Hands on hatching and help

[RubyNala97]

I think "we" need to choose our Authors when it comes to reading. I read something recently---all about How to hatch, etc, etc, Guess what-----the Author has never owned a rooster---never set a broody, She gathered info from the internet and put it all together----LOL THATS the type people that ruin Newbies to hatching---No Experience----Probably after a dollar/Money for her story.

If you could find a "hatcher" person that Has great hatches that would be willing to help you---one on one and you forget most of what you have read-----your hatch would probably be a lot higher.

For sure we need to do things different if our last hatch was a flop, but we need to know/find out from experienced hatchers what we should try different. There are Soooo many on here and other site's that will tell you how to hatch---all about it----and they have never had a good hatch----they are just repeating what they have read----which might not be right.

For sure knowing the day/date for the hatch is very important.

We make mistakes and we learn----I personally dropped a rack with over 40 eggs going into the hatcher for lock down----I lost over 20 eggs with bleeding(after busted) chicks in them---big mistake that could have been prevented. I never allowed that to happen again.

Good Luck

 

[RubyNala97]

15 hours, maybe? Lost my notebook so I can't write stuff down, so I'm not positive.....
-Banti

I think WV might be right. But I know what you mean. It looks like a zip starting. Its not that big though. You can always take it out and check if you're worried.

 

[BantyChooks]

Well, it is okay, zipping now, but at an angle?? Probably okay, just super duper paranoid as I really want these eggies to hatch!

 

[jnmarz30]

Our wrong-way chick worked her way out and is now resting in the bottom of the incubator! She looks great. Yolk absorbed, tummy looks good. Phew! I'm so glad we at least have the one. Her father is a gorgeous Barred Rock/Golden Polish cross, and we don't know which hen she's from, so she (or he!) is a mystery bird! Very pretty black and silver feathers, it looks like. I can't wait to see what we have. (I'm hoping the hen was our Silver Spangled Hamburg!)

I opened up the other two eggs to see if I could figure out what went wrong. The one that had barely pipped had membrane over her beak, so I'm assuming she couldn't breathe. When I got her out, there was still some yolk left to absorb, so she definitely had longer to go and just couldn't get past that first pip.

The one that zipped, I have no idea what went wrong. It was zipped nearly all the way around. Chick was perfect. The membrane seemed a little thick to me, but not having hatched ourselves before, I'm really guessing.

We've only ever ordered live chicks before, or let our hens hatch their own. We've always had excellent luck with our birds - we've never lost a chick (out of the more than 50 that we've owned in total) and very rarely lose adults birds (to occasional predators). I assumed our luck would continue with the hatch but in reality, "luck" is "well-educated," and we were NOT that about hatching.

Thanks for the insights and advice... much appreciated!

 

[RubyNala97]

Well, it is okay, zipping now, but at an angle?? Probably okay, just super duper paranoid as I really want these eggies to hatch!

Awesome! It's ready, so just keep an eye on it and see if it corrects its direction, if not you can always open the top a little and let it push out.

Our wrong-way chick worked her way out and is now resting in the bottom of the incubator! She looks great. Yolk absorbed, tummy looks good. Phew! I'm so glad we at least have the one. Her father is a gorgeous Barred Rock/Golden Polish cross, and we don't know which hen she's from, so she (or he!) is a mystery bird! Very pretty black and silver feathers, it looks like. I can't wait to see what we have. (I'm hoping the hen was our Silver Spangled Hamburg!)

I opened up the other two eggs to see if I could figure out what went wrong. The one that had barely pipped had membrane over her beak, so I'm assuming she couldn't breathe. When I got her out, there was still some yolk left to absorb, so she definitely had longer to go and just couldn't get past that first pip.

The one that zipped, I have no idea what went wrong. It was zipped nearly all the way around. Chick was perfect. The membrane seemed a little thick to me, but not having hatched ourselves before, I'm really guessing.

