Incubators Anonymous

[wabbit1964]

Question: I put this latest batch of eggs on lockdown late last night. I seem to remember seeing some eggs rock right away last batch. I don't see any movement with this bunch of eggs. They all seemed to be doing well at lockdown. The temp is running a little low this morning but humidity is around 65%. Am I just rushing it? Does everyone see eggs rocking a lot during the first day after lockdown or was I just remembering it wrong?

I only saw a few of my eggs rock so it is not always something you will witness I guess.... Wishing you luck with your hatch!

 

[ddpbk1]

I put 19 egss out of 26 shipped eggs into lockdown on the 22nd and 14 are hatching or hatched since yesterday morning. They are Basque hens and doing great. After my last hatch where 12 of SFH eggs that went into lockdown and nothing, this has helped the confidence. Not a bad hatch for shipped eggs, the ones from Florida are doing better than the ones from Texas. I thought it would be the other way. all 7 from Florida have hatched or are hatching. 7 out of the 12 from Texas have hatched and I think the other 5 are done. Candled and didn't see any movement this moning. Today is day 21 and they started hatching Tuesday night. 2 hatched but with crooked toes. How much B12 do you give?
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[gladahmae]

I need talked out of intervening in my hatch. I know that leaving things alone is the best course, but this has ended up being a really messed-up hatch. When I eggtopsied the "dead" eggs this morning after moving everything else into the other incubator (which is NOT set up for hatching at all!) I had almost half of them pipped into the aircell and that was it. I have 3 eggs in the incubator now that are rocking and chirping, and they've been doing that since 10:00 this morning, and there are still no pips. Things got really really dry for some reason in the other incubator and I observed white papery membranes in the eggs I opened to assess whether they had quit, or died during the heat issues/malfunctions. I still have an egg in there (now wrapped in damp paper towel) that pipped yesterday....about 24 hours ago. I'm considering grabbing it out and assisting it in hatching the rest of the way since it has not made any progress in that period of time (likely a "stuck" chick).

Should I poke a hole in these other chirping and rocking eggs to check to see if they too are "stuck"? One egg is from my layer coop, so EE mutts, and 2 are BCMs that I would REALLY REALLY REALLY like to hatch. If they die in the shell because I did nothing, I'm going to be really bummed about this hatch. We did EVERYTHING RIGHT up until now! I had over 50% of them go into lockdown, and only 2 of those were late quitters.

I have a genesis ordered so I hopefully don't have to go through this again next week.

 

[birdworld]

My first bator is on it's sixth run and is holding up great so far. The humidity depends on the humidity in the air. right now it is dry here we still have two feet of never ending snow. I like the meter with the bator that reads it I can fill it easy enough when the turner is in. Summer time the humidity holds better. out of two hatches of 40 I have 65 chicks. only one chick died after hatching.
I am always opening the bator. I cannot help myself. In the instructions they say to use cheese cloth for covering the wire mesh that holds them above the water tray. I work at a grocery store and have found that the tomatoes come on a foam type padding. It works great for the hatch. The chicks would get stuck to the cheese cloth but not the foam and any liquid drained right through. The cheese cloth stayed wet but the foam would dry right away. I think of my bator as a small professional bator not much work involved. I do check the humidity and temp several times a day. My husband says I should just sit on them as much as I am checking them. I hope I helped you out some. I was told about the bator I have by a friend and have not been disappointed yet. I decided on theis one it was not huge, but it isn't to small either. I don't have to put in 40 but I can if I want to. I am selling two batches of chicks and the eggs sold, I collect my own eggs and hatch them so figuring out the cost of the chicks and shipping they have payed for them selves. If you plan on collecting and hatching your own eggs it is a great idea and saves money.

 

[ChickNmamma]

I need talked out of intervening in my hatch. I know that leaving things alone is the best course, but this has ended up being a really messed-up hatch. When I eggtopsied the "dead" eggs this morning after moving everything else into the other incubator (which is NOT set up for hatching at all!) I had almost half of them pipped into the aircell and that was it. I have 3 eggs in the incubator now that are rocking and chirping, and they've been doing that since 10:00 this morning, and there are still no pips. Things got really really dry for some reason in the other incubator and I observed white papery membranes in the eggs I opened to assess whether they had quit, or died during the heat issues/malfunctions. I still have an egg in there (now wrapped in damp paper towel) that pipped yesterday....about 24 hours ago. I'm considering grabbing it out and assisting it in hatching the rest of the way since it has not made any progress in that period of time (likely a "stuck" chick).

Should I poke a hole in these other chirping and rocking eggs to check to see if they too are "stuck"? One egg is from my layer coop, so EE mutts, and 2 are BCMs that I would REALLY REALLY REALLY like to hatch. If they die in the shell because I did nothing, I'm going to be really bummed about this hatch. We did EVERYTHING RIGHT up until now! I had over 50% of them go into lockdown, and only 2 of those were late quitters.

I have a genesis ordered so I hopefully don't have to go through this again next week.

I got "impatient" with a few of mine too, but I "helped" after they had pipped. I would say, if you had problems with stuck chicks before you can see if the pipped chick is still wet inside. 24 hrs seems a long time. I think the paper towel will help with the humidity. Mine had the dry white outer layer, but the inside layer was still wet and the chick could (and did) get out. The two I helped, one was ready to come out (no blood and totally absorbed yolk) the other wasn't quite finished healing its imbilcal cord but it fell right out of the egg so it was almost ready. One of the early ones I helped when I was removing the egg shell very carefully to check it, it started bleeding - so I put some flour on it and left it alone. It didn't do anything for almost 9 hours.. but finally it hatched by itself... That one is still the noisiest chick.

