May 2020 Hatch-A-Long

[FortCluck]

I was just looking at hatching eggs on ebay last night, I want some too!!!

I might have one, but I’ll wait till it hatches. I have 3 colored eggs that I want to keep the chicks.

 

[kelseyk]

Hello all ! Hope everyone is hatching well .
So Tesco egg didnt make it at all but that's ok . We are lucky we have 3 little beauts !
I think one has a curled up toe. Do I need to leave it a couple of days or splint it right away? They are a day old . My 4 year old is in love and has been reading to them Haha! View attachment 2165971View attachment 2165972View attachment 2165973View attachment 2165974

I would put a chick boot on it now as the bones are still flexible/not hardened into position yet. It should only need about 3 days in the boot.

 

[Rachnicko]

First part of hatch successful! This...

 

[FortCluck]

I have a bunch of external pips this morning!!!! Come one babies! They are assorted barnyard chicks from the place I got my assorted quail from. I got falb fee out of those and thats a coloring i have wanted since someone showed me them.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Chicks were hatching all through the night while I was asleep last night. I woke up to 13 chicks in the incubator!

One of the Silkies that hatched before I went to bed.

 

[FortCluck]

I have a chick in the bator... it’s black

 

[6oddsocks]

Well chick boot fitted Haha! Very hard to do alone so not sure its its completely right

 

[CindyinSD]

Thanks. Images below. I'm in Chester, UK. Eggs were sourced locally so NOT shipped. Temp stayed around 37-39c up until lockdown with humidity at 45-50. After lockdown humidity was kept between 65 and 75 but temp spiked up to 41 for a couple of hours over the last 2/3 days. All were moving going into lockdown on day 18. I was using an HHD mini 24
View attachment 2162780View attachment 2162781View attachment 2162782View attachment 2162783View attachment 2162784View attachment 2162785

Someone's probably said this already, but my guess is that your humidity during incubation was too high for your location. Humidity can spike pretty high during the hatch (which doesn't apply to you in this case), but though it's worth (imo) opening the incubator and sopping up unwanted water, I cannot say it's ever noticeably affected hatching for me.

Looks to me like you're on the river and not much above sea level, so I'm guessing somewhat humid--at any rate, not arid. You could possibly incubate dry and do very well. Many people do. I'm a little over a mile high. Evaporation happens faster up here, and I incubate at 45-55% humidity and have good success. I do know others at my altitude who incubate dry and also do very well, so there's obviously more to it than altitude.

That said, do some research and decide whether this is something you would consider experimenting with. You may also want to weigh your eggs and be guided by water weight loss as to your humidity settings.

Just a bit of council... I started incubating with the least expensive eggs I could find. I hate to see folks start out with expensive eggs, become emotionally invested in the outcome, and end up depressed. Mama hens frequently don't do so well either, especially first-timers, so don't blame yourself. We can only do the best we can do. You will succeed at this so long as you keep up the effort.

 

[CindyinSD]

Thank you! What materials are you using? Is it just a piece of tape between the legs? Hard to tell.

I have used scotch tape (clear tape on a roll, made for light jobs), split in half so as not to be so wide. That's my favorite for baby chicks.

Observe how the normies stand--how wide apart their legs are as related to their bodies. It's important to give your chick a wide enough stance or she won't be able to walk or maybe not even stand up.

IME, this tape lasts long enough to heal them and is easy, non-traumatic to remove. I do not like the vet tape. It's stiff, too sturdy to be easily removed, and it's hard to split down to a lesser width.

 

[FortCluck]