Woke up at 4am and can't get back to sleep. I dreamt that I had fallen asleep sitting in front of the incubator and somehow pushed in the clear viewer window. I was all worried that humidity was escaping then looked in incubator and could 'nt see the eggs anymore. I noticed there was something moving under a blanket (no blanket in my incubator..dreams
). So I risked opening my incubator during lockdown and reached in to pull back the blanket and there were 7 fluffy chicks!!
When I woke up I went and checked but still... quiet as a church in there. Sigh. I am so anxious.. Can't go back to sleep.
Ended up getting a turkey last night, it's super cute (for now), and I hope one of his little friends decides to put in an appearance so he's not all alone.
Also had 2 more healthy chicks this AM, and I ended up losing 2 others. I was up at 4am, all was good and when I got back up at 8am, my humidity had dropped to 68%???? and two were unable to get out.
SO, I am attempting to raise my humidity again a bit, 9 eggs left in there, I figured I was probably finished and then I just heard another peep, not sure who's doing it cause no one has pipped, so hopefully the other fellas in there didn't suffer the humidity drop and maybe I'll get at least one more baby today.
-12 chicks
-5 ducks
-1 turkey
-9 left in the bator (Day 22/29)
Cute pictures everyone, LOVE seeing them! Have a good day, raining AGAIN so maybe I'll go take some baby pictures,
Asearcby, absolutely gorgeous! I wanted Blue Silkies with my Ideal Poultry order and there were out of them. I ended up getting 5 white, 5 buff and 5 'red'.
Cristie, you're hilarious lol What were you earing to give you such weird dreams?? :-D
LadyBird, I love love love my 12 day old Turkey babies. They're super cuddly and come running to jump into my hands. All they want is for me to hold them constantly and talk to them. I never knew Turkeys were so social.
It's officially just past 21 1/2 days. In the last 9 hrs we've had 1 Polish hatch and **3** (yes, 3 so far!) Blue Cochins!! I got a blue Cochin out of the deal! The 1 chicken I wanted more than any other.
Several others are pipped. I can't believe these guys are actually hatching!
Quick question-I've done the dry incubation and didn't even look at or think about humidity until lockdown. The windows are fogged up and have droplets of water on them now. Is that ok? The one who hatched at 6 AM still isn't dry all the way and it's been 6 hrs. How long before they're supposed to be dry? I certainly don't want to change a thing at this point. I don't even know what the humidity is right now.
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Wednesday morning (birthday!) I woke up to find one chick (out of six MF cochin eggs); came home from work in the late afternoon to find two more with all three remaining eggs pipped.
Around 6:30 yesterday evening one heck of a storm blew in. Wind, lightening, thunder, a ton of rain. Five seconds after I thought "I hope I don't lose power"...I did.
When I lose power, I make a call into Georgia Power to report this. However, my partner Bill was traveling and had taken his cell phone; I don't have one and my landline was dead from lack of power. So, I get in my truck to drive back to the hospital to use a phone.
Got to the end of the street and I see why we have no power; a large tree snapped in the storm, fell across the road, taking the power lines down in a domino effect. Lines are down for about 50 yards, poles are smashed from being pulled down, warning lights in the intersection are laying on the ground. Looks like a spaghetti noodle toss up. The police are there to stop anyone from attempting to cross lines. No one is going anywhere. This is the only entrance into and out of my street.
Georgia power trucks start working a couple of hours later and work throughout the night. I can hear the chain saws going to cut the tree up first. I've got the hatchlings in a Water Nanny and fill the bottom carrier with hot water from my bathtub. I'm worried about the temperature in my little Brinson mini incubator.
This morning one new hatchling and at least one of the two remaining eggs has a living chick; can't tell from the other. Georgia Power is still working on the mess; no electricity yet. However, they're now letting residents out.
I've got some rental property so on my way to work I take the incubator with the two remaining eggs, stop at our only empty house, plug the incubator in; the Brinson reads only 81 degrees.
I stop by at lunch and there's a fifth chick and I can hear some peeping coming from the last egg. I leave the chick in the Brinson and try to make it home to check on the others but the entrance to my street is again blocked off and the four Georgia Power trucks are still working there so I'm assuming no power yet.
I'm hoping when I get off work at 4:30 power will be restored and I'll be able to get into my house to check on the four hatchlings in the Water Nanny. If I can...and there's still no power, I'll take the brooder to the rental house to be able to provide the hatchlings with some heat.
I guess the whole point of this long winded posting is that it appears that even when temps drop significantly there still can be some hatching going on. I'll be curious to see what happens with the sixth egg.
Good Grief Gail, that's a heck of a story. Any 6th baby yet?
Had another duckling hatch about an hour ago - I think I hear someone else making noise in there but no one has pipped but if I had to place my bet, it's probably that last duck egg,
they are tough little things!
My babies moving into their brooder this AM, that's my lone little turkey on the right hand side, greyish little guy. Sure looks different from my other turkeys.
-12 Chicks
-6 Ducks
-1 Turkey
-3 Lost
-8 Left in the bator (Day 22/29)