We've only ever ordered live chicks before, or let our hens hatch their own. We've always had excellent luck with our birds - we've never lost a chick (out of the more than 50 that we've owned in total) and very rarely lose adults birds (to occasional predators). I assumed our luck would continue with the hatch but in reality, "luck" is "well-educated," and we were NOT that about hatching. 

Thanks for the insights and advice... much appreciated!

So happy! If you wanna try again, you know where to find us.

 

[BantyChooks]

Awesome! It's ready, so just keep an eye on it and see if it corrects its direction, if not you can always open the top a little and let it push out.
So happy! If you wanna try again, you know where to find us.

Thank you!! I feel much better now.
-Banti

 

[2crazyflockers]

those are beautiful! Are they like a frizzle though where they don't breed true or do they all get this trait and look this way?

 

[mikeldb]

So I added about 10 small rocks to my incubator, hopefully this will help stabilize the temps across my lg

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Hi there - Looking for advice on whether I should help a hatching chick. This is our first hatch - my almost-13 year old daughter was incubating the eggs and we thought we were only on day 18, but then she admitted that she hadn't marked off every day. We didn't think to make a note of the start date, so we're honestly not 100% certain what day we're on. We have three eggs. Two of them pipped this morning, one in the air cell, and nothing more from that one yet (although we can hear chirping coming from it, and the egg is moving).

The other chick pipped through the active membrane on the narrow end of the egg. There was a tiny bit of blood, but it stopped quickly. She's continued to work at it all day and is a feisty chick, lots of movement. She's managed to push off about a quarter-sized chunk of shell and her entire beak is through the hole, and she is noisy! Chirping regularly, and can hear it two rooms away.

My concern is that the outer membrane is starting to look very dried out. It's getting brown and looks very thick, even though I've been moistening it every two hours. It's separated from the inner membrane, so I was able to use (disinfected) tweezers to gently lift the edge of the outer membrane and see the inner. The inner doesn't look dried out. I saw a couple of hairline vessels on the inner membrane. There was no bleeding but I didn't want to push it.

Incubator is right around 100 degrees, and humidity has been between 65-75% all day today. Before today, it was around 50% humidity (because we thought we were only on day 18, we didn't increase the humidity three days ago, unfortunately).

It's been about 12 hours... Should I be worried about the membrane and try to intervene?

So, I've quoted you a couple different places, but I'm just going to throw all me 2 cents plus right here. 75% for hatching is not a killer. I start at 75% and it often shoots 85%+. I don't worry unless I see condednsation- which is virtually neer because I am a meddler so it doesn't stay excessively high for very long. My concern would be withe the fact that you stated your humdidty was 50% prior to hatching. For many of us using table top incubators that are NOT in high altitudes 50% is too high and is going to prevent the egg from loosing the moisture it needs to loose which prevents the air cells from growing and carries a higher probability of chicks drowning at hatch time in the excess fluid. Unless you were checking your air cells and are comfortable that 50% was allowing for enough moisture loss, I would start there. There's more here if you are interested: http://letsraisechickens.weebly.com...anuals-understanding-and-controlling-humidity I use this method in my Little Giant 9200 and have awesome hatch rates on the average with it.

Yes, browinsh/yellow membrane is a sign of drying out. For future use if you lightly coat an exposed or drying membrane with bacitracin, neosporin (w/o pain relief) or vaseline it will help to keep it nice and moist without having to wet it eery couple hours.

Malpositioned pippers do take longer on the average because they are skipping the internal pip step. Some hatch perfectly fine w/o assisting, others will need assisting to hatch. I personally, even with normal pippers gie them 18-24 hours before interfering and usually that ends up being 24 hours + because they aren't ready when I start the assist.

Here's a hatching guide from the hands on perspective, gives you a different view than the normal hands off perspective: http://hatching411.weebly.com/

Sorry you are having troubles and don't beat yourself up on not checking in 3 hrs---it probably would have not made a difference.

Why do you feel 75% is to high?? I hatch 1000's and 1000's at 70 to 80% with 95 to 100% hatch rate. I sure do not feel 75% is to high for the hatch.

xs 2

Hey all, my hatch started this morning and there is one that has not made progress. It did this 3 hours ago. Cause for alarm, or just not ready?

