Mahonri's 3rd Annual, BYC Easter Hatch-a-long!

[featherz]

Out of curiosity, what is your chick icu like?

Chick ICU is usually what I use my hovabator for, which is about all it's good for. (stop reading now if you don't believe in 'helping').

Right now I have about 6 or 7 shrinkwrapped chicks in eggs wrapped in warm wet paper towels. I generally make sure the beak is out so they can breathe and just keep them in the bator. They'll generally kick themselves out when they regain strength. I put a piece of foam or shelf liner down so it will protect if one pops out with an unhealed navel. I'll also use it if I am 'stacking' in a brinsea and have more chicks than will fit well - the 'icu' lets them dry in there before going to the brooder.

A pic of chicks drying off before the brooder (not this hatch):

 

[lilstar]

The thermostat probably went bad. You can order them, not to help with this one. Good thing is they should be hatching soon. Chin up

"it" should be hatching soon I have 9 dead ducklings in a box on my counter

one hanging in there

 

[Mahonri]

so early this morning I took some of the chicks and put them under the broody in the main coop.

At first it seemed like she accepted them just fine.... but as the day wore on, the chicks ended up in the corner of the nest box away from her.... so they are all back in the Laree brooder.

 

[SarahIrl]

Just candled my remaining eggs (the ones not already thrown out) to find one chick banging on the shell pre-pip, and it was only left in as I couldn't tell if it was dead or not, all the certainly live ones now appear to be well dead. So, looks like I might get one chock from 24 after all. One chick. Argh, worse than none, as now I'll have to spend the next couple of days chasing around trying to find it a friend.

 

[drumstick diva]

testing

 

[zookeeper15133]

One of my Call Ducks just hatched! There are 2 more pipping and they aren't due til tomorrow! It CAN be done!

The rest of my hatch isn't going very well. I've had 6 of 9 of my eggs hatch. No shipped chicken eggs yet. 6 of 11 shipped Swedish duck eggs are out. And the Call Ducks, 11 of 29 made it to lock down.

 

[Arielle]

In my case stupid is an accurate word.

I'm pretty sure I've killed off the 104 for this hatch and the over 200 others I have in there. I'm also sure that the same reason is why I lost the last 3 hatches. I used to get 100 hatches and then I'd be lucky if anything hatched, but then again I have had lots of problems with shipment and smashed eggs and eggs that didn't even develop.

So my stupidity stems from not paying attention and not to have noticed this whole time.

I have several thermometer/hydrometers and I do calibrate, but we had hatches going a;most 20 months ago when my husband was alive. He was the math Wiz so he figured out what was what and wrote corrections on tape. Well I didn't want to get rid of his part pf this and left the original tape, but I put fresh ones on when I recalibrate. These things were getting old and I decided to buy a new one last night. Stuck it in the Sportsman and it shot up to 91%! I looked at the others and realized I have been looking at the old tape, not where I have my changes. ???????????????? WT Heck?? OMG I've been drowning or drying out chicks. I was up till almost 5am trying to get humidity under control. First too high, then in the 40's then 66% and went to sleep. Woke up to 45%! Also I used the sportsman this time for hatching and although the racks are holding temps, the bottom reads 96??

I'm just sick. I'm leaving the house for a few hours ad I just hope something miraculous happens. I'm going to wait a couple of days, but then I have to candle all those other eggs and see if I killed off my next 4 hatches. I just can't believe it's taken me this long to realize what I've been doing for months. I'd call that pretty stupid.

I don't call this stupid--I call this learning!! You have figured out now some of the probable problems. Say that 3 times fast!!

I hope you will finish this hatch, review the changes you want to make and start again! maybe with just a few eggs to test your new methods!!

I like the dry incubation method for my LG. I don't know if applies to your incubator. Do you candle to look at the developing aircell?? I lost my hydrometer and depended on looking at the aircells to determine if the RH was correct.

Hope you will try incubating again.

 

[drumstick diva]

Eureka I'm finally able to post again. I've been unable to since some time on Thursday. I was just starting to think the NEW BYC wasn't so bad . Oh well. Thanks for the advice. I found the icon with the torn paper look but, also previewed the post first. It wasn't working tho till I used that icon. Whew, I thought I had been black balled or something.

 

[BBAcres]

Chick ICU is usually what I use my hovabator for, which is about all it's good for. (stop reading now if you don't believe in 'helping').

Right now I have about 6 or 7 shrinkwrapped chicks in eggs wrapped in warm wet paper towels. I generally make sure the beak is out so they can breathe and just keep them in the bator. They'll generally kick themselves out when they regain strength. I put a piece of foam or shelf liner down so it will protect if one pops out with an unhealed navel. I'll also use it if I am 'stacking' in a brinsea and have more chicks than will fit well - the 'icu' lets them dry in there before going to the brooder.

A pic of chicks drying off before the brooder (not this hatch):

Oh neat. Thanks for responding.

 

[failla525]

well ... of the 52 eggs we started with, 49 went in to lockdown and of those, 37 hatched ... still have 8 in the incubator, just in case ... this is day 22 ...

one of my chicks just died, a leghorn chick ... are there signs from the others i should be looking for for problems??? ...i know they are eating and drinking, but they are sleeping alot ...

any help would be appreciated, this is my first hatch ...

Thank you and Happy Easter!