Little Giant Incubator Tricks

[griggy]

Feeling awful now. One of my eggs that had a very weird air cell started oozing yellow stuff. I noticed it when I picked it up to candle. I checked over and over but didn't see any movements and when I wiped off the oozing, it came back. But when I opened it for an eggtopsy, the chick was still alive

 

[Arielle]

Feeling awful now. One of my eggs that had a very weird air cell started oozing yellow stuff. I noticed it when I picked it up to candle. I checked over and over but didn't see any movements and when I wiped off the oozing, it came back. But when I opened it for an eggtopsy, the chick was still alive

You did right to pull the egg-- the crack allows for bacteria to enter the egg, and there is some possibility that the bacteria would destroy the developing chick anyway.

Sorry-- it always feels crummy to cull like that.

 

[Dragons4u]

Yup best to pull because of the ooze. If it did make it to hatch, it had a good chance of having mushy chick, in my experience.

 

[hildar]

Yup best to pull because of the ooze. If it did make it to hatch, it had a good chance of having mushy chick, in my experience.

I believe that is what happened to our second game chick. Its stomach wasn't right it felt mushy and it's one eye never opened. when it did it was grey colored like it was blind in that eye. It died the following day. However the first chick banged around about 5 eggs in there that one included. The other 4 eggs had to be chucked out they all had cracks in them and the chicks were not ready and died in the shells.

 

[quailtrail]

keep trying to feed her as often as possible when you are home-- only takes a day or 2 usually to fix those feet. 

THe babies that need help hatching seem to do better if they can push their way out of the shell-- I tried just opening the cap and letting the chicks finish and this resulted in better sucess. Just my experience-- others may have a different experience.

would they have been able to still get out if everything was dried up ?? Poor babies

 

[griggy]

Thanks everyone. I feel better about my decision now. I just felt like that one was going to contaminate the rest of them and I didn't want that. Okay, new issue. Chicks are supposed to hatch late Saturday/Sunday. (I set them at 1 am on a Sunday...I couldn't sleep LOL). Except I see a few of them starting to move now. Um..what is going on??

 

[CrookdBeak13]

I just finished my first complete hatch in the homemade cooler-bator and I had the best hatch so far. Out of 8 eggs placed, 7 made it to lock down. The one that was removed was on day 18 and was a quitter. So out of the 7 that went into lockdown, 5 hatched. I have 1 Black tail white Japanese bantam, 1 chipmunk looking barn yard mix, and 3 black and white silkie mixes with feathered feet. I am almost sure I will have to cull the chipmunk though, as it appears that she has a deformity to her leg, which I have unfortunately experienced before. These were some of the last eggs to get placed in the bator ( the very last are the 26 that I have in the Roll-X) that were fertile prior to separating the boys, and the girls by breeds ( I think the leg deformity could be genetic and that is the only egg that was a LF egg in this hatch, the rest were Japanese Bantam and silkie. The egg I removed day 18 was a Japanese Bantam and I think it was plagued by the Short leg gene. 1 of the 2 eggs that didn't hatch was also a jap and it was a fully formed chick that just didn't pip. The other I didn't completely open but do believe it was a full size chick and it appeared that it was malpositioned, the butt was at the air cell.

I am going to put a fan in my LG and try to use that as a hatcher. The cooler worked wonderfully, but I don't want to have to remove the grid out of the roll-x every hatch, although the way that thing holds temp I don't know if I want to remove the eggs to a hatcher that I didn't have great results from .

I am also considering changing the thermostat to a digital, has anyone else ever attempted that?

 

[Arielle]

Quote: You are right, that is when they need further help to get out of the shell, and perhaps a warm bath to get the dried goo off and then fluff up. In my experience, the legs rarely work properly and I have been tring to address this. THey are the ones that seem to have curled toes, and are slower to stand upright if ever, so that is why I suggested leaving the chick to push its way out whenever possible, then if necessary use a tea cup to force the chick to push and try to jump out. Again ,not always a fix, but sometimes it does work. Hope all is going well.

 

[Arielle]

Thanks everyone. I feel better about my decision now. I just felt like that one was going to contaminate the rest of them and I didn't want that. Okay, new issue. Chicks are supposed to hatch late Saturday/Sunday. (I set them at 1 am on a Sunday...I couldn't sleep LOL). Except I see a few of them starting to move now. Um..what is going on??

Often you can see movement long before the hatch date!! I'm sure you can't wait-- I remember those days of being up all night checking eggs. lol

 

[quailtrail]

@Arielle Thanks for all the advice. My 1st to hatch, with the splayed leg and curled toes, passed over night ; (