Hatching chicks advice, day 21...

[Happy Helper]

Update...

We took out the little ones and they are happily eating in the brooder. See attached image.

Our adult flock has an Aracauna black rooster, 2 black hens, 2 red hens, an amber hen, and a white leghorn hen. I don't remember the name of the black, red and amber ones, they were called layer chicks when we got them.

We hatched 2 black, 2 amber with black spots, and a white chick. I don't think think any survived from the red hens. I could be wrong, it's hard to tell amber from red at this age. The black spots are neat.

So the zipped eggs were both dead. I suspect they got stuck in their turn. One smelled bad and he was really big for his shell. The chick looked fine otherwise. It looked like he may have withdrew all the blood from the inner membrane, and the yolk was mostly absorbed. So it must have perished just before it broke out.

The other zipped egg chick looked the same.

There were 3 other eggs where the beak was sticking out slightly. No movement whatsoever out of them. The third one did bleed a little when we were removing some of the shell around the beak. Since that was different than the others, I stopped the bleeding with paper towel and put him back in the incubator. I think he's already gone though. I assume I should be seeing some movement in the beak or the rest of the chick? If he's dead and bleeding, I assume he passed just recently.

There was one egg where it looked like it tried to pip but a part of its body got in the way and was pushed out of the shell a bit. I assume this chick suffocated because the hole was blocked.

One other egg shows no sign of hatching at all, no pips, no cracks, nothing. I left it in the incubator and I'll candle it tonight. Here's hoping we get one more at least for a 50% rate.

I'm not a fan of this incubator. It only holds 12 eggs on their side. There is not enough room to add additional thermometers and hygrometers. Difficult to see water level. I'm going to order another one. I'll give this to someone else and tell them to only put 10 eggs in which leaves room for thermometers and hygrometers. I can't put another batch on because we have ducks coming in a few weeks. So lots of time to order a better incubator.

Any suggestions on a decent incubator from Amazon? I will be hatching chicks every summer, probably ducklings too. Also some geese at some point. It will see a decent amount of use.

 

[Happy Helper]

Update...

We took out the little ones and they are happily eating in the brooder. See attached image.

Our adult flock has an Aracauna black rooster, 2 black hens, 2 red hens, an amber hen, and a white leghorn hen. I don't remember the name of the black, red and amber ones, they were called layer chicks when we got them.

We hatched 2 black, 2 amber with black spots, and a white chick. I don't think think any survived from the red hens. I could be wrong, it's hard to tell amber from red at this age. The black spots are neat.

So the zipped eggs were both dead. I suspect they got stuck in their turn. One smelled bad and he was really big for his shell. The chick looked fine otherwise. It looked like he may have withdrew all the blood from the inner membrane, and the yolk was mostly absorbed. So it must have perished just before it broke out.

The other zipped egg chick looked the same.

There were 3 other eggs where the beak was sticking out slightly. No movement whatsoever out of them. The third one did bleed a little when we were removing some of the shell around the beak. Since that was different than the others, I stopped the bleeding with paper towel and put him back in the incubator. I think he's already gone though. I assume I should be seeing some movement in the beak or the rest of the chick? If he's dead and bleeding, I assume he passed just recently.

There was one egg where it looked like it tried to pip but a part of its body got in the way and was pushed out of the shell a bit. I assume this chick suffocated because the hole was blocked.

One other egg shows no sign of hatching at all, no pips, no cracks, nothing. I left it in the incubator and I'll candle it tonight. Here's hoping we get one more at least for a 50% rate.

I'm not a fan of this incubator. It only holds 12 eggs on their side. There is not enough room to add additional thermometers and hygrometers. Difficult to see water level. I'm going to order another one. I'll give this to someone else and tell them to only put 10 eggs in which leaves room for thermometers and hygrometers. I can't put another batch on because we have ducks coming in a few weeks. So lots of time to order a better incubator.

Any suggestions on a decent incubator from Amazon? I will be hatching chicks every summer, probably ducklings too. Also some geese at some point. It will see a decent amount of use.

 

[Happy Helper]

I really like my Nurture Right 360. I got mine from Amazon but you can also get it from TSC. The temperature has been right on the dot for my three hatches. The humidity has changed somewhat as the season changed from winter to spring but it is easy to control when you become more familiar as to how much water and when to add it. It hold 1/4 cup in the first reservoir, the one you use for the first 18 days. It is on the exterior so you don't have to open the incubator.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Sorry to hear that several chicks weren’t able to hatch, but congratulations on your lovely new chicks! If you plan to hatch a lot of eggs, you might consider keeping your first incubator as a dedicated hatcher. The temperature/humidity issues aren’t quite as critical for only the hatching (lockdown) stage of incubation, and if you ever have a staggered hatch, with different days that you start incubation or mixed species of eggs (ducks and geese take longer), then a separate hatcher is super useful! It allows you to keep your younger eggs at a lower humidity and hatching eggs at a higher humidity, plus keeps the incubator cleaner.

 

[littlechickenmama17]

Though this is late, I actually recommend the Nurture Right 360 Harris Farms incubator - no need for a thermometer and IT AUTOMATICALLY TURNS THE EGGS!! it turns it about 5 times a day and it is set to the right temp for incubating. A very good incubator and reviews say that most people get 100% hatch rate!