LOCKDOWN! Let the hatching begin

[Beckey2054]

You can hear them "peep" from inside the eggs!! We have 9 eggs left to hatch and I can either hear them moving in there, or peeping.. There were 22 eggs that were either not formed, or had died for some reason along the way... If the remaining 9 hatch then we will have 111 babies!! .. wait.wait.. YAY... One is hatching now, so looks like just 8 eggs left to hatch... SOOOO exciting.. I will keep my fingers crossed for your eggs to all hatch, chefchick. I know in every hatch we have several that we get no movement from, cannot seem to hear anything when we hold up to our ears, but still get some of them hatching in the end... Sad that there are always a few quitters or some that do not make it.. Especially the ones that make it up to hatching, then give up once they pipp.. This time we also had 4 that started, but were upside down in the egg so ended up not making it.. so frustrating as we are so careful to make sure the small end is downward facing.. but guess sometimes it just happens..
I will post more photos once everyone has hatched..hopefully in the next few hours..

 

[Beckey2054]

So all said and done we have 110 babies that made it out of their shells and (so far) survived.. I am a little concerned with some issues we have with some of them and wonder what we can do to help the chicks improve and be healthy. We had several that died during hatch or in their shells with abnormalities (crooked lower beak, missing beak, turned wrong way in egg) and one that hatched and we knew wouldn't survive so we culled it.. It hatched but did not have anything covering is brain!! Never heard of this before but looked on the forum and found it does happen.. Several of the babies are hatching and have "splayed legs".. I KNOW its not what I place on the floor, and I have never had a problem until this hatch.. I use a textured paper towel to line the incubator and then the brooder for the first while until they can go on the wire floor. It seems that mostly the tuxedo babies have this problem, but a couple others do too.. Read on one of the forums that a lack of proper vitamins maybe the cause of most of these problems?? Is there anything I can do about it now that they have the problems and how can I prevent them from happening? I am trying to help the babies with the splayed legs one at a time to learn to hold themselves on their legs. It worked with a couple of them, but there are 2 that are really bad off.. I don't want to cull them if we can fix them, but was not sure how to go about taping quails legs and then later safely removing the tape.. No one has curled toes, or any other feet issues I can see, just the splayed legs.
The last 3 eggs hatched about 2 hours ago. Of those babies, only one is doing good. All three were VERY lethargic once they hatched, and in fact they never actually finished coming out of their shells, just lay there with their head and some upper body out of the egg. I finally helped them the rest of the way out, and they look normal, but just have no energy and I am afraid they are dying. I keep trying to encourage them, and they wiggle a little, but have yet to try to get up. The third baby did the same as these two, but is now up and about and trying to get going. Hopefully they will come out of it and be ok.
Anyone know what might have caused so many troubles?? Could it be just a poor nutrition of the hen? Or is there something I am overlooking?
We checked our daily log (keep one during incubation just in case of issues) and did not seem to have any temp issues, we used an egg turner so they were turning every 4 hours, humidity levels were good through hatch (little high at first on lock down, but back in normal range within a few minutes). Cannot think of anything else to check.

Once we get everyone out of the incubator I will get some photos of all the babies!! So many babies running around and peeping!

 

[Peacerose]

I agree with you that some of these defects are probably from parent birds nutritional issues. Also, maybe the hen was an older bird and got run down from constant laying. It could be so many things. Did you get your eggs in the mail? The jostling of mailing often cuts hatching down to 40%, although your mileage may vary. You should be very proud of your hatch rate. I'm sure no one could have done better.

Give your lethargic babies time to rest and recuperate from hatching. Some just need a little more rest after all that work. I think making peeping sounds to these little ones helps them.

And CONGRATULATIONS!

 

[Beckey2054]

We did get them shipped.. I forget where from just now (could be as I am tired..and its late.. lol)
here are some photos of almost everyone.. hard to get them all in a photo they never stand still long enough..lol..
looks like we have about 50 Browns (some could be Tibetan, but were not easy to tell yet)
16 are the A& M , 29 Italians, and 15 Tuxedo or Tibetan (again, hard to tell on some of them)
So many babies crying are going to make a fun night tonight..lol.. seems like there is always one crying even in the middle of a crowd..
The two that were lethargic are still in incubator and will stay there until I know they will be able to get around in brooder. One is up and moving, the other is moving, but only a little bit. Hopefully by morning I will wake up to them all over in there ready to get out. Tomorrow I will be heading over to IFA to see if they have a vitamin to add to water (just in case..) Hubby and I decided we will look into it, and if they are not crazy expensive will add them to the birds water weekly as a precaution for future eggs. We already give our birds a variety of foods to try and make sure they are healthy, but want to cover all bases if we are missing something important.



Love how some of them have black spots in random places.. Hope they stay like that so we can tell them apart easily.



This one made me laugh! The little guy in the lower left looks like he was knocked back by the flash.. and he also looks like he has two black eyes.. Like the black eyes with yellow (white) face, makes them look like a penguin!

 

[Livi]

110? Wow thats an awesome lot of chickens! gongrats on your hatch!

Really wished I had the space to raise a bit higher number than I can atm.

 

[chefchick]

ugh,,, nothing yet. :/

 

[Beckey2054]

ugh,,, nothing yet. :/

I HATE waiting!! These guys started hatching early on day 18, so right on time. Our last hatch started late on day 16 and continued through day 17. You can never tell exactly what day they will start hatching... Gets frustrating waiting to see when they will hatch, and waiting on the last few is almost as hard as waiting for the first one.. Good Luck hope they start pipping soon!

 

[Stellar]

Whoo hoo Congrats!

 

[cmtigger]

I just had mine start to hatch today, I had 26 eggs from my 4 coturnix hens. I expected some to be bad, because one pair is both Italian. It looks like I have 13 so far. Some are Pharoah, and others are Italian.

Do quail chicks do something to get the other chicks hatching, as most of them hatched within an hour of each other.

 

[chefchick]

Finally! We have 38 so far..two more look to be pipping and the rest may be duds. When I candled them in the beginning there were a bunch that looked clear, but I left them just in case. I was suprised at how quickly we went from 5 when we left for school clothes shopping to 22 a few hours later whe nwe called the nieghbor to check on them for us...then 28 when we got home and four more within the next half hour. Four hatched overnight, and while I was helping a shinkwrapped looking guy (his face was out when we got home from shopping and he spent the night that way) another one popped out! the one I helped didn't look too good when I left for work...and one has a club foot. I tried making the little sandals I saw on another page, but his foot is just too small! In all, I am happy. I started with 60 eggs...that were shipped from Georgia...in the heat, it took almost a week for them to get here...so even a 50% hatch rate would have been good. Now I need a quail house. I dont think they will fit in their aquarium for long.