So my twin 6 year old boys got a hen and rooster this summer and the hen just started laying eggs. My boys wanted to hatch them we collected the first 6 eggs and put them in the incubator. I wrote on all the eggs 1-6 and I left the incubator alone. 11 days later I went to candle the eggs, well my twins had been putting eggs in it the entire time. So to get on with the story I have many different stages of eggs in the incubator the first chicks hatched 3,4,5 and 8 hatched on 11/14, So I went to candle the rest found that 1,2,6,7 had died at some point and they were smelly and rotten. So today with how early 8 had hatched I thought I better candle the remaining eggs to see what stage there at. 9-12 appear to have a good air cell, so then I checked for cracks and tried water candling them, they all sunk to the bottom so I just waited for movement and thank goodness there was movement. I turned down the humidity in the incubator worried that they would drown as soon as they decided to internally pip, with how early 8 hatched I figured that 9 & 10 should be piping today assuming that kids wrote the correct number on the eggs. I'm worried that if the humidity doesn't get down far enough that 9 & 10 will drown when they pip. Besides what I have already done is there anything else I can do? Also eggs 13 and on up weren't fertile, the rooster and hen are only 20 weeks old these are their first eggs. Is that why one of the baby chicks has smaller head then the other chicks, it hatched before the others? Could it be a mentally disabled chick?
Good news #9 piped at 7:00pm, he was in dry hatch with humidity of 25% at 2:00pm so for 5hrs. I moved him out of the dry hatch and put him in a incubator with humidity of 70% I don't want his inner membrane to dry up and mummify him, I'm going to leave 10, 11, & 12 in the dry hatch incubator for now. #10 should pip tomorrow sometime and once he does I'll move him into the other incubator.
Hi Glad you could join the flock! Hatching pullet eggs can sometimes cause issues with any resulting chicks due to the fact the pullet is still getting her laying machine in good working order. Also pullet eggs are often smaller than the more mature hens eggs and therefore the chicks don't have as much room to develop correctly. Many do hatch pullet eggs successfully but for me I find it good practice to wait a little longer just to be sure. I think your doing all you can with your staggered hatching as in moving them to another incubator with higher humidity. I'm afraid staggered hatching is not for me, I like to store my eggs and set the whole incubator at the same time. It's not as stressful and you get your chicks at the same time. Good luck with your hatch, hope you will be able to post some pics. Enjoy BYC
Yorkshire coop has a lot of incubating experience (I have none). There is a forum for incubating and hatching here, if you haven't already found it: https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/5/incubating-hatching-eggs Good luck!
Alright great to have you joining the BYC flock Good to see you sharing the secrets of life with your children I put my eggs into the incubator just the same way but one thing you might want to wait till your chickens are a little older if you wish to have some healthier chicks but then I have had plenty of chick's hatched out by mommas of 20 weeks just that incubated chicks seem to do better with older parents providing the eggs ..... Enjoy your new additions
As of now 9, 10, & 11 hatched, 12 hasn't piped. 13 piped, but at the wrong end. I'm in knots, this waiting game is terrible, now I won't get any sleep until 13 hatches and 12 pips. I have the humidity up to 75% I hope that 13 can zip without any issues. Then again 12 hasn't made any progress that I can see through the window, maybe when I get home from work tomorrow 12 and 13 will have hatched and hatching will be done.
Next time I'll make sure we (kids & myself) understand that once the incubator is closed its closed and they aren't allowed to add eggs, this is to stressful for me!
