Hands on hatching and help

[AmyLynn2374]

Ok guys I have one who pipped sometime last night/this morning...when I went to bed at 11:30 was still just internal - woke up at 6 and it had externally pipped. However---it was pipped towards the bottom... Pic attached. Was this ok? I read and someone told me I should rotate that pip upwards- so I did... I hope to goodness I did not screw up!!!! Tell me it's ok! FIRST TIMER!!! As soon as I shut the lid, a second later my next egg pipped. I only had lid open for like 5 seconds- humidty and all is stable at 70 please see pics

As long as you have your hudmidity up you are fine. I always roll mine back over if they've been knocked around and pipped eggs land upside down. I also remove my hatchers and egg shells and if I feel I must, assist. All during hatch. They key is to have your humidity up and make sure it recovers quickly when you are done. Now, if you mark your air cells at lockdown, this will give you an idea of where the chick "should" pip and you have that side of the egg facing up. Then when they pip you can see them- well until one hatches and rolls it over...lol

Thank you for responding! I am a nervous wreck hahahaha! This hatching thing is stressful! LOL .... I am working, but when I take lunch I will be heading home to check on them.

I hope you find lots of pippers and progress!! Good luck.

 

[WVduckchick]

Thank you for responding! I am a nervous wreck hahahaha! This hatching thing is stressful! LOL .... I am working, but when I take lunch I will be heading home to check on them.

I've been known to take vacation days, or work half-days on hatch days

As long as you have your hudmidity up you are fine. I always roll mine back over if they've been knocked around and pipped eggs land upside down. I also remove my hatchers and egg shells and if I feel I must, assist. All during hatch. They key is to have your humidity up and make sure it recovers quickly when you are done. Now, if you mark your air cells at lockdown, this will give you an idea of where the chick "should" pip and you have that side of the egg facing up. Then when they pip you can see them- well until one hatches and rolls it over...lol

I hope you find lots of pippers and progress!! Good luck.

Amy, I did not realize until this morning that you started this thread!

I guess I just jumped in when Eve tagged me, but I finally went back and read the whole thing. I agree this was an excellent idea! Kudos to you and Ruby!

 

[samandemsmommy]

If my staff was not short today already, I would head home LOL..

 

[samandemsmommy]

Ok, humidity came right back up within minutes and was holding on at 70% when I left for work I am so nervous for them...this whole hatching thing turns people into lunatics....or is it just me? LOL

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I've been known to take vacation days, or work half-days on hatch days

Amy, I did not realize until this morning that you started this thread!

I guess I just jumped in when Eve tagged me, but I finally went back and read the whole thing. I agree this was an excellent idea! Kudos to you and Ruby!

LMAO!! Who else is going to push the buttons of the "hands on hatchers" lmao...

We had talked about it repeatedly over the time of my absence and when I came back and watched a certain "expert" litterally "yell" at someone for candling during lockdown and telling them that they would recieve no help because they were opening the bator, I thought it was time to have a place that the hands on hatchers could get help too w/o being scolded or yelled at because they want to experience the whole hatch or attempt to help a chick when others wouldn't. And just to discuss hatching w/o fear of the naysayers judgemental attitudes.

Ok, humidity came right back up within minutes and was holding on at 70% when I left for work I am so nervous for them...this whole hatching thing turns people into lunatics....or is it just me? LOL

It's all of us....lol

 

[RubyNala97]

Went to store and came back and chick was dead. Had reddish brown liquid coming out of its nostrils. Guessing there was nothing to be done to help. Thanks for your help.

I'm sorry. But at least the chick went naturally. I can imagine it would be really hard to work with a chick and then have to put it down anyway.

I have been lucky enough to have had pretty successful hatches to far, and have never had to assist.
However, I am starting to get nervous I may need to with my current hatch.

Over the last 10 days of incubation we experienced three prolonged power outages.....some we were not home for when they started. Because of a malfunctioning generator (that couldn't get fixed fast enough to help with one of the outages) I ended up transporting my incubator to three different friend's homes over the course of that 10 days......so six car rides. At one point I even had the incubator by my wood stove and was moving it around like crazy to keep a stable temperature......I also had it wrapped in an alpaca blanket and wearing a down jacket at times. Needless to say, I was exhausted and a nervous wreck. At lockdown I had good air cells and everyone had lost the weight they should have.

