Hands on hatching and help

[WVduckchick]

. Last batch I had several loose eggs hatch, including one that was loose 3/4 of the way to the pointy end. (Also had some re-attached ones not hatch- go figure. ).

Oh thank you! I thought I was doomed because they weren't reattaching completely!

 

[RubyNala97]

Thanks
We are officially npip certified now! Yay!!
From what I've read, the program fees and procedures vary a lot from state to state (which is odd to me since it's a national program) but here in Ohio, it was low stress for both us and the birds and inexpensive.
$35 total for both Pullorum - Typhoid and Avian Influenza for the year! Granted, we only have chickens so things change a bit if there are also waterfowl or other types of birds too.

With my size flock (under 300) they only tested 11 birds. We got to choose which ones we wanted to test as long as they were over 4 months old and we included both hens and roosters. Our tester was super nice and it took 45 minutes for the entire process including paperwork at the end!

Each bird got a quick throat swab for AI test, then she held the bird upside down and pulled a feather out between the underside of the wing/ body (like the armpit area lol) and she used a little metal pick that she would just get a tiny amount of blood and immediately put in on a board with the test reagent for an instant result. The birds were all really cooperative and didn't seem to be the slightest bit bothered by any of it. It was really much easier than I expected! We won't have the AI results for about a week since they have to go to the lab but the Pullorum -typhoid were all negative so the npip certification was approved the day of testing.

That's great! Thank you for the info. Now did they do an inspection while they were there? I've heard some crazy stories like you can't even have cobwebs in the coop and you can't keep the incubator in the same room as the brooder. Any info on the inspection?

I can totally relate to the toddler sleep problems you're dealing with. My 2 year old is driving me crazy with the way she fights sleep. She climbs out of the crib and so we had to move her to a toddler bed

It takes up to 2 hours to get her to stay in bed and go to sleep at night and naps are even worse. This has been going on 3 weeks now. She shares a room with our 5 year old and will take out all the clothes in both girls' dressers (even with the drawer handles taken off) and pull toys out everywhere if we dont hear her on the monitor or stand right outside their door. It's awful lol.

Hopefully your son is less willful than my daughter lol and will get over this phase soon!

Oh boy! They are little destroyers, aren't they?! They love pulling everything out of drawers, throwing everything off of beds and tables. Mine sleeps in bed with me since I'm still nursing but I'm a pretty light sleeper and it takes me awhile to fall back asleep. He wakes up and starts crying a little, I nurse him back to sleep and then it takes me like a half hour to fall back asleep. About 20-30 minutes after I fall asleep he starts moving around and crying again and the cycle starts all over. So I'm really not getting much sleep at all. A few hours that are totally broken. I guess he could be teething, maybe getting molars or night terrors or a cold coming on. I don't know but it really drains me the whole day! At least I know I'm not alone!

Seems like boys always have more sleep issues than girls, huh.  He's not feeling bad or anything? 

And speaking of wobbly cells...  All of my Serama eggs still are developing embryos just fine, but I still see some wobbly air cells.  They are attached mostly, but still may have a slight area on one side where it looks like the membranes aren't connected, if that makes sense.  Have you had them hatch this way?  If they never permanently re-attach completely?  Because I think at least 90% of these have at least a small part that will still be loose from inside the shell.  I hope it levels out, once they lose enough moisture to meet up with the loose spot.




That's awesome!  Congrats!  I'm contemplating this right now, as I just got my business license.  So I appreciate your description of what they did.  Hopefully WV's would be similar procedure to Ohio (although it wouldn't surprise me if its totally different! lol)   I've heard ours is free though.

And I'd love to get some birds/eggs from you some day! 

