May 2020 Hatch-A-Long

[Coykoi]

My incubator is now on lockdown, although I'm sceptical that anything will hatch. Two were completely clear at day 14 so I dumped them and the rest were too dark to see anything. How long after the hatch date would you wait before giving up?
The other news is the hen that I wanted to raise chicks from went broody. So...no eggs from her for a while but I'm letting her sit on 6 of her flock mate's eggs. At least I'll have the incubator ready should she change her mind and abandon the eggs.

 

[FortCluck]

My incubator is now on lockdown, although I'm sceptical that anything will hatch. Two were completely clear at day 14 so I dumped them and the rest were too dark to see anything. How long after the hatch date would you wait before giving up?
The other news is the hen that I wanted to raise chicks from went broody. So...no eggs from her for a while but I'm letting her sit on 6 of her flock mate's eggs. At least I'll have the incubator ready should she change her mind and abandon the eggs.

I wait about 48 hours after the hatch date and do eggtopsies so I know they’re actually not alive.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

My incubator is now on lockdown, although I'm sceptical that anything will hatch. Two were completely clear at day 14 so I dumped them and the rest were too dark to see anything. How long after the hatch date would you wait before giving up?
The other news is the hen that I wanted to raise chicks from went broody. So...no eggs from her for a while but I'm letting her sit on 6 of her flock mate's eggs. At least I'll have the incubator ready should she change her mind and abandon the eggs.

Waiting until day 25 before giving up should be good. Even if you don't want to eggtopsy/assist I would still candle, tap and listen to the eggs before disposing of them even at day 25.
I've heard of chicks hatching successfully without issue as late as day 25 but I'm not personally that patient. If your temps have been good through the entire incubation they will normally all be hatched by the end of day 22 at the latest. I'm one to assist if necessary so if I'm down to a straggler or two after all of the other chicks have hatched without assistance I will check the stragglers. This is sometimes an eggtopsy and sometimes an assisted hatch so I always open the air cell carefully like it's an assisted hatch even if I think the chick has passed.

 

[kelseyk]

Candled a couple groups of eggs today. Started with the 12 Golden Appenzellers - had 1 late quitter, but saw movement from the rest. Nail test is predicting 4 cockerels and 7 pullets, and the nail did not move at all over my late quitter egg. (Still experimenting with this. LOL!) Then I did my day 4 candling on my Olive Egger eggs that sat at the post office of origin for 2-3 days making for a 7 day ship time. I could see light veining in 3, maybe veining in 1, and 3 that seemed pretty clear. They will stay in the incubator until at least day 7 (longer if I am still unsure) before I toss any. Then I decided I would candle my 4 Svart Hona eggs (day 17) and go ahead and move them to the hatcher a day early. No internal pips yet.....they are not in as much of a hurry as my barnyard mix chicks I hatched the last couple days of April. LOL!

Now I need to find time to go out and clean out the chicken coop (specifically the broody pen) so that I can start moving my oldest chicks to the chicken coop and make room in the tank brooder for the Mayathon chicks.

 

[FortCluck]

Squatch will live on in my flock... I gave two of his offspring to a friend and they started laying eggs plus mating with his deathlayers at 20 weeks. So now I’ll have Giant Deathlayers Rock on Squatch

I am getting them tomorrow

 

[mandi427]

All 4 eggs are pipped and I just happened to be looking into the incubator when a piece of shell went flying off one egg! Crazy! Hopefully we'll have chicks soon!

 

[Pretty Birds]

Day 7- I candled the eggs and all 24 are fertile and developing.
I am wondering if the size of the air cells are correct.

View attachment 2128775 View attachment 2128776

Sorry the pictures aren't great.

Are the air cells pictured in my previous post too small for day 7? Do I need to change the humidity? Are they the correct size?

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Are the air cells pictured in my previous post too small for day 7? Do I need to change the humidity? Are they the correct size?

What do you have the humidity at? Some of them do appear small for day 7 but I can't see very clearly in the image.

 

[Pretty Birds]

What do you have the humidity at? Some of them do appear small for day 7 but I can't see very clearly in the image.

The humidity has been 45-50%. Would you like me to post better pictures? Should I lower the humidity?

 

[FortCluck]

The humidity has been 45-50%. Would you like me to post better pictures? Should I lower the humidity?

I’d lower it. I never do higher than 40% for the first 18 days, it allows the air cells to get where they need to be.

It also depends how humid your location is and such. There are a lot of factors. I usually change the humidity according to the air cell size.

Not one humidity fits all