March Hatch-Along Thread- Come Hatch With Us!!!!!

[BantyChickenLuv]

Hi SJ! I have Serama hatching on the 21st as well. I've had to throw away 3 because one was a blood ring, one was going to explode, and another I dropped. Good luck with your hatch!

 

[Book]

Oh wow, night of the 20th and was not even seeing rocking eggs. Then an hour or so ago I saw a quiet pip and now I have peeping and the little thing is zipping! That was super fast compared to what we experienced with duck eggs the last two years.

So excited! I would post a photo but I have my camper set on top of the bator window pointed down, recording it. Not ideal and wishing I had a stand for my DSLR but what ever. I just want to make sure my kids do not miss the first one.

 

[SJ]

Thanks Banty I need some good luck.
I just got back from candling and darn it I lost 8 already.

So Im down to 34 but my little white eggs from my Kraienkoppe look really good.

The white shells show the veins alot better than the darker brown shelled eggs.

 

[animaladdictions]

In all my years of hatching chicken eggs, I've never had one explode...duck eggs, on the other hand are a different story! lol Years ago when I first tried my hand at incubating, I had a Call duck egg explode...it was the most disgusting thing EVER!

It's so cute to see how excited all you newbies are. I remember how nerve wracking it was my first few times too!

For some of you, it sounds like you're running with too high a humidity. I ALWAYS run a dry incubator all the way up till internal pipping but that's just me. My humidity stays at around 27% here. Whenever I get internal pipping, I move the eggs to the hatcher which runs around 55% to 65% humidity. Another thing I've found to be helpful is...I stop turning around day 16 for chickens and day 20-21 for my Calls. For the longest time I stopped turning with the advised three days before hatching but I found that I had a good number of chicks that were upside down or backwards when I stopped at the three day point...since I've stopped turning so early, I've found a much greater number of chicks in the proper position at hatch time. Hope this helps. Everyone's different and has different methods that work for them. All of you will be old pro's before you know it and you'll eventually get to where you swear by your own methods! The most important thing is, don't give up. Everyone has bad hatches sometimes, even the very experienced old timers. Don't beat yourselves up if it doesn't turn out the way you hope for it to the first time...try try again! After all, these little doodles are worth it!

 

[SJ]

Hi Book! Aren't hatching days the best and worst all at the same time. One minute its "OH NO!!! they aren't doing anything. The next minute a tiny hole appears and the sound of PEEP PEEP!!!. Then an agonizing hour of watching that baby fight its way out and you want to help it so bad but you know you shouldn't. As Charlie Brown said "UHHG!!!"

 

[threadgeek]

Phew, I finally caught up on all the posts! Good luck to everyone who is in lockdown!

I'll be there in 10 more days.

I weighed again and my average weight loss so far is 5.6% (over 6 days because I forgot to weigh them before they went in). I'm a little concerned that the weight loss is too high right now but I'm thinking I'll do another weigh in a few days before taking any action.

I candled all the eggs and saw movement in some! This is my first hatch so I didn't really know what to look for. Of the 14 (1 dz fertile grocery store eggs & 2 orpington) brown eggs I saw 4 definitely moving, 5 unsure, 2 cracked, 2 clear, and 1 maybe bloodring. Unfortunately the 10 ameraucana eggs were so dense that I was lucky if I could see the air sack. How does one candle dark eggs???

About candling, how aggressive can you be? I was rolling the eggs over and over to figure out what I was looking at, is that ok???
I saw quite a few large blobs that seemed to sink when I would roll the egg, is this normal?

Thanks in advance!

 

[hokankai]

In all my years of hatching chicken eggs, I've never had one explode...duck eggs, on the other hand are a different story! lol Years ago when I first tried my hand at incubating, I had a Call duck egg explode...it was the most disgusting thing EVER!

It's so cute to see how excited all you newbies are. I remember how nerve wracking it was my first few times too!