It is the egg in the back.
-Banti

Looks good to me, your updated pis does look like it was going the wrong way though so I would keep a close eye on it.

I think "we" need to choose our Authors when it comes to reading. I read something recently---all about How to hatch, etc, etc, Guess what-----the Author has never owned a rooster---never set a broody, She gathered info from the internet and put it all together----LOL THATS the type people that ruin Newbies to hatching---No Experience----Probably after a dollar/Money for her story.

If you could find a "hatcher" person that Has great hatches that would be willing to help you---one on one and you forget most of what you have read-----your hatch would probably be a lot higher.

For sure we need to do things different if our last hatch was a flop, but we need to know/find out from experienced hatchers what we should try different. There are Soooo many on here and other site's that will tell you how to hatch---all about it----and they have never had a good hatch----they are just repeating what they have read----which might not be right.

For sure knowing the day/date for the hatch is very important.

We make mistakes and we learn----I personally dropped a rack with over 40 eggs going into the hatcher for lock down----I lost over 20 eggs with bleeding(after busted) chicks in them---big mistake that could have been prevented. I never allowed that to happen again.

Good Luck

I couldn't agree with you more. I feel the same way about people who take "studies" over experience too. (And let's face it, these studies are done in sterile environments, with the top notch incubators, with a hands off philosophy, probably the best eggs, and not taking into consideration the hatchers environments or habits. So not realistic to impose on a back yard chicken keeper incubating in a $50 styrofoam incubator.) There is nothing like doing it to have a clue what you are talking about. I have even seen here on BYC someone going info that makes everyone go ???? and then saying, "Well, I have never incubated myself but...." NO!! NO buts.... stop.

Our wrong-way chick worked her way out and is now resting in the bottom of the incubator! She looks great. Yolk absorbed, tummy looks good. Phew! I'm so glad we at least have the one. Her father is a gorgeous Barred Rock/Golden Polish cross, and we don't know which hen she's from, so she (or he!) is a mystery bird! Very pretty black and silver feathers, it looks like. I can't wait to see what we have. (I'm hoping the hen was our Silver Spangled Hamburg!)

I opened up the other two eggs to see if I could figure out what went wrong. The one that had barely pipped had membrane over her beak, so I'm assuming she couldn't breathe. When I got her out, there was still some yolk left to absorb, so she definitely had longer to go and just couldn't get past that first pip.

The one that zipped, I have no idea what went wrong. It was zipped nearly all the way around. Chick was perfect. The membrane seemed a little thick to me, but not having hatched ourselves before, I'm really guessing.

We've only ever ordered live chicks before, or let our hens hatch their own. We've always had excellent luck with our birds - we've never lost a chick (out of the more than 50 that we've owned in total) and very rarely lose adults birds (to occasional predators). I assumed our luck would continue with the hatch but in reality, "luck" is "well-educated," and we were NOT that about hatching.

Thanks for the insights and advice... much appreciated!

Congrats on the hatcher. Sorry about all the trouble of the rest.

those are beautiful! Are they like a frizzle though where they don't breed true or do they all get this trait and look this way?

I haven't gotten a clue....lol It'd be a question to the geese raisers. I've never seriously looked into them. I saw them and loved them, but don't have the environment to keep ducks and geese, so I just drool at pics....lol


Edited by Staff

 

[BantyChooks]

...
Looks good to me, your updated pis does look like it was going the wrong way though so I would keep a close eye on it.

...

Okay, it has been 3 hours since it started zipping, or close to. It wasn't making any progress, so I peeled off enough shell off it I could see its head. Thing is, it isn't trying to get out, which it could if it tried hard enough! Just tired? leave or take off some more? The CCL that pipped at the same time is out and has a fully internalized yolk sac. I'm just trying really, really hard to not kill these guys.


Thanks for taking the time to answer my newbie questions!
-Banti