June Hatch A Long

[LilyD]

I'm starting to get antsy. Tomorrow night any early birds should start hatching. I am SO impatient to see if these poor shipped kids are gonna make it

Fingers crossed that they do okay. Mine go into the incubator tonight after sitting for 24 hours.

 

[SueT]

So I was debating when to move broody and chicks and the unhatched egg to new pen, as it was very tight quarters where they were, locked in a long nest box. (3 chicks hatched yesterday) I came out to see them and she was standing, and the egg was beside her. I reached in and egg was still warm, but there were lots and lots of mites crawling on my hand.
i quickly put everyone in the new pen, including the egg. After about 15 min, she was covering the chicks, but ignoring the egg, so I brought it in to my improvised brooder which is warmed by a reptile bulb (ceramic heat emitter.) There is tapping and peeping, it is trying to hatch, it has pipped, or I cracked it picking it up. It should be day 20 for this one which was started a 1+day behind the others.
I put a little container of water for humidity. Thermometer has moisture reading too. Temp says 93, but humidity 36%. It has only been 10 minutes in this set up.
If/when it hatches I am planning to slip it under Mama.
Any advice appreciated, including what to use in coop for mites asap. I have no more DE. I have wood ashes. I can go find something at farm store.

 

[Mosey2003]

For mites, you want to go get concentrated Permethrin liquid, it will be in the cattle/horse section of the store. Get a pump sprayer while you're there, usually are some small ones fairly cheap. Usually it's meant to be mixed at 1/3 of an ounce to a gallon of water. Remove all bedding from coop and nests, spray the bejeesus out of everything, especially any cracks and corners. Fresh bedding. Do it again in a week.

You can also get poultry mite powder, I think Manna Pro makes one, that you could sprinkle in the fresh bedding too. And, obviously, dust or dip all the chickens.

Permethrin is very safe, shouldn't hurt hens or chicks.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

So I was debating when to move broody and chicks and the unhatched egg to new pen, as it was very tight quarters where they were, locked in a long nest box. (3 chicks hatched yesterday) I came out to see them and she was standing, and the egg was beside her. I reached in and egg was still warm, but there were lots and lots of mites crawling on my hand.
i quickly put everyone in the new pen, including the egg. After about 15 min, she was covering the chicks, but ignoring the egg, so I brought it in to my improvised brooder which is warmed by a reptile bulb (ceramic heat emitter.) There is tapping and peeping, it is trying to hatch, it has pipped, or I cracked it picking it up. It should be day 20 for this one which was started a 1+day behind the others.
I put a little container of water for humidity. Thermometer has moisture reading too. Temp says 93, but humidity 36%. It has only been 10 minutes in this set up.
If/when it hatches I am planning to slip it under Mama.
Any advice appreciated, including what to use in coop for mites asap. I have no more DE. I have wood ashes. I can go find something at farm store.
View attachment 1811770

Sounds like you need to get that humidity up... Maybe a warm damp washcloth or warm damp paper towel touching the side of the egg? I’ve dripped a small amount of warm saline on those hatching membranes, though am experienced Hatcher on this thread is a fan of coconut oil instead... maybe it depends on whether it looks like this chick is about to pop out or will take awhile. It’s hard to be precise about temperature with those ceramic bulbs and easy to cook, so I think I’d leave it at 93 F...

 

[CluckNDoodle]

So I was debating when to move broody and chicks and the unhatched egg to new pen, as it was very tight quarters where they were, locked in a long nest box. (3 chicks hatched yesterday) I came out to see them and she was standing, and the egg was beside her. I reached in and egg was still warm, but there were lots and lots of mites crawling on my hand.
i quickly put everyone in the new pen, including the egg. After about 15 min, she was covering the chicks, but ignoring the egg, so I brought it in to my improvised brooder which is warmed by a reptile bulb (ceramic heat emitter.) There is tapping and peeping, it is trying to hatch, it has pipped, or I cracked it picking it up. It should be day 20 for this one which was started a 1+day behind the others.
I put a little container of water for humidity. Thermometer has moisture reading too. Temp says 93, but humidity 36%. It has only been 10 minutes in this set up.
If/when it hatches I am planning to slip it under Mama.
Any advice appreciated, including what to use in coop for mites asap. I have no more DE. I have wood ashes. I can go find something at farm store.
View attachment 1811770

Oh my goodness! So sorry about the mites! I don't think I have any advice other than what was already suggested above. Hopefully the chick will still hatch for you since it's so close! It's my understanding that the closer they are to hatching the more forgiving they are to temperature changes.
I will add that if the little peep makes it, slipping it under your broody in the middle of the night seems to go the more smoothly so she doesn't reject the new chick.
Good luck!!!

 

[jolenesdad]

Hi Jolenesdad, I haven’t hatched a ton of eggs, but I’ve tried keeping a constant humidity (55%) in one chicken hatch and adjusting for weight loss in one duck/guinea hatch. I actually had good hatches for both, but with the constant humidity hatch, I did have several full term, dead in shell chicks that had developed and were positioned normally, but failed to internally pip. When I weighed eggs and attempted to adjust humidity, the eggs were all over the place in weight loss, but almost all still hatched. From that, I decided that weight loss was not a very sensitive indicator anyway, so with this hatch, I decided to go by air cell size. I could weigh and try to adjust, but I think that I’m currently trying to judge how high I can safely go in humidity to keep them from losing more water than necessary. I only have them in the incubator for six more days (today is Day 12), then will place under the broodies at day 18 (assuming that they don’t break!).

Awesome! I think weighing is always all over the place, but a starting point when you don’t know visually based on air cell size.... which you seem to have a great handle on.

If you’re thinking that 50ish is too high, do you have space for a baby jar in the incubator? You could try and add something with less surface area to get you up a bit but not up too much!

 

[SueT]

I got the humidity up to 65% by putting plastic wrap over the top of my box and a teacup of boiling water in one corner....I pulled back a tiny piece of the pipped shell to see if there was membrane to be oiled, but there is a beak...and it's pushing at the shell.....

 

[CluckNDoodle]

I got the humidity up to 65% by putting plastic wrap over the top of my box and a teacup of boiling water in one corner....I pulled back a tiny piece of the pipped shell to see if there was membrane to be oiled, but there is a beak...and it's pushing at the shell.....View attachment 1811938
View attachment 1811939

You can do it little guy!!
I would still leave a small hole for ventilation. Oxygen is more important than humidity.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

I got the humidity up to 65% by putting plastic wrap over the top of my box and a teacup of boiling water in one corner....I pulled back a tiny piece of the pipped shell to see if there was membrane to be oiled, but there is a beak...and it's pushing at the shell.....View attachment 1811938
View attachment 1811939

You’re doing a great job of helping her - c’mon little one!!!

 

[SueT]

You’re doing a great job of helping her - c’mon little one!!!

what I'm concerned about is maintaining temp. I keep turning off the heat source so it won't get too hot. I have a heating pad in there now, on the side, not touching the egg, and with a damp cloth on it. chick is still moving in there, beak pushing on shell, but hasn't made any zipping progress.