I would not poke a hole in the eggs. Removing the carbon dioxide reduces the chance of them pipping the outer shell and then zipping. I kept the humidity at 60%, no higher. The chicks need oxygen as well as humidity. You can talk to them...

I found that tapping on the incubator and talking to them sometimes kicked the hatching into gear. Also leaving in two chicks to "talk" to the others helped too.

you see some pips, zipps and chicks soon..

 

[Flowerbh]

I need talked out of intervening in my hatch. I know that leaving things alone is the best course, but this has ended up being a really messed-up hatch. When I eggtopsied the "dead" eggs this morning after moving everything else into the other incubator (which is NOT set up for hatching at all!) I had almost half of them pipped into the aircell and that was it. I have 3 eggs in the incubator now that are rocking and chirping, and they've been doing that since 10:00 this morning, and there are still no pips. Things got really really dry for some reason in the other incubator and I observed white papery membranes in the eggs I opened to assess whether they had quit, or died during the heat issues/malfunctions. I still have an egg in there (now wrapped in damp paper towel) that pipped yesterday....about 24 hours ago. I'm considering grabbing it out and assisting it in hatching the rest of the way since it has not made any progress in that period of time (likely a "stuck" chick).

Should I poke a hole in these other chirping and rocking eggs to check to see if they too are "stuck"? One egg is from my layer coop, so EE mutts, and 2 are BCMs that I would REALLY REALLY REALLY like to hatch. If they die in the shell because I did nothing, I'm going to be really bummed about this hatch. We did EVERYTHING RIGHT up until now! I had over 50% of them go into lockdown, and only 2 of those were late quitters.

I have a genesis ordered so I hopefully don't have to go through this again next week.

I can't advise you...can only tell my story. I had a similar situation. Rocking eggs on hatch day! two got out, one pipped and then sat there for another 24 hours with it's little beak poking out. The other eggs all stopped moving one at a time....I did it...I helped her out...a little wheaton marans pullet. She is really tiny....a lot smaller than the other chicks, but she is running around and keeping up with them. I hope she will continue to grow and do well. The other 5 moving eggs until day 22? They all died. Fully formed ready to hatch chicks! I was heartbroken. I don't know if I could have saved them....the hard part is not knowing WHEN you should....I just waited too long for the others. I wondered if I had poked a small breathing hole near where you would think they would pip, if it would have kept them breathing and eventually made it out. Good luck.

 

[ChickNmamma]

I can't advise you...can only tell my story. I had a similar situation. Rocking eggs on hatch day! two got out, one pipped and then sat there for another 24 hours with it's little beak poking out. The other eggs all stopped moving one at a time....I did it...I helped her out...a little wheaton marans pullet. She is really tiny....a lot smaller than the other chicks, but she is running around and keeping up with them. I hope she will continue to grow and do well. The other 5 moving eggs until day 22? They all died. Fully formed ready to hatch chicks! I was heartbroken. I don't know if I could have saved them....the hard part is not knowing WHEN you should....I just waited too long for the others. I wondered if I had poked a small breathing hole near where you would think they would pip, if it would have kept them breathing and eventually made it out. Good luck.

If you have to poke a breathing hole it is better to do it at the top of the aircell. Less chance of hitting a vein there. Make the hole as small as possible, a big hole will dry out the inner membrane too fast.

 

[Chick a dee1023]

I have a few questions if someone can help.... There is a nest of Canadian goose eggs (2 or 3) right by my house, the mother was with them when we saw them yesterday, we ha vent seen her AT ALL today.... we have been taking time out throughout the day to run over and check (we stay pretty far away and quiet so if she IS around we don't scare her... not like that's a prob, we found her originally a week or so ago by getting too close and she chased us half way home! LOL). I want to send DH out again to grab them if shes no there still, but IDK if I can put them into my bator with my runner eggs. Should I get them or leave em? Is it safe to put them with my runner eggs? Do they incubate at the same temp & humidity? HELP! Does anyone know? If I'm gonna grab them, I wanna do it before it gets any colder tonight. Oh and should I clean them up so they don't bring germs into my bator with my runners?

 

[ozexpat]

I have a few questions if someone can help.... There is a nest of Canadian goose eggs (2 or 3) right by my house, the mother was with them when we saw them yesterday, we ha vent seen her AT ALL today.... we have been taking time out throughout the day to run over and check (we stay pretty far away and quiet so if she IS around we don't scare her... not like that's a prob, we found her originally a week or so ago by getting too close and she chased us half way home! LOL). I want to send DH out again to grab them if shes no there still, but IDK if I can put them into my bator with my runner eggs. Should I get them or leave em? Is it safe to put them with my runner eggs? Do they incubate at the same temp & humidity? HELP! Does anyone know? If I'm gonna grab them, I wanna do it before it gets any colder tonight. Oh and should I clean them up so they don't bring germs into my bator with my runners?

if she has been of them for more than a day there is little hope but candle them.

here is a guide to geese in the bator https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/491013/goose-incubation-hatching-guide-completed

 

[Chick a dee1023]

if she has been of them for more than a day there is little hope but candle them.

here is a guide to geese in the bator https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/491013/goose-incubation-hatching-guide-completed

thank you. If I candle them and they seem fine do you think its ok to put them in with my runner eggs?