June Hatch A Long

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

This little one (lavender or porcelain d'Anver, do you know which?) hatched last night. I hope it doesn't end up being the only chick that hatches. At least it has my broody hen to take care of it so it won't be lonely.

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What a little Beauty - Congratulations!

 

[Allie Grace Sanders]

So, tragedy struck. Last night, something got into the tractor I was keeping mom and chicks and unhatched eggs in. It dug a hole, ate all the chicks, and all the eggs. I woke up the morning to a distraught mom frantically running around looking for her chicks. She had scratch marks on her comb.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

So I woke up today & my baby was gone I'm so completely heartbroken, I can't even put it into words. He did sleep a ton, & he kept trying to walk but couldn't & did seem weak last night, so I tried to give him food & water & he just wouldn't accept it, but I went to bed thinking that everything would be okay today, & he just needed time I wanted to come back & truly thank you guys though, for walking me through everything. If it wasn't for all of you, he would have had no chance at all, & I'm glad that we had that day with him...

Oh no! How heartbreaking!!!! You put so much into helping that little guy out of his shell and did so well with him! He was so very little and cute! Not fair at all. Sometimes there is just nothing more you can do... I’m so sorry.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

The scariest thing to wake up to happened. I thought I cooked my day 20 eggs. One of my thermometers was reading 109!!! I freaked out. It was the digital meat thermometer that I’ve used for all my hatches as my secondary read.

The one inside the incubator was reading fine, so I grabbed my husband’s Weber iGrill thermometer and it’s exactly where it should be

That is scary! Glad it was just a thermometer glitch! I had nightmares like that last year, when I incubated for the first time...

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

So, tragedy struck. Last night, something got into the tractor I was keeping mom and chicks and unhatched eggs in. It dug a hole, ate all the chicks, and all the eggs. I woke up the morning to a distraught mom frantically running around looking for her chicks. She had scratch marks on her comb.

Argh!!!! That’s so so awful!!! So frustrating when you can’t keep your peeps safe! It’s tragedy morning on this thread. I am glad that your hen wasn’t taken. But I’m so sorry! Losing chicks is tough!!!

 

[SunHwaKwon]

Also.... I’ve got several of those shipped eggs with fluid at the bottom of the egg, some being incubated on side.

I have a couple options....

Setup little giant and continue incubating them to see if they continue growth... monitor for internal pips before upping humidity?

Weigh and if theyve lost enough, put into lockdown with all the rest but put at side of incubator in cartons to see if they can still hatch but not drown in the fluid?

Put in cartons for lockdown at same time as others, but separate from the others and put in little giant.

One of the reasons I got a second incubator to use as a hatcher was because of situations like that - time for "lockdown" but some eggs still needed to dry out more. It gave me the option of treating each egg individually, and I would move them to the hatcher once the aircells were big enough and/or I saw internal pipping.

 

[SunHwaKwon]

So, tragedy struck. Last night, something got into the tractor I was keeping mom and chicks and unhatched eggs in. It dug a hole, ate all the chicks, and all the eggs. I woke up the morning to a distraught mom frantically running around looking for her chicks. She had scratch marks on her comb.

I have thought about doing a tractor but they scare me for this reason (no skirt)

 

[jolenesdad]

So, tragedy struck. Last night, something got into the tractor I was keeping mom and chicks and unhatched eggs in. It dug a hole, ate all the chicks, and all the eggs. I woke up the morning to a distraught mom frantically running around looking for her chicks. She had scratch marks on her comb.

:-( I am so so sorry!!!! And so sorry for momma, sending lots of love to you both.

 

[LuckyCluckyCA]

I just found this! My first batch of incubated eggs are on day 14 today. Mom is a red sex link ( r I r x Delaware) dad is an black Americauna- my friend had batches from this pair and first time got 4/6 2 white 2 black and her 2nd set 6/6 all black. She got 4 hens first batch and 4 hens 2 Roos the next.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

I’m making a hatch spreadsheet/chart I can use to start hatch comparisons and notes.

Here’s what I have for each egg, let me know what else you would want to keep note of...

Egg location in incubator (I opted not to change positions since I hadn’t for the first half)
Position during hatch (upright or side)
Position during lockdown (side or carton)
Breed
Starting weight
Finish weight
Percent loss
Visual inspection size of air cell
Air cell status at beginning
Egg cleanliness rating
Time of internal pip if noted
Time of external pip
Time of zip
Time of hatch
Notes

I know I won’t get all the info on every egg, but I’ll try and keep track so I can start records for comparison.

Nice! I would probably rate the porosity of the egg as well and I'm sure you'll notate if you have anything odd like a body checked egg. I'll try doing something like this for next month as well. I don't weigh my eggs or candle them after lockdown for internal pips so I can't be quite as precise as you but it would be interesting to see especially when comparing my IncuView to my Nurture Right 360 because when maping the temps there are much more extreme fluctuations in the IncuView for sure.