March Hatching Madness

[Sweet Chicks]

Today is day 21 and out of 17 eggs I still have 3 BO, 1 Houdan, 1 BR with no pips!
I have 12 hatched:

I had to open the Bator this morning because 1 chick was all zipped but didn't push itself out of the egg and got stuck!!! The poor thing was chirping but could not move. So now I'm thinking I lost the last 5 eggs but they were not piped so maybe all is ok.

 

[NellaBean]

I have learned to stay out of the bator as much as possible, but last night I pulled all the chicks out and removed all the egg shells.....then started looking at the leftover eggs to see if any had even pipped or anything before stopping. And found one that was pipped and attempting to zip. Whoops! Sprayed the bator and closed it up good....it hatched out fine within an hour or two. I find that repeatedly going into the bator (like to remove a chick or two every so often) is worse than just waiting until a huge group has hatched and removing everyone at once. If I have the bator open I like to spray with a squirt bottle before closing back up. I think it helps to keep the humidity up temporarily until everything balances back out.


I had one stuck last hatch....it had pipped and started to zip and got turned around somehow. Sat like that for half a day and I finally had to help it. Poor thing was stuck in a U shape for hours afterwards. I had two more hatch after that without any problems.

My very first hatch I was constantly taking chicks out......oh no, they are rocking the other eggs, oh no they are bored, blah blah. The last few all shrink wrapped. Learned my lesson!

 

[Chicky Tocks]

Awww! So much cuteness in a single thread.

: Hey Sweet, I see three little cockerals in that second pic!

...at least two are pretty definate.

 

[lisal124]

Quote:
I think you just read my mind! This is my first hatch and as I sat here reading these posts, I wondered how people with various stages of hatching are getting the chicks out. Everyone says not to open the bator so I have been trying to figure out a game plan. My eggs go into lockdown on Sunday and I'm already a wreck! lol It just seems that so much can go wrong!

 

[Chicky Tocks]

The main thing to be concerned with about opening the bator during lockdown, is if any eggs are pipped. Sometimes you might miss a pip even.
One thing I've learned now that I'm using a pc fan in my homemade bator, is that the humidity will drop much, much faster than it did in the still air if I cracked the lid.
So now at any point that I have to open it, I unplug the fan.

 

[Sweet Chicks]

Quote:
Too bad you can't just hatch hens

I'm glad you only saw 3 i think their might be more

 

[Chicky Tocks]

Actually Sweets, I was just corrected. If those are barred rocks, they're not sex linked like my cuckoo maran are (bigger white dot on the head means roo). (I was trying to send a friend to TSC to pick out all the little girl chicks from the barred rock bin

) So actually it looks like one cockeral from what I see. Those are lighter in color, more silver or gray, but still not 100% foolproof)

 

[Sweet Chicks]

There was no pips in the last 5 eggs at all. I even talked this over with hubby about opening the bator. When we went to bed last night this BR was zipping and then rested....I thought he'll get out he's at the easy part now all he has to do is stand up. This morning this same egg was crying and I could see its little head. After much thought I opened the bator and misted the top of the egg and pulled it off. I took an eye dropper and filled it with warm water and dropped water around it. He came loose and is fine now. The only way I know which one he is is because he still has a tiny bit of shell stuck to his head. And yes I think he's a he.

I don't know....I just know I know better than to open the bator and it was a hard decision on whether to help or not.

 

[sevenchickens]

Quote:
Sometimes you just have to go with your gut. I would have done the same thing.

 

[Sweet Chicks]

One of the gray ones in the pic is a blue or splash Orpington. Most of these are Barred Rocks and I count 4 or 5 gray ones.