Mission Control...we have LIFTOFF!!! Ooops, I mean LOCKDOWN!

[ThePendragon]

Here are my babies getting nice and fluffy in the brooder....I'm still hoping the other 6 eggs hatch.

Funny picture - for a little bit I was trying to figure out what chicken would have an orange beak.

 

[BoutrosBoutrosGalusGalus]

Beautiful chicks BBGG! What breed are they?
And welcome to the thread onawhim! Sounds like an amazing hatch rate for your first try! I would leave the hatched chicks in the incubator as long as you have pips, but I tend to er on the side of caution. I know lots of people open their bators and don't have any problems.
I don't do any mareks vaccinations. We process all our extra roos so i'm not comfotable introducing a disease through a vaccination into a bird that I'm going to be eating.

Thanks! We have a set of eggs that are from a bunch of welsummer and Marans kept together and another set of blue silkies. And we also didn't do Mareks. We'll find out if its an issue I suppose. I have the feeling that the wild birds who can transmit it are getting it from commercial growers and its just not as agricultural around here.

 

[BoutrosBoutrosGalusGalus]

Hello all!! I'm on the same schedule as you all for lockdown! I have 6 fuzzybutts in the bator and 10 more eggs (

) that I'm waiting to hatch. 7 have pipped and the other 3 seem to be in the slow side. Now, I should be sure to mention that these eggs aren't due till tomorrow, so the last 10 aren't late yet. Now I'm just trying to decide if I should take the 6 VERY active chicks out of the bator now or just wait till tomorrow? I cant get the humidity below 90% now and I had been keeping it at 65% before they all started hatching... is that going to be a problem??? LOL!! Sorry for all the questions but this is my first hatch also. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi! We're hitting the high 80s too. We figure that means we can take the dry hatched ones out into the brooder. I am worried though since I still have quail eggs in the incubator. Hopefully they won't come out with gills.

 

[ggarratt]

Chicks in the brooder!! My pip from last night ended up shrink wrapped by this morning, so I did have to help her hatch, but now much. As soon as I peeled back the shrink wrapped membrane, she pushed herself right out of the egg. She was obviously ready to get out of there. So now I have 7 chicks in the brooder. That one chick who I'm keeping a close eye on is still in the incubator, and one egg left without a pip.

How is it going for everyone else this morning??

Is anyone else going to setting eggs again soon? I don't think I have the patience to wait for the easter hatch.

 

[California_chickie]

They look so healthy and adorable!

 

[onawhimfarm]

Well so far I have 11 chicks, but 1 of them seems to have been born with it's intestines on the outside... I took some pics as I'm not sure if it is the intestines or the yolk... what do you guys think??

 

[California_chickie]

yikes! hold on...let me do some quick research..

 

[The Mama Chicken]

It could be the yolk still being absorbed. Don't touch it and just wait awhile to see if it goes away. If it is intestine, well... the baby won't make it and should be put down.

 

[wholewheatchicken]

Hello, everyone!!! Glad to hear so much wonderful news from the egg hatchers.
Onawhimfarm, how is the baby with the egg sack?
Update from me: Miss Pretty is doing great. Can walk fine and chirp LOUDLY. I only had two others pip. One was a huge baby. It couldn't get out of its shell on its own. I pulled away part of the shell and membrane last night being careful not to break veins and wrapped it in a damp paper towel. About 4:30 this morning it woke me up chirping. I got up and could see it was not making progress so I worked on the shell and membrane again. It wasn't shrink wrapped. This baby was just huge. I helped it down to the end of the membrane because the bottom looked wet and yellow so I figured it must still need to absorb the egg sack. I stayed up for a couple of hours watching it do its thing and then went to bed about 6:00. I got up again at 7:30 and it had made no progress, but the egg sack had been absorbed so I finished helping it out since it looked pretty weak. Someone has been with it all day, but it doesn't look good. I don't think it will make it much longer. The third baby that pipped was shrink wrapped and I tried to help it, but it didn't make it. It passed away early this morning. Miss Pretty is so upset because she doesn't have anyone. I'm not sure how I'm going to get any sleep tonight. If I sleep with her, she's quiet, but I don't really sleep so I don't roll over on her. If she's in her box, she just will not be quiet. I am seriously thinking about buying myself a little chick tomorrow to go with her. My youngest are two weeks and I got out the tiny serama since it's about the same size and it wouldn't be quiet because it wanted back with its momma, but Miss Pretty was excited to see another chicken. I did try to take her to the broody momma, but Maggie only likes her babies and it was apparent the only thing Maggie thought was to kill it.
I have ten more eggs that have five days to lockdown. What I would do different is put a lining in my floor. The was my first mistake. Miss Pretty couldn't get her footing and was getting very weak after four hours of trying so that was mistake one, having to open the incubator to get her out. Second, maybe trying harder not to help if it can't hatch on its own. Notice I said maybe. I am going to use the same incubator the eggs are in now, put in a lining and not switch to the hatching incubator. I am a better candler now so I looked at my eggs tonight and could tell more about this batch than the last batch, but I really couldn't see much. They were pretty dark.
I want to do an eggtopsy on the eggs that never pipped. Has anyone on here done that? I have read threads about what this and that means when you open them up, but I didn't get what they were talking about so if anyone has any advice, I would appreciate it.
I said tonight I didn't make a good incubator momma, since I started with 16 eggs that at one time had life and ended up with three pips and one good baby, but the big baby that doesn't look like it is going to live is so incredibly pretty that I think I would do it again, just try to figure out what I did wrong.
My temps were consistent. My thermometer doesn't read halfs so it was always 99/100 with air and the humidity was around 25 - 30. Maybe the humidity was too low on days 1 - 18?????
I hand turned three times a day.
And I thought it was odd that I had collected eggs from three different hens and the only ones that made it to pip were the girl I call Light Earleen. (We thought the two Earls were boys and now they are Earleens and one is darker and one is lighter.) Magoo has been laying for a while and right now is broody (with no eggs given to her an she wants to sit in a small feed bucket and nowhere else) and Yeta is over a year old so she has been laying for a while. Light Earleen is the newest layer and hadn't been laying very long before I sat these eggs.
Sorry for such a long post. If anyone has any ideas, would really appreciate any input and see if I can improve my hatching abilities.
Thanks everyone. And keep up the beautiful pictures. Everyone's babies are so adorable.

 

[BoutrosBoutrosGalusGalus]

Sorry to hear the hatch isn't going so well. We're on our second hatch this time. The first was pretty bad. Out of a dozen eggs only 1 hatched when it was supposed to so we went and got it 2 little buddies from the poultry supply. Another popped out the next day so it was better than nothing, however we felt bad about it. We had to switch incubators mid-stream since the Reptipro conked out on us and we had had shipped eggs. We're doing better this time but we're still one chick short of %50 so we're keeping the fingers crossed but we haven't had a pip today.

Here was the brooder this morning.