My little one must be going through something! On all the shipped chicken eggs I've had any that made it passed two weeks had air cells that completely firmed up. But with the last batch of duck eggs one was looking really good but still had a totally loose air cell. Unfortunately it quit during lockdown. I'm glad to hear Friday has had luck with them. I'm my fingers for them. Can't wait to see pics at hatch!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

OH head ache city today. Up and down all night. This $*!@ incubator is going to be the death of me. After remaining rock steady for the incubation it's decided to go bipolar for the lockdown. Candled and marked air cells last night and adjusted humidity and it's gone all hay wire since. Temps are so out of whack and one side of the heating element is running hotter again. Very little sleep having to readjust. At one check the air temp on that one side had actually hit 104. (Of course it hadn't been that high for long since I was in there every 1/2 hour-hour.) It wants to be 97/98 and 100/101 between the two sides. Frustrating the crap out of me.

About a half hour ago-forty five minute the first one externally pipped. You have to look close but it's there. From what I can tell 3 others are internally pipped. I have one that I told my sister a couple days ago that I had a bad feeling about that I am pretty certain it's gone. I don't have good feeling about this hatch. Maybe I'll feel better once I get new batteries and maybe can see something.

So much to do. I haven't even gotten a brooder cage set up for these guys yet. Still have a crap ton of things to do for our trip this weekend. I think I need Calgon!

 

[WVduckchick]

That's great! Thank you for the info. Now did they do an inspection while they were there? I've heard some crazy stories like you can't even have cobwebs in the coop and you can't keep the incubator in the same room as the brooder. Any info on the inspection?

Oh boy! They are little destroyers, aren't they?! They love pulling everything out of drawers, throwing everything off of beds and tables. Mine sleeps in bed with me since I'm still nursing but I'm a pretty light sleeper and it takes me awhile to fall back asleep. He wakes up and starts crying a little, I nurse him back to sleep and then it takes me like a half hour to fall back asleep. About 20-30 minutes after I fall asleep he starts moving around and crying again and the cycle starts all over. So I'm really not getting much sleep at all. A few hours that are totally broken. I guess he could be teething, maybe getting molars or night terrors or a cold coming on. I don't know but it really drains me the whole day! At least I know I'm not alone!

My little one must be going through something! On all the shipped chicken eggs I've had any that made it passed two weeks had air cells that completely firmed up. But with the last batch of duck eggs one was looking really good but still had a totally loose air cell. Unfortunately it quit during lockdown. I'm glad to hear Friday has had luck with them. I'm

my fingers for them. Can't wait to see pics at hatch!

Finally! I'm glad to be old and not have little ones to worry about any more!

Well, I'm only at day 8, so maybe they will still firm up. I figured if they were going to, they would have already. But thanks for the

. I'll take all the help I can get!

What's the deal with a loose air cell anyway? I mean, technically, I wonder why it even matters. I can understand a totally floating air cell, I think. But just partially loose, I guess I hadn't really thought about it before now.
Imagine being trapped in a swimming pool under a loose layer of plastic, as opposed to a taut cover, I could see where it would be more difficult to cut through a loose one.

Thoughts anyone?

 

[WVduckchick]

OH head ache city today. Up and down all night. This $*!@ incubator is going to be the death of me. After remaining rock steady for the incubation it's decided to go bipolar for the lockdown. Candled and marked air cells last night and adjusted humidity and it's gone all hay wire since. Temps are so out of whack and one side of the heating element is running hotter again. Very little sleep having to readjust. At one check the air temp on that one side had actually hit 104. (Of course it hadn't been that high for long since I was in there every 1/2 hour-hour.) It wants to be 97/98 and 100/101 between the two sides. Frustrating the crap out of me.

About a half hour ago-forty five minute the first one externally pipped. You have to look close but it's there. From what I can tell 3 others are internally pipped. I have one that I told my sister a couple days ago that I had a bad feeling about that I am pretty certain it's gone. I don't have good feeling about this hatch. Maybe I'll feel better once I get new batteries and maybe can see something.

So much to do. I haven't even gotten a brooder cage set up for these guys yet. Still have a crap ton of things to do for our trip this weekend. I think I need Calgon!

