salemacresohio

In the Brooder
Mar 17, 2021
17
9
24
Ohio
Hi All! I’m super new to hatching my own chicks. I have several batches in rotation in 2 incubators but my first batch was small and only one made it to lockdown. They are Mystic Marans which for all intents and purposes look just like BCM. So I assume anything applicable to BCM would help me.
I have been reading a lot that says Marans often delay hatch around Day 23...so that would be today. A lot of the avgs I’ve heard are internally pipping on day 22 and hatch by 23. I know we aren’t supposed to mess with them after lockdown but I don’t have any other chicks in here to kind of guage if this guy is in trouble or not. So I’ve still been candling each day but very quickly, in a super hot and steamy shower room. And the temps have been pretty steadily at 99, a couple of dips to 95, 97 at night that haven’t been for more than an hour. And once it got up to 104 for less than a half hour, on day 20. But he’s in there and has been visibly turning/twisting for the last 4 days. I’ve had the humidity in the 60’s for the most part. Today it’s more in the low 70’s but goes down after refilling water. I don’t let it go below 60%.

One caveat I realized a couple days ago is that my big bator is off by a decent 2-4 degrees on the high end!!! So when I’ve thought my temps were at 99-101 they were actually at 97-99 and that’s been for a little over a week now. (Put in one incubator steadily at 99 from 4/7 SD-4/17 the day I switched to a bigger incubator: farm innovations; and so the temp snafu would’ve been on day 11-day 18, when I moved it to a Hatcher. I’ve since put a better thermometer/hygrometer in the FI bator to control the temps better and most of my eggs have still be developing. This egg has lost about 9-10% of its weight since SD.

I can see some shadow within the air sac of this little guy and am wondering if it’s just shadowing or if it could have internally pipped yet? There is back and forth movement of that shadowy area but I can’t tell if it’s through the sac or is just it’s body pressing against it. Haven’t heard any peeping, and the movement within the egg is barely distinguishable so far. If I stare too long my eyes start to play tricks on me! Lol.
Just need to know if it has internally pipped if anyone thinks I should go ahead and give it a breathing hole so it can take its time?

I did a little hack to all my Marans eggs and sanded gently down the dark brown around the potential zipping area to allow better candling and maybe a little less work for the chick since they historically have some trouble with the thicker shells when hatched by “hand instead of hen”.

I don’t want to do anything too crazy with intervening but if you all think that’s an internally pip then I wanted to just keep track of how long it’s like that without having broken through the egg. I know a lot of people would say just let the chick do the work and if it can’t then it’s not healthy, but that’s not the bulk of what I’ve heard from hatchers of BCM, so maybe some of you experienced folks could calm the nerves of a newbie.
Here is the egg, and the photos of the dark shadow that was moving back and forth. And does it matter which side of the air sac it’s laying on?
 

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It internally pipped on day 23 and hatched around 1pm on day 24. It had been absorbed every last vein before it hatched out. But it died shortly after hatching. I think it had been because of the temps dipping low to like 95 during the 2-3rd week. It seemed to need help and just not have everything it needed internally. It looked healthy but something was off. Anyway, I think the sanding of the egg definitely helped it to be able to zip on its own!

I have 4 more that are on day 22 right now. So I’m hoping they do much better than the others. What I definitely think to be true is that Farm Innovation incubators definitely do not hold their temps and need alternative temp/hygro helps. And definitely think that Marans hatch day should be moved to 23 days on avg rather than 21. A lot of people give up on chicks that don’t hatch by day 23, but for Marans they should get at least until day 25 before you consider them quitters.
 

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