, I set 42, ended with 34 fertile, had pretty high humidity throughout and ended up with 2 in great shape, and 1 that I helped with a rock hard membrane. He did survive and is now my fav chick, but it was a longgggg, scary event! This time, I have kept humidity fairly low, only adding a bit of water when it hit about 25, but we've had rain throughout the first couple of weeks which really helped to keep humidity between 35-50. I candled along the way and even bought a digital scale and weighed and recorded everything. I feel like I'm pretty close to on track. On lockdown I upped humidity (with tubing into a sponge) and it has been slowly climbing from 55 to about 68 in the last 2 days. It's getting ready to rain again. I am truly a nervous wreck right now. My daughter is visiting and she is so excited to participate in a hatch. I am even More afraid now that her expectations are high and it might be a bad hatch again. Two questions: First is that I am using my first shipped eggs. They were wrapped extremely well. No cracks, chips, anything. Out of 14, 12 have made it to day 18 on my last candle. They are BLR Wyandottes. I also have blue/black/splash Copper Marans, and 2 blue EEs setting. What scares me is that so many say that shipped eggs make it to lockdown and never hatch. I guess that I just don't understand why that would be on shipped vs unshipped. Yes, a few of the air cells are a little wonky, but they all seemed to do very well up to this point. So should I expect that only maybe 2 or 3 of the shipped to hatch? Or none? Second, it is DAY 20!!!! And absolutely nothing has happened. In fact, it's actually day 20.5. Last hatch, 1 pipped and hatched on day 19 and one pipped and hatched on day 20. The third difficult hatch pipped on 20 and worked for 36 hours trying to zip until I helped him. Is this completely unusual? And does everyone else feel so much pressure or fear when hatch time rolls around? And does everyone feel such a sense of responsibility to almost Make the chicks live?

I've had mixed results with shipped eggs. Some hatches I had several left in the bator that looked viable at lockdown but never pipped. Others I had excellent hatch rates that you would never know they shipped 1000 miles. It appears to me that some eggs are just tougher than others. They withstand shipping stress better and are stronger chicks at hatch. There are so many variables affecting eggs: Age, health and nutrition of breeder birds, how eggs are packaged, how they are handled during transit, temperatures, incubation methods. They all play a big part. Any one or combination of those things go wrong and it can negatively affect your hatch. Yes it can be very normal to see no activity on day 20. Sometimes they don't do much on day 21 either then you look in the incubator and you start seeing pips its nerve wracking for sure!! I think on the responsibility and helping issue there are 3 camps of people: the helpers who say I set these eggs so I will do my best to give each hatchling a chance. I personally cannot stand by and watch any animal struggle or suffer. Before staying home with my kids I was a Vet Tech for many years so I can't imagine not helping lol. Camp 2 are your people who just don't know what to do or how to do it. They've either been scared by Camp 3 to not help or haven't educated themselves yet. Camp 3 are people who are strictly hands-off. The motto is only the strong survive. They believe weak chicks shouldn't be in the flock so you shouldn't help if they don't hatch. They don't splint spraddle legs or fret over the incubator. So yes, what you're feeling is normal

I was a nervous wreck my first hatch but it does get better! I still have nose prints on the incubator lol but the more you hatch, the more confidence you'll have.