May 2020 Hatch-A-Long

[Minky]

I have 32 chicks in the brooder. They are always sleeping, like flat pancakes, they look dead... if I knock the box a little then they get up and socialize for a bit, but then go right back to sleeping. I think my temp is ok. They are between 1.5 days and .5 days old... IS THIS NORMAL? I thought they'd be running around more.


I'm going to try the nail sexing thing today- we are renovating so I have steel brad nails on hand. Yay! I will also try the laying the bird on its back to see what it does with its legs.

I didnt have any get stuck in the shell. All that pipped came out fine. I kept humidity around 47-48 during first 18 days then 63-77 during lockdown, and found I could remove the chicks quickly with almost no humidity loss but I had a few to retrieve, I would just add warm water with a straw... I do have 10 left in the incubator- 9 maran and 1 olive egger. They were too dark to candle, so I will do egg-topsises I have never done them before, and do not look forward to it.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

I have 32 chicks in the brooder. They are always sleeping, like flat pancakes, they look dead... if I knock the box a little then they get up and socialize for a bit, but then go right back to sleeping. I think my temp is ok. They are between 1.5 days and .5 days old... IS THIS NORMAL? I thought they'd be running around more.


I'm going to try the nail sexing thing today- we are renovating so I have steel brad nails on hand. Yay! I will also try the laying the bird on its back to see what it does with its legs.

I didnt have any get stuck in the shell. All that pipped came out fine. I kept humidity around 47-48 during first 18 days then 63-77 during lockdown, and found I could remove the chicks quickly with almost no humidity loss but I had a few to retrieve, I would just add warm water with a straw... I do have 10 left in the incubator- 9 maran and 1 olive egger. They were too dark to candle, so I will do egg-topsises I have never done them before, and do not look forward to it.

It's normal for them to sleep a lot for the first day or two after hatching, yes. When you use a heat lamp you're more likely to notice them just dropping and sleeping because they don't have set hours of rest like when using a heat plate or heat source without light.

The thing with laying them on their backs and one or both legs sticking out didn't work at all for me. When I first got started with chicks I tried it and it was 50/50 which means...not effective. People can have better results with it but it's luck. Might as well eanie meany miny moe. Lol
I haven't tried it in a really long time though. I suppose I can tack that on to my things to check after hatch. Lol

 

[CindyinSD]

Sure! I'll give it a try once the Marans hatch. We used to do this with pregnancies to see if we were having a girl or boy. It didn't work for that. Lol

My doctor during my first pregnancy told me he used to tell the couple their baby would be a boy. Then he would write "baby girl" at the top of the chart. He said he was never wrong.

 

[CindyinSD]

I got eight heathy chicks! One died after it hatched and another in the brooder. The rest were DIS. Looked like they were too big to hatch. Might raise the humidity earlier next time. So 8 chicks out of 16 eggs. I'm ok with that because I really don't have the room, but chicken math got to me and made me put in too many eggs...

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I haven't had this happen (with the too-big chicks), but from what I've read here, this can be caused by too high humidity during incubation. The air cell doesn't shrink as it ought and also it causes the chicks to grow too big (for some reason I don't understand). A lot of people have better results adding no humidity during incubation, but I'm sure this has to do with local climate.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

I got eight heathy chicks! One died after it hatched and another in the brooder. The rest were DIS. Looked like they were too big to hatch. Might raise the humidity earlier next time. So 8 chicks out of 16 eggs. I'm ok with that because I really don't have the room, but chicken math got to me and made me put in too many eggs...

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Congratulations on your hatch!

 

[Erba]

My first hatch I had several die in the Shell as well. After reading up on it I decided it was too much humidity during the first 18 days. I starting doing dry incubation (adding no water until lockdown) and my hatch rate skyrocketed. I live in mid. TN where it's quite humid to begin with.
My current batch is running at about 40-41% and the few I've looked at seem right on track.

I had it dry around 40%. Those chicks were so big they couldn't move to hatch, when I opened them up they were practically filling the air cell. Never has that before so very weird. Why the others were ok and hatched normally is a mystery. Genetics maybe, too big for the egg?

 

[CindyinSD]

Do goslings take as long as ducklings? I have 8 of 8 externally pipped. Just wondering what to expect... They seem to be moving a bit faster for now.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

I have 32 chicks in the brooder. They are always sleeping, like flat pancakes, they look dead... if I knock the box a little then they get up and socialize for a bit, but then go right back to sleeping. I think my temp is ok. They are between 1.5 days and .5 days old... IS THIS NORMAL? I thought they'd be running around more.


I'm going to try the nail sexing thing today- we are renovating so I have steel brad nails on hand. Yay! I will also try the laying the bird on its back to see what it does with its legs.

I didnt have any get stuck in the shell. All that pipped came out fine. I kept humidity around 47-48 during first 18 days then 63-77 during lockdown, and found I could remove the chicks quickly with almost no humidity loss but I had a few to retrieve, I would just add warm water with a straw... I do have 10 left in the incubator- 9 maran and 1 olive egger. They were too dark to candle, so I will do egg-topsises I have never done them before, and do not look forward to it.

85% hatch rate - congratulations! Eggtopsies are sad but helpful. I go in from the aircell as I have an unrealistic fear that the chick is still alive, but that’s not been the case. I open the egg in a piece of egg carton kept in a disposable bag - some eggs contain rotting embryos. If it smells bad, I figure bacterial infection and stop right there!

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

I had it dry around 40%. Those chicks were so big they couldn't move to hatch, when I opened them up they were practically filling the air cell. Never has that before so very weird. Why the others were ok and hatched normally is a mystery. Genetics maybe, too big for the egg?

Interesting. I’ve wondered whether that would happen with full sized roo over bantam hen... I guess that wasn’t the case here?

 

[CindyinSD]

Do goslings take as long as ducklings? I have 8 of 8 externally pipped. Just wondering what to expect... They seem to be moving a bit faster for now.

Oops, no. The answer is definitively no. Goslings (at least American Buff) by no means take as long as ducklings. They're a lot bigger, too!