March 2018 Hatch-a-long

[ChickenMath101]

If I don’t see any movement - eggs rocking or anything - by day 20 or 21 is that a sign they probably won’t hatch? Obsessively watching on my webcam...they are up in my closet I’m worried I haven’t done a good job with humidity. Too low (air cells too big for day) then too high (air cells not big enough/odd shapes).

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At the end the air cells “draw down” and end up really funky looking-lots of baby on one half and then this oddly elliptical shaped, large area on the other. If you were to gently roll the egg, it would stop with the heavy end down. -this is good! Draw down happens a few days before hatch. Baby will usually pip into the top. Upping humidity won’t put water back in the egg and shrink the air cell, so if you’ve been extremely dry this whole time the chicks might not make it out. Listen for peeps. Sometimes you won’t see much movement. You can cheep loudly to them, that can cause them to wiggle.

 

[ChickenMath101]

If you look at the “tilted” air cell in this image, that’s what you should expect most eggs to look like at lockdown. It’s completely funky looking compared to the regular air cell-but it means the baby is getting ready!!

 

[mcclucker]

Ok they do look like the tilted pic. They look about that size too. One has a “saddle” shape though- like it bulges on either side across the fat end of the egg. That’s the egg I’m worried about. It’s smaller than the others too. It has a pretty porous shell and lost a lot of moisture early on so I upped the humidity - hopefully not too much for the others. It was 35-40 for the first week then about 55-60 until yesterday, now it’s at 65.

 

[ChickenMath101]

Ok they do look like the tilted pic. They look about that size too. One has a “saddle” shape though- like it bulges on either side across the fat end of the egg. That’s the egg I’m worried about. It’s smaller than the others too. It has a pretty porous shell and lost a lot of moisture early on so I upped the humidity - hopefully not too much for the others. It was 35-40 for the first week then about 55-60 until yesterday, now it’s at 65.

That sounds good! The super porous eggs never hatch well for me. Most people don’t bother trying to hatch them. So don’t expect that one to hatch, and happy surprise if it does! Humidity sounds perfect. I bump my temp down 1 degree at lockdown as well. (From 100 to 99.) Good Luck!

 

[PippinChicken]

Woke up to the first pip this morning!

 

[mcclucker]

Exciting! Day 20 and nothing yet here..waiting with bated breath!!! Not sure what I’ll do if only one hatches. I guess I will have to get more so it won’t be lonely

 

[toomanyjewels]

So my last three chicks hatched last night and I woke up to three adorable grey japanese bantam chicks, so out of my ten eggs I successfully hatched four eggs. I learned a ton about incubation, my incubator/ equipment and took lots of notes so hopefully next time, my hatch rate would be higher but right now the four I hatched and their four adopted sisters are all doing well. Thank you very much to everyone in this thread for your tips!

 

[PippinChicken]

Came home from work to see the one who had pipped stumbling around the incubator and peeping nonstop! One other has pipped but nothing on the other 11. Just under halfway through day 20 though

 

[mcclucker]

Middle of day 21 and I have a pip! I can hear it squeaking in there too This is the one that had the clearest growth so I’m not surprised it’s first. Might be the only also but still exciting

 

[PippinChicken]

The pip from yesterday hatched overnight! Now I’ve got those two chicks in the brooder and 7 more external pips. 4 more without but I do think those have pipped internally at least