For some of you, it sounds like you're running with too high a humidity. I ALWAYS run a dry incubator all the way up till internal pipping but that's just me. My humidity stays at around 27% here. Whenever I get internal pipping, I move the eggs to the hatcher which runs around 55% to 65% humidity. Another thing I've found to be helpful is...I stop turning around day 16 for chickens and day 20-21 for my Calls. For the longest time I stopped turning with the advised three days before hatching but I found that I had a good number of chicks that were upside down or backwards when I stopped at the three day point...since I've stopped turning so early, I've found a much greater number of chicks in the proper position at hatch time. Hope this helps. Everyone's different and has different methods that work for them. All of you will be old pro's before you know it and you'll eventually get to where you swear by your own methods! The most important thing is, don't give up. Everyone has bad hatches sometimes, even the very experienced old timers. Don't beat yourselves up if it doesn't turn out the way you hope for it to the first time...try try again! After all, these little doodles are worth it!

That is EXCELLENT advice! I had so many chicks in the wrong position this round that didn't make it and I was so frustrated. However the chicks that were added 2 days later and were therefore in lockdown since day 16 did SO well! 4/5 of those chicks made it and the one that didn't make it had its head down, what looked like a crossbeak/skull deformity and the smallest air cell.

Do you run humidity that low for duck eggs too? Or just chickens?

 

[hokankai]

Phew, I finally caught up on all the posts! Good luck to everyone who is in lockdown!

I'll be there in 10 more days.

I weighed again and my average weight loss so far is 5.6% (over 6 days because I forgot to weigh them before they went in). I'm a little concerned that the weight loss is too high right now but I'm thinking I'll do another weigh in a few days before taking any action.

I candled all the eggs and saw movement in some! This is my first hatch so I didn't really know what to look for. Of the 14 (1 dz fertile grocery store eggs & 2 orpington) brown eggs I saw 4 definitely moving, 5 unsure, 2 cracked, 2 clear, and 1 maybe bloodring. Unfortunately the 10 ameraucana eggs were so dense that I was lucky if I could see the air sack. How does one candle dark eggs???

About candling, how aggressive can you be? I was rolling the eggs over and over to figure out what I was looking at, is that ok???
I saw quite a few large blobs that seemed to sink when I would roll the egg, is this normal?

Thanks in advance!

I'll just tell you my experience from this hatch. I had some eggs that were put in 2 days after the others and were losing water FAST. By the time they went into lockdown on day 16 they had already lost around 15% of their weight. I candled them at day 20 and the air cells were HUGE, but the chicks had already internally pipped. They pipped and zipped so fast, 4 of them out in only a few hours, that I don't think too much weight loss is much of a problem anymore. The only one that didn't make it from that bunch was the one with the smallest air cell.

Oh and I am pretty gentle when I candle. I hold the eggs with the big end up, and I candle from the top. I rotate carefully but not super slowly. You just want to make sure you are careful so that you don't cause the embryo to be torn from the shell or something.

 

[animaladdictions]

threadgeek...I've never heard of someone hatching grocery store eggs before!!! I didn't even know that was possible! Don't be too rough when "rolling" your eggs around, but slow, gentle turning is fine. If you're too rough you'll damage the blood vessels and could definitely kill the embryo. They do sort of float down to the bottom of the egg (the dark blob is most likely the eye) but when you hold it still you should be able to see some swimming in there...it's almost like a breathing motion. Just imagine "deep breath in...deep breath out", kind of a swaying motion if that makes any sense? You candle dark eggs with a REALLY good and super bright flashlight or candler.

For the people worried about "helping" the chick out...I do if it's an especially valuable bird, but that's just me. Some people think that the chick should ALWAYS hatch on its own and that the adults won't be good birds if you help them hatch...I disagree. Most of the time I let the chickens do their thing, but with my Calls and Geese, if they need help... I help!

 

[SJ]

Hi Threadgeek! I have the same issue with candling my dark brown eggs. All I can say is it's hard. But something I have found that can tell you if you have a live egg is run warm water into a bucket deep enough to float the egg. You want the water like bath warm but NOT HOT. Dead eggs will sink so you want water deep enough to submerg the egg. I take the questionable eggs on day 13-16 and float them in warm water. If the egg floats and wiggles around on its own you know there is a live chick inside. Its the only thing I have found as an alternative to candling dark eggs.