Hatch-A-Long; GemmaGA's Very First Incubator Hatch!

[GemmaGA]

3 chicks so far and two more working their way out! Pics coming

 

[GemmaGA]

Total of 5 chicks hatched so far, one of them did not make it

I have a bit of a staggered hatch so I have some additional eggs that have the potential to hatch in the next 5 days or so.

 

[3KillerBs]

Total of 5 chicks hatched so far, one of them did not make it

I have a bit of a staggered hatch so I have some additional eggs that have the potential to hatch in the next 5 days or so.

I had 7 hatch out of 14 that went into lockdown -- one of whom I assisted because I thought that it was my fault that her membrane dried out but who turned out to have issues.

 

[GemmaGA]

Yea the one that didn't make it seemed to have some of its parts on the outside that shouldn't have been

I came home today though from visiting family to find another chick hatched! This one was from my own eggs - if you read some of my original posts in this thread you will see that I lost my beloved cochin bantam roo to a predator and was going to try to hatch some of my girls eggs that may be fertilized. - and low and behold... I came home to one of those eggs that had hatched into a cute little chick That makes me very happy!

 

[GemmaGA]

Just checked - THREE MORE eggs have pipped from my own eggs! I think I put in 6-7 of my own chicken's eggs so it looks like at least 4/7 of my own eggs will be hatching! That is after having them in the fridge for about 2 weeks - they were still viable! That is very cool, amazing, and exciting!!!! Gives me back a little bit of my roo, Scuba!

For those interested these chicks are blue splash cochin x ISA browns to the best of my knowledge, will be interesting to see what they end up looking like! The first one did not have feathered feet.

Another few days on my Ayam Cemani eggs.....

 

[GemmaGA]

Update!
1/3 Ayam Cemani eggs successfully hatched. One chick was positioned upside down in the egg and died trying to hatch - unfortunately I did not realize it soon enough

So for the first batch - I had approx 23 viable eggs - and ended up with about a 40% hatch rate +/-. It was actually even worse than that because 7 of the 23 were my own eggs, that had been refrigerated for 2+ weeks after my rooster was killed and very surprisingly it seems like 4/7 were all fertile and hatched! I am left with 7 happy, healthy chicks out of that batch. 2- Lavender Orpingtons (eBay eggs); 4 splash bantam cochin mixes; 1 Ayam Cemani

I got another batch of eBay hatching eggs, some show quality silkies and a mixed batch of pure breeds that went into the incubator last night - though they are a mystery! 1 Could be any combination of Brahama, Jersey Giants, Langshan, Speckled Sussex and a few others. Excited to see what hatches!

16 eggs total + 1 remaining Ayam Cemani egg that I am holding out hope for to still hatch (at about day 23 now...)

 

[gimmie birdies]

Neat.

The duck eggs were not fertile.

I did put some eggs in the incubator about 5 days ago, they are fertile, some from in-laws from MT. and 2 batches from local farms. (one barred rock and one batch welsummer or BCM.)

 

[GemmaGA]

UPDATE 03/29/2022

Initial incubated chicks (7) are doing well and growing like crazy!

Second incubator batch is still 12 days from hatch. Out of 16 eggs, looks like about 10 of them are developing, I'll provide another update in about a week before I go into lockdown!