March Hatch-A-Long

[Ms Biddy]

This evening was the start of day 23 so I gently and quickly candled them. One still has definite movement, one is completely dark apart from the air sac but pretty sure not alive and the other is starting to show a blood ring the the dark part is down at the small end of the egg. So what happened? My temp has been a bit low I have discovered. Were they not developed enough to cope with the higher humidity of lock down? I am just kicking myself I didn't put them all under the broody hen. Will just have to wait to see if the one with movement makes it to hatch....

Those are good questions, I'm not sure. If mine keep hatching upside down, I have an issue as well.

My two are trying so hard but are just not able to turn. Maybe they are stuck or just too weak. I imagine it's harder to do with less room around the head and shoulders. So, I've begun peeling away the shell and membrane for them. One was further along in readiness and this is as much as I'm going to do for it. Sweet thing needs to finish on its own. I believe it can.

In the meantime, there's a new pip and it's perfectly positioned. I do not like opening the incubator, but I have a spray bottle of warm water and it seems to regain temp and humidity extremely well.

 

[Stevo77]

 

[Stevo77]

This little Silkie made it so far. Almost all remaining 29 eggs have pips.

 

[Ms Biddy]

This little Silkie made it so far. Almost all remaining 29 eggs have pips.

That's fantastic! Keep them coming

 

[cppeace]

little fighter there! Awesome you have so many pips. No new pips here that I can see. 100-102 temp here and 67% humidity

 

[cppeace]

So just saw a little Bresse spring from its egg lol It wasn't the one that zipped last night, though. That little one has not really gotten much of any progress in almost 12 hours now. The egg is about a third zipped. It is still alive but not peeping much anymore. Should I try to help their zip some? There's also another that has pipped that I saw while topping off the water. The humidity hasn't gone below 66% so should be good but the 1/3 zipped looks kind of dried out, dampened it a tad when was rewetting sponge. The one that has hatched is very active for just having sprung out of it's egg lol

 

[Stevo77]

Second one just hatched, Easter Egger/Maran cross.

 

[cppeace]

Bet it will be pretty with that mix

 

[Ranchwithaview]

So just saw a little Bresse spring from its egg lol It wasn't the one that zipped last night, though. That little one has not really gotten much of any progress in almost 12 hours now. The egg is about a third zipped. It is still alive but not peeping much anymore. Should I try to help their zip some? There's also another that has pipped that I saw while topping off the water. The humidity hasn't gone below 66% so should be good but the 1/3 zipped looks kind of dried out, dampened it a tad when was rewetting sponge. The one that has hatched is very active for just having sprung out of it's egg lol

I would help it. 12 Hours sounds like a long time from what I have read, but I have also read that some times it can take 24 hours. What day are you on?

 

[Ranchwithaview]

This evening was the start of day 23 so I gently and quickly candled them. One still has definite movement, one is completely dark apart from the air sac but pretty sure not alive and the other is starting to show a blood ring the the dark part is down at the small end of the egg. So what happened? My temp has been a bit low I have discovered. Were they not developed enough to cope with the higher humidity of lock down? I am just kicking myself I didn't put them all under the broody hen. Will just have to wait to see if the one with movement makes it to hatch....

I lean to the side of helping, but it takes a lot of time. I helped two chicks hatch at the end of day 23 last time (I think my temps were low.). Three that I didn't help didn't make it.