Late Feburary-Early March 2016 Hatch-A-Long!

[Purpletie3]

What a way to wake up this morning!!! So far only 1 out of 12 eggs. This is our first time and 3 of these I am really hopeful for!!! 7 more under a mama in the coop!!

Very cute congrats!

 

[caesargirl]

Yea!! Congratulations and good luck on the rest!!!!

 

[butterfliesdoku]

Day 19 1/2 and no external pips yet but I caught 3 eggs wiggling last night and I heard faint chirping coming from one of the eggs (must be internal pip unless it pipped externally where I can't see). I have a question: I placed paper towels on the bottom and am worried that it will draw out the moisture from the shells when the chicks pip/zip, will there be a problem? Has anyone used paper towels to line the hatcher?

 

[KeyFlock]

Wow everybody, congratulations!! I'm on day 7 and I can't wait to get home and candle!

 

[MadamPoofyBrow]

Wow! Beautiful babies and congrats everyone!
Sorry haven't been on much, been busy with school and the chickens and whatnot...
I'm on...day 14, I think. Need to check my callender. Candeld day ten and the shipped eggs didn't do so great. Tossed seven clear, four are developing nicely, and ones just in the for the sake of hope. I doubt it'll hatch but it's worth a shot. Out of the eggs from my own birds, all four Cochin are developing perfectly and so is the single Serama X.
So far I have 16 eggs gathered to set in the EHAL, and will hopefully get more :-D am possibly trading a pair of chickens for more eggs, we shall see :-D

 

[machinfarm]

Well our first hatch is done, it was quite a learning experience. We had our first pip day 19 and then 14 hatched day 20, one I assisted on day 21 after I realized that it, and the other three, were shrink wrapped. The humidity kept getting so high, 90+ % and I was afraid it was too high so I opened the lid a few times trying to get some of the humidity out... Only to realize that my hygrometer had actually gotten wet at one point, I think it dipped into my water tray on accident, and was reading so high because of that. So it wasn't high after all, I have no idea what the humidity really was but I know my opening the lid caused three to die :,/ the one I saved is smaller than the others but its getting strong and holding its own with it's brothers and sisters!
I had to take my broody mama off her nest, she nearly died, poor thing was infested with mites and worms coupled with not eating (I have a thread regarding that whole debacle) so her eggs are finishing off in the bator, they are in lockdown today, should hatch Friday, and then we have 20 more set to hatch March 3rd!

So for my first hatch, I set 20 eggs, tossed one clear. One died around day 15-16, another I thought was dead at that point as well actually pipped but shrink wrapped. Two others failed to pip at all and were shrink wrapped, and the runty one I rescued had pipped a hole big enough to see his beak but the got stuck and I could see the membrane drying and turning beige, so I helped him out slowly over the course of several hours. So 15 live chicks from 20 eggs, 75% hatch rate. Would have liked to have more but again, a learning experience.

 

[MadamPoofyBrow]

75%s not bad at all Machin!
Good luck with your broody, i had that happen to a silkie once who was so good to her eggs she forgot to take care of herself. She got better and has brooded many times since then but I force her off the best at least once s day and dip her beak in water three times a day.
Got any pics of the babies?

 

[machinfarm]

75%s not bad at all Machin!
Good luck with your broody, i had that happen to a silkie once who was so good to her eggs she forgot to take care of herself. She got better and has brooded many times since then but I force her off the best at least once s day and dip her beak in water three times a day.
Got any pics of the babies?

Yep that's exactly what happened, she was so dedicated she forgot to ever get off the eggs and made herself quite the target!
Here's our sweet babies!

The last one shows the little guy next to the rest, he/she is about 2/3 the size of the rest, and he never stops peeping!

 

[Em Ty]

So I've had 31 quail hatch so far and 23 are in the brooder, having started hatching 9 hours ago. My thermometers are all over the place, probably due to radiant heat, so I'm trying to go by chick distribution. How does this look to you?



The light is pretty much in the center of the group. They're sleeping a lot but do get up and run around like idiots at times.

Too hot, too cold, or Goldilocks?

 

[NTBugtraq]

Well our first hatch is done, it was quite a learning experience. We had our first pip day 19 and then 14 hatched day 20, one I assisted on day 21 after I realized that it, and the other three, were shrink wrapped. The humidity kept getting so high, 90+ % and I was afraid it was too high so I opened the lid a few times trying to get some of the humidity out... Only to realize that my hygrometer had actually gotten wet at one point, I think it dipped into my water tray on accident, and was reading so high because of that. So it wasn't high after all, I have no idea what the humidity really was but I know my opening the lid caused three to die :,/ the one I saved is smaller than the others but its getting strong and holding its own with it's brothers and sisters!
I had to take my broody mama off her nest, she nearly died, poor thing was infested with mites and worms coupled with not eating (I have a thread regarding that whole debacle) so her eggs are finishing off in the bator, they are in lockdown today, should hatch Friday, and then we have 20 more set to hatch March 3rd!

So for my first hatch, I set 20 eggs, tossed one clear. One died around day 15-16, another I thought was dead at that point as well actually pipped but shrink wrapped. Two others failed to pip at all and were shrink wrapped, and the runty one I rescued had pipped a hole big enough to see his beak but the got stuck and I could see the membrane drying and turning beige, so I helped him out slowly over the course of several hours. So 15 live chicks from 20 eggs, 75% hatch rate. Would have liked to have more but again, a learning experience.

Actually, that's a 78.95% hatch rate as you don't count eggs that are infertile when determining hatch rate. And that's a fantastic rate, especially given it was your first setting.