May 2020 Hatch-A-Long

[Perris]

Most days with broodies nothing happens. But today, when she went for food, I found one of the eggs under Eve broken On the downside, obvs we've lost one chick and some of the other eggs are a bit mucky, but on the upside I now know that hen's fertile, and the foetus looked like it should for 1 week old. The shell did seem thin though. As they say, if it's meant to be, it will be, and if it's not, it won't. There are 9 others being incubated...

 

[goat114]

Do you have heat in your brooder? It should dry itself.

Put 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in a gallon of water, it helps with preventing pasty butt. I’ve been doing it for years. It also keeps your watered clean from algae and such.

yes heat and I will put apple cider vinegar in there water This is one of the older chicks I have not sure on breed or gender

 

[FortCluck]

yes heat and I will put apple cider vinegar in there water This is one of the older chicks I have not sure on breed or gender View attachment 2130311

Get face, legs/feet, and wing pics. I’m not very good at breed identification but I know those types of pics help.

 

[FortCluck]

Got 43 quail and 21 chicken eggs. They’re in the bator. I think I can squeeze maybe 12 more small chicken eggs in the bator. I have 100+ eggs going right now

 

[goat114]

Get face, legs/feet, and wing pics. I’m not very good at breed identification but I know those types of pics help.

will do!

 

[AUChickenGal]

Sorry about your little Cochin, @gmjarvi.

Good news here, though - kinda, anyway. It's so cold here (can't believe I'm saying that on May 9th!) that the electric company cancelled today's planned power outage. I'm sure they'll reschedule it at some point, but I can breathe easy for a day or two, at least.

 

[mandi427]

Here are the results of our first hatch. Only 1/4 of the eggs we put in ended up being fertile, half of those hatched, and we have two new babies in a brooder. They are blue cochin and either slw or brahma, I'm leaning toward slw.

 

[Sciencekathryn]

Just candled my eggs, and it was so exciting to see my three developing and moving around! I had 12 shipped, one came slightly cracked despite good packaging so I know they were tossed around a bit. Three were clears and the other six were early quitters. Hoping all my little ones make it to hatch. They are due Friday!

 

[Honora]

Here are the results of our first hatch. Only 1/4 of the eggs we put in ended up being fertile, half of those hatched, and we have two new babies in a brooder. They are blue cochin and either slw or brahma, I'm leaning toward slw.

View attachment 2130448
View attachment 2130450

Such a pretty color!

 

[Coykoi]

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.

Thanks,
It turned out that 4 of 5 were not only viable, but hatched a day earlier than expected. The 5th egg has shown no movement, this whole batch has been impossible to see anything except a big dark unmoving blob so I'm not ruling this one out yet. I made a pinhole into the air cell and will keep watch throughout the weekend.