March 2023 hatch-a-long

[Backyard Divas]

Guys, I seriously have one trying to zip. At the start of day 24. The one that pipped further down on the egg, not totally the wrong end so maybe the air cell has just shrunk that much. I don't have high hopes that it will make it but I'm going to wait overnight before I do anything. This hatch has been so crazy.

Here's hoping that your late bloomer makes it!

 

[Tumbleweedlynn]

Some of the babies.

They look like little cotton balls!

 

[Austrian Chickens]

@junior67 . So fluffy and cute

 

[gimmie birdies]

I still have 11 due on the 30th,

and one hatched from the green egg group.

 

[Kikilu]

I think the final two hatched overnight last night (so two night with not a lot of sleep lol)One more egg no internal or external pips. I won’t call it just yet but it looks 9/10.
Pictures to follow!

 

[Backyard Divas]

I still have 11 due on the 30th,

and one hatched from the green egg group.
View attachment 3437395

Poor thing is going to be lonely until the next ones hatch. Any chicks at your local farm store you can add to give her company? Mine usually has some this time of year.

 

[pinewoodacres]

No real progress on the one that had been trying to zip yesterday. I am not sure how to handle this. I try to have a "no helping" policy but when it's more or less my fault there's a problem, I feel obligated to help. Any time I have helped, despite waiting at least 24 hours from when they try to zip, they have big round bellies and often they are not fully closed up, like the belly button area isn't what it normally looks like so the risk of infection is there. They are almost always weaker even into adulthood. I do feel horrible if I don't intervene, but I can't be sure it's not already on its way out and helping would just prolong it. One that I helped yesterday morning had a lot of gross looking yolk at the bottom, kind of like scrambled egg, but the two are doing pretty well now with no additional intervention so I don't regret it (still need to clean the one off a little, mostly the wing is being restricted with dried gunk). But what if I don't help this one still in the shell? How long does it take for it to pass, not being sure if it has really absorbed the yolk yet or what (I assume the yolk would prolong it if absorbed)? What if I turn the incubator off? I hate these choices.

 

[Backyard Divas]

No real progress on the one that had been trying to zip yesterday. I am not sure how to handle this. I try to have a "no helping" policy but when it's more or less my fault there's a problem, I feel obligated to help. Any time I have helped, despite waiting at least 24 hours from when they try to zip, they have big round bellies and often they are not fully closed up, like the belly button area isn't what it normally looks like so the risk of infection is there. They are almost always weaker even into adulthood. I do feel horrible if I don't intervene, but I can't be sure it's not already on its way out and helping would just prolong it. One that I helped yesterday morning had a lot of gross looking yolk at the bottom, kind of like scrambled egg, but the two are doing pretty well now with no additional intervention so I don't regret it (still need to clean the one off a little, mostly the wing is being restricted with dried gunk). But what if I don't help this one still in the shell? How long does it take for it to pass, not being sure if it has really absorbed the yolk yet or what (I assume the yolk would prolong it if absorbed)? What if I turn the incubator off? I hate these choices.

I think as humans we are, generally, wired to try to make things better but we don't always understand what is truly better in nature. Sometimes better is to let nature take its course but it is so HARD to do that. I'm guilty of intervening myself, especially if I think my actions had some impact on the situation.

I was hoping nature would resolve it by letting it hatch, but maybe it just isn't supposed to. It could already be passed, but if you open it too soon you could be assisting it to hatch and have to deal with the results of that.

 

[Kikilu]

Some pictures this hatch is so just so adorable!

 

[Kwoka]

No real progress on the one that had been trying to zip yesterday. I am not sure how to handle this. I try to have a "no helping" policy but when it's more or less my fault there's a problem, I feel obligated to help. Any time I have helped, despite waiting at least 24 hours from when they try to zip, they have big round bellies and often they are not fully closed up, like the belly button area isn't what it normally looks like so the risk of infection is there. They are almost always weaker even into adulthood. I do feel horrible if I don't intervene, but I can't be sure it's not already on its way out and helping would just prolong it. One that I helped yesterday morning had a lot of gross looking yolk at the bottom, kind of like scrambled egg, but the two are doing pretty well now with no additional intervention so I don't regret it (still need to clean the one off a little, mostly the wing is being restricted with dried gunk). But what if I don't help this one still in the shell? How long does it take for it to pass, not being sure if it has really absorbed the yolk yet or what (I assume the yolk would prolong it if absorbed)? What if I turn the incubator off? I hate these choices.

Don’t listen to me or take any advice from me, lmao you have to follow your own heart, but…curiosity always gets to me, and idk if I would necessarily help it hatch, but I’d be inclined to open it up a little and see what’s going on. I did this during my February hatch - I heard peeping, and when I candled, there was an internal pip. I waited a day, then made a small safety hole and candled again to see what was up. It was a small hole, but big enough to see into while candling - the poor baby was peeping away with extreme scissor beak and no eyes. I turned off the incubator… it was a shipped egg, I paid for it, I really wanted it to hatch because it was supposed to be a blue copper marans, so I wasn’t about to just let it die over something trivial, like maybe the eggshell was too hard or something? No, that baby just wasn’t meant to join the flock. It was an educational experience, to say the least - sent me down a rabbit hole reading about potential birth defects.