Hatching buddy? Set today, due May 18th

[BooBear]

2 hatched and another this morning. They are soo cute.
Early this evening one of the wyandotte eggs hatched too. It is still in the incubator as there are 2 more eggs with pips.

Sad update is Mrs. Grumpy rejected the chicks.

She only wants to sit on the nest. I had to protect the chicks and remove her from the brooder hutch. The chicks have a light over them now for warmth. I am bummed, but the chicks are doing ok. They were very upset to be rejected though so their first day was a bummer.

Mrs. Grumpy is now in a wire bottom hutch to cool her out of her broodiness. I doubt it will do much for her grumpiness though.

Poor Cinnimon (Silkie Rooster) made the mistake of standing in her way while she was pitching a fit about being tossed from the brooder hutch. She whooped his butt!

Felt bad for him.

Hopefully tommorrow will be a better day with more eggs hatching. Oh and I will try to get some pics tomorrow. So much going on I forgot to get some pics.

 

[BooBear]

Quote:
Congratulations! How many days is this? Will you stay up all night?

Oh sorry, yesterday was day 19 and today was day 20 so they are hatching on the early side. Hoping the remaining 6 that have not pipped yet start hatching tomorrow.

 

[MamacitaGallina]

We set April 27th at 1am. (I have a weird sleep schedule.)
This is our second attempt at hatching. Our last hatch had a temperature drop pretty low (around high 60s) around day 10 that I didn't catch for about 12 hours and then when I figured out the power was out on the plugin and started the incubator heating again just in case....I went to work. I came back home to stinky eggs and the temperature reading at 118*F. I figured there was no way they could have made it through such a double whammy. My oldest told me that the temp alarm had been going off but instead of turning down the heat on the incubator.... he just turned off the alarm.

The kids cracked the eggs outside and most of them had been viable. I could only look at two before the loss got to me so I went back inside while they had a hands on science lesson without me. It sucked because I had just candled four of the 24 eggs with my 4 year old and we had seen them moving around inside and were really getting excited.
So.... well....
A few days later we got some more eggs from my SIL, 21 for this hatch. We washed them all on the 27th and dunked them in a gallon of warm water with 1 tablespoon of bleach. Around day 8 we candled and culled one egg. ALL the other had movement! wheeee. There was one that I was a little iffy on but I left in the bator anyway....just in case. Tonight around 5:30 I had all the kids come upstairs and we candled them again. We waited untill we saw movement in each egg. One was moving but not as energetically as the others, but the one that I had thought looked ifffy looked fine now. After we candled them we took out the automatic egg turner and "locked down" only for me to get on BYC and find out that we locked down a day early. So at 9:30pm I took out both plugs on the little giant bator since I had put marbles in the water trough underneath the screen. So here's to monitoring the temp tonight and turning them a few times more....and locking down tomorrow.

We have had temperature fluctuations but after the tragedy last time I was afraid of turning the 'bator up higher and left it on the low side. NEXT time I'm going to get a better 'bator. I didn't like the Little Giant at all because of the temp fluctuations.... I supposed it was made especially for places that have a constant inside temperature not a house with the heat and A/C off. $350 energy bills will get to you! SO well.... we are starting to get excited again! Cheers to chickeees next week.

 

[empireranch]

Quote:
I am setting up my brooder tomorrow just in case my broody doesn't want the babies - thought I had better be prepared.

 

[mycutekitties]

Is everyone ready for Wednesday??? All mine are ready to go.

 

[skillswife]

All my duckies, just got candled and put into lockdown. They all seem to be doing good although I think one may have pipped internally but not certain. I am so nervous! My last hatch ended up with none hatching.

 

[mycutekitties]

I am somewhat worried because part of what I have in the incubator is 12 shipped eggs. All are developing but 2 have very large air cells. I hope they make it!

 

[BooBear]

Ok, I got the pictures.

Here are the first 3 that hatched. They are the ones Mrs. Grumpy rejected; don't know why they are ubber sweet.

Added the other 4 that hatched today so there are now 7 in the brooder. These 4 gave another just hatching chick a hard time so I had to pull them out fast. The other chick would chirp and they would peck and step on it in its egg. So I took them out and then very carefully and quickly helped the new chick out. She zipped the shell but the membrane did not break all the way around.

The first 3 were so happy to have company. They ran to the new ones for cuddles and called them over to the food. So cute! All 7 are doing good. The newest chick is still in the bator drying and I have 4 eggs left that still have not pipped yet. As this is just day 21 I am hoping they pip tomorrow and hatch.

 

[hokankai]

Cute! The chicks I was having incubated for me hatched yesterday and I brought them home last night. They are mille fleur cochins and oh so adorable! My two silkie chicks were happy to have more siblings!

Molly's eggs are due Thursday, we'll see if anything hatches! I'm going to be adding more chicks under her but they will be a couple days old...I hope she accepts them.\\

Here are the babies in the brooder!

Chick #1 and my favorite so far (reeeally hope it's a girl!)

Chick #2

Chick #3

Chick #4, another favorite

Chick #5, should end up looking mottled

Chick #6

Chick #7

He was stumbling backward from the flash...

The silkies (one grey and one partridge)

 

[empireranch]

What wonderful pictures BooBear and hokankai!

Just checked my broody and she is sitting very still - today is day 19....