Yesterday was day 21 and I was amazed when 7 of my 19 eggs hatched......all Ameraucana or Am mixes. They were out by noon and are going strong. This morning I had two more (Brown leghorn & Welsummer), although both are in chick ICU with unabsorbed yolk sacs. Fingers crossed they will be ok. I currently have five eggs still in the incubator (Brinsea Octagon Advance) that are pipped and have been since about 9 this morning (another Wellie and some Wyandottes). Not much movement or noise, just little pip holes. Five eggs are just being quiet.

Because of the crazy temperature fluctuations over the last 10 days of incubation, I am wondering how drawn out this hatch might end up being. And at what point should I help the pippers if they don't start zipping? My humidity is around 72% right now. Doesn't temp. fluctuation affect yolk sac absorption? Could that be why they are sitting at pip for so long? Just seems it normally goes so much faster than this. In any case, any words of wisdom or advice is appreciated.

Wow! I am so surprised that as many hatched as they did. Are these local or shipped eggs? I've had a few power outages and they are no fun when there's eggs or chicks involved! And I know that panic you feel to keep the eggs warm. I would give the pips around 24 hours before starting to assist. If your humidity is good, you can always take a peek sooner. Keep us posted.

One of the last to pip was the first out!

Yup, that's how it is for me too. With this hatch that is going on now, I noticed that the ones that were internally pipped the longest, took the shortest time from external pip to zip. What a cutie!

I noticed in my last hatch, and I want to observe this further, that the earlier my chicks pipped it seemed the longer it took to go from pip to zip, but the chicks that pipped closer to the "official" hatch time of day 21, actually pipped and zipped w/in 10 hours.

Yes, me too. Like I said in my last comment I think length of time of internal pip makes a difference too.

 

[casportpony]

Why do so many people feel so strongly about not opening the incubator the last few days?

-Kathy

 

[WVduckchick]

Why do so many people feel so strongly about not opening the incubator the last few days?

-Kathy

I'll take a couple stabs at that:

1 - Humidity does need to stay up. The best way to keep humidity up, is to leave the bator closed.

2 - When other problems happen, opening the bator is the easiest thing to blame it on, whether its the real cause, a contributing cause, or has nothing to do with it.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I'll take a couple stabs at that:

1 - Humidity does need to stay up. The best way to keep humidity up, is to leave the bator closed.

2 - When other problems happen, opening the bator is the easiest thing to blame it on, whether its the real cause, a contributing cause, or has nothing to do with it.

I strongly believe #2 is the biggest factor. Because we have to have something to blame the bad things on. It's easier to say, "oh, you opened the bator at hatchdown" than admit we're not sure what happened or that the chick was just too weak to begin with.

I also believe that people call "shrink wrapped" and generally they are not shrinkwrapped at all. You don't get "shrinkwrapped" from a couple minutes of air or a drop in the humidity. It takes time for the entire membrane to dry out and start shrinking to the point it truely shrink wraps a chick. I had two silkies in a hatch that shrink wrapped last year. No doubt. I have pics that I am more than willing to share to show shrink wrapping. They lost way too much moisture after lockdown. I believe it was egg quality. :-( I think having the membrane dry out around the pip hole and "glueing" itself to the chick making it unable to progress is a much higher probability.

The first time I opened a pip to enlarge it and saw the membrane around my chick, I nearly freaked out. I thought it had shrinkwrapped. I did not realize how "fitting" the inner membrane is around the chick. In reality, it was perfectly normally, but having heard "shrink wrap...shrink wrap shrink wrap" from people on here, I was just expecting it to happen, and scared that it would happen and I misread what is natural for a problem. The inner membrane actually encases the chick, it's just not so tight that the chick is unable to move and I think a lot of newbies think it's being shrinkwrapped when it is not.

 

[casportpony]

I would love to see pictures of your shrink wrapped chick.

-Kathy