1st time!! I have....
6 silkies
12 surprises from Ebay lol pretty babies
8 white faced black bantams and
6 backyard greys ; )
My husband decided he needed a new hobby, but thought all you had to do was set the eggs and wait.... needless to say I decided to actually hatch us some babies!!! Lol
Day 14 here!!!!! Candled all the eggs this morning and they are developing beautifully! I'm so happy with the fertility coming from my silkie pen. A friend of mine hatched some silkies from our breeding pen last week and they all did awesome. Not a single silkie egg was infertile or non-developing. Every singe egg is growing and I can see movement within the egg. Of the other eggs, I took 6 out for either quitting or not starting. That leaves 27 eggs until lockdown in just 4 days!!!
I was very surprised to see a pip on day 18 when I went to lockdown the eggs. She ended up hatching that evening and is perfectly healthy. I have no idea how that happened as my temp and humidity stayed very steady the whole hatch. The only thing I can think of is that my storage area for my fertile eggs may be too warm and they got a bit of a head-start. I had another chick hatch on day 19 and now I have 4 hatched with 2 zipping and 2 or 3 more pips early in the AM on day 20. None of the silkies have pipped though :-( I'm worried the hatch won't be over before I have to get the first chick out to start eating and drinking. Time to get the brooder ready!!!!
Mine was less than I had hoped So far 3 hatched. And another pipped last night. This is day 22. 1 of my 3 was a total assisted hatch: shipped egg that was malpositioned and pipped in the middle. 18 grueling hours after deciding to help... She busted out this morning locked down with 16 (2 looked like late quitters that I refused to give up on) and a few I checked on last night were malpositions that never could pip. Hope that I do better on my second attempt... But the ones I have are precious!!
Aww! Don't give up! I've had terrible hatches before. They are heartbreaking but you end up learning a lot of from. And shipped eggs are really tough!!! Enjoy the precious babies you did get. Any pictures?