Stop and BREATHE! If anyone can handle this, its you!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Stop and BREATHE! If anyone can handle this, its you!

LOL Thanks for the vote of confidence. I think these green eggs hate me as much as the bator. I'm hoping I am wrong in what I am seeing. I can't imagine why more than a couple wouldn't make it temps and air cell growth has been great until last night, but they aren't giving me a good feeling at the moment.

 

[BantyChooks]

LOL Thanks for the vote of confidence. I think these green eggs hate me as much as the bator. I'm hoping I am wrong in what I am seeing. I can't imagine why more than a couple wouldn't make it temps and air cell growth has been great until last night, but they aren't giving me a good feeling at the moment.

Good luck!!

 

[Laurel Meadows]

Seems like boys always have more sleep issues than girls, huh.  He's not feeling bad or anything? 

And speaking of wobbly cells...  All of my Serama eggs still are developing embryos just fine, but I still see some wobbly air cells.  They are attached mostly, but still may have a slight area on one side where it looks like the membranes aren't connected, if that makes sense.  Have you had them hatch this way?  If they never permanently re-attach completely?  Because I think at least 90% of these have at least a small part that will still be loose from inside the shell.  I hope it levels out, once they lose enough moisture to meet up with the loose spot.




That's awesome!  Congrats!  I'm contemplating this right now, as I just got my business license.  So I appreciate your description of what they did.  Hopefully WV's would be similar procedure to Ohio (although it wouldn't surprise me if its totally different! lol)   I've heard ours is free though.

And I'd love to get some birds/eggs from you some day! 

Wow free?! That's a great incentive to get more people to have the testing done
Lol well I know I can't keep all 13 of these mottled Cochins

If you'd like any after I see what I can keep (a lot depends on which ones are smooth and frizzles) just let me know!
My little lavender boys are starting to crow which is adorable lol so maybe soon I'll have some fertile self blues too

We are having the utility folks out to mark underground lines this week. My husband has decided it's time to start building another large coop and run :yiipchick
We still have another bantam coop in progress and just finished building this one for the calico Cochins:

We're now up to 5 coops

 

[WVduckchick]

Wow free?! That's a great incentive to get more people to have the testing done
Lol well I know I can't keep all 13 of these mottled Cochins

If you'd like any after I see what I can keep (a lot depends on which ones are smooth and frizzles) just let me know!
My little lavender boys are starting to crow which is adorable lol so maybe soon I'll have some fertile self blues too

We are having the utility folks out to mark underground lines this week. My husband has decided it's time to start building another large coop and run

We still have another bantam coop in progress and just finished building this one for the calico Cochins:





We're now up to 5 coops

Wow, I love that new coop!

Ooooh, keep me in mind for those mottled cochin.

I have 2 pips in my cochin eggs!

Blue frizzle roo over cuckoo hen.

 

[Laurel Meadows]

OH head ache city today. Up and down all night. This $*!@ incubator is going to be the death of me. After remaining rock steady for the incubation it's decided to go bipolar for the lockdown.  Candled and marked air cells last night and adjusted humidity and it's gone all hay wire since. Temps are so out of whack and one side of the heating element is running hotter again. Very little sleep having to readjust. At one check the air temp on that one side had actually hit 104. (Of course it hadn't been that high for long since I was in there every 1/2 hour-hour.) It wants to be  97/98 and 100/101 between the two sides. Frustrating the crap out of me.  

About a half hour ago-forty five minute the first one externally pipped. You have to look close but it's there. From what I can tell 3 others are internally pipped. I have one that I told my sister a couple days ago that I had a bad feeling about that I am pretty certain it's gone. I don't have  good feeling about this hatch. Maybe I'll feel better once I get new batteries and maybe can see something.

So much to do. I haven't even gotten a brooder cage set up for these guys yet.  Still have a crap ton of things to do for our trip this weekend.  I think I need Calgon!

Sorry to hear your incubator is giving you fits I sure hope things settle down for you soon. keeping fingers crossed for your eggs!