LOCKDOWN IS TODAY!

[wholewheatchicken]

My baby is doing great. We just try to spend a lot of extra time with her since she is all alone. I have my fingers crossed she is going to get a playmate out of this, If something happened to the first turkey, get your humidity up and stabilized and keep going forward to give the others a chance. It is early for the, but my last broody hen hatched the first chick on day 19 and one every day after that for three more days and I got four babies from her. She had her temps right LOL. Four of the eggs were developed, but didn't hatch. Just try not to open the bator until day 23, if turkeys are 21 days.

 

[BoutrosBoutrosGalusGalus]

I remember you from the hatch and your problems too. So you do think the humidity spike while the chicks hatch is a problem? If so, does one barely start ventilation to try to control it?

Hard to tell, 2 of my eggtopsies seem like it could have been too wet but I didn't check for aircells like i should have.

 

[wholewheatchicken]

I didn't do my eggtopsies right either. But I'm learning by the bucketfuls. As soon as I finish this hatch, I'm firing up the bator and trying again with a new and hopefully improved plan. BTW, all I discovered on my topsy was my chicks were fully developed with egg sac absorbed and dead. Didn't look at much else, but I thought it was kind of creepy and we waited all day after taking them ou of the bator...my husband was stalling. I don't feel so squeamish about it now.

 

[kelly52862]

I have 4 hatched as of this morning!!!!

 

[Janie1968]

My turkey poult is zipping her way out and talking up a storm!!! Another turkey egg and one of my chicken eggs have pipped! Of course today I'm at the hospital with my dad, which my DH says is probably a good thing since I would just be stressing over the hatch.

The next time I fire up the bator I'm going to follow Pete's directions on hatching. So I'm going to weigh the eggs as soon as I collect them and then do weekly weigh ins and mark the air cell (all in pencil on the egg). I marked the air cell on day 18, but I have to say that they in general look kind of small. In using Pete's method I'll know whether my eggs have lost the correct amount of moisture by day 18.

Happy hatching everyone!

 

[wholewheatchicken]

I have 4 hatched as of this morning!!!!

Congragulations!!!!

My turkey poult is zipping her way out and talking up a storm!!! Another turkey egg and one of my chicken eggs have pipped! Of course today I'm at the hospital with my dad, which my DH says is probably a good thing since I would just be stressing over the hatch.

The next time I fire up the bator I'm going to follow Pete's directions on hatching. So I'm going to weigh the eggs as soon as I collect them and then do weekly weigh ins and mark the air cell (all in pencil on the egg). I marked the air cell on day 18, but I have to say that they in general look kind of small. In using Pete's method I'll know whether my eggs have lost the correct amount of moisture by day 18.

Happy hatching everyone!

I think it's a good thing too.....I am going to a friend's house Sunday afternoon so I will be gone most of the day and hopefully those little guys hatch while I am gone. I'm so glad to hear it's working out so good. Who is this Pete you're talking about???? I have heard about weighing them, but if there are better guidelines, I would use them. What kind of scale are you going to buy? This is what I was going to do because it is too confusing trying to figure out the humidity and look at the air cell. I think mine are too big.
So I can't figure out where to share my good news so I would like to post it here. I am getting ready to leave to go to a silkie breeder's house who has show birds. Her silkie line includes some of the best, and Catdance silkies. I was going to buy one pullet in particular, but last night she wrote she has a baby chick that would do well in my breeding program and I guess she has other chicks to choose from too! I feel like I am getting the best of the best close to home. I'm so excited.
I can't wait until I get home to see how everyone's day went.

 

[Janie1968]

Here is the link to the guide on hatching by Pete. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/577310/a-guide-to-humidity-weighing-and-lockdown/50#post_8472127
I'm going to use my kitchen scale for weighing out the eggs. Congrats on the silkie chicks... don't forget to post pics. I'm going to copy my other post so you can hear about my hatching news. Take care all.

 

[Janie1968]

So when I woke up this morning there were 16 turkeys and chicks in the bator!

I put a humidifier in the bathroom, waited an hour and then pulled them out into the brooder. Since then another turkey and 2 chicks have hatched out. I believe that leaves 13 eggs left to go (wish I had had the courage to pull out the shells and arrange the remaining eggs into the center... it's difficult now to check on the eggs... which might be a good thing). Here are some pics. Once I got the humidity down, it hasn't been a problem. I've kept the humidity on the low side (60's) because I'm concerned that I have eggs that might still need to lose moisture. Happy hatching!!!

 

[wholewheatchicken]

Those babies are AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL. How can you tell which ones are turkeys and which ones are chickens? Was this your first time to hatch with an incubator? I am so inspired by your story because it started off rocky and you did the hardest thing by just walking away from the incubator and let everything run its course. I didn't do that....I kept opening it up because I was sure I had messed it up. A hard lesson to learn. Tomorrow is hatch day for me!!!! I'm not as anxious as the first time, but I can definitely feel the excitability level rising. I now have more chickens to take care of so I have less time to sit and stare in the window, which hopefully translates into babies that hatch. I'm a little worried, though, because on day 18 we turned off our bigger fan and left the smaller fan that blows a gentle puff of air on. I left one vent hole open, according to the dry hatch Bill Worrell method. My humidity was great, but I don't know if my temperature stayed right at 99.5. Before doing all that, my thermometer read 99 - 100, which is a low and high reading. Then when we turned the fan off it had a reading of 97 -99, but I didn't see the temperature drop down on the actual reading. Today I was supposed to put the second vent cover in and my high and low reading is 99 -99. So please chicken gods, do not let me have killed all these too.
Good luck on the rest of the chickies. Keep me posted.

 

[Janie1968]

Hey WWC,

to answer your questions in order... the turkeys are the silvery grey with black markings. There is one on the right side in the pics and a few in the middle. This is my second hatch (first one was in January this year). It was hard Thursday morning because the humidity was so high and I did open the bator several times to mop up the excess water with paper towels, but I also put a wet towel over the egg that had pipped while the bator was open. I was so surprised when she hatched herself out the next morning... thought for sure I'd have to do an assist later that night. Don't worry about your temps because when I transferred to lockdown my temp dropped down to 98 and it took a very long time before it bumped back up to 99.5... we're talking many hours and most of my chicks have hatched. I think I have pulled out 12 more turkeys and chicks since the first time. I have one chicken and 3 turkey eggs left (no pips). Plus there are 2 other eggs, but I don't expect they will hatch. And today is day 21! To me a high temp is 102. Good luck hatching today, I'll check in to see how it's going for you.

How many eggs do you have in your bator?