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

[wholewheatchicken]

Today was a HUGE improvement with the baby, and that's what I feel she is like. She went to bed in the brooder so I could clean the house and make dinner and she is eating on her own. Still not drinking yet, but I see such a big difference between today and yesterday that I am actually looking forward to tomorrow.
Tomorrow is Day 17 and hatch day is Sunday. My son is excited because they will be church babies. That should keep me busy that day. I will go to church in the morning and I think afterwards I will take the kids and my laptop and go to McDonald's for the afternoon so I'm not glued to the incubator and open it up too soon and kill everyone. I've learned a lesson or two.
So I candled tonight for the last time. There are 12 eggs. Five confirmed live chicks with movement, one egg that I have serious doubts about and the rest have at least developed since I candled a few days ago so I am going to assume they are alive, just too dark to see inside them now. I marked the air cells like Cali Chick did and will see if I learn anything by that from which hatch and which do not. The majority of them looked to be in about the same place and two of them looked kind of big. I have one that my silly broody hen was sitting on and I don't believe she turned the eggs and I took them away from her on day five. Both the air cells looked weird, but one of them the air cell is on the side of the egg. I let them develop, but marked them differently so if they don't hatch I won't be sitting around on them. I hope that one comes through because I could definitely see a baby moving around on the edges of the cell line. So I guess out of twelve I have concerns about three of them, because I never put too much into Magoo's eggs. She is sitting in a feed bucket about a foot off the ground and there is scratch grains under her. Where did she think she was going to take care of them at if they did hatch?
Will keep everyone posted as I go through the next few days and hopefully will have some sibs to play with Miss Pretty next Wednesday or so when they are big enough to walk around with her.

 

[onawhimfarm]

Just to update everyone, I just lost my chick that was born before she absorbed the yolk. She was doing great yesterday and then today she started with pasty butt and no matter how much I washed her in warm water it would just come back. So, I think something else was not right inside of her and she just wasn't meant to be here. Now we are down to 11. I was able to close down my NICU unit since the chick I thought was blind turned out to be just very poor sighted and only has the use of 1 eye. He is well though and is in the brooder with the rest of his hatchlings.

I'm really sorry to hear of everyone's difficult hatches... I'm getting ready to set more eggs for the Easter Hatch along and I'm very nervous that I just had beginners luck this time! I did use the dry hatch method and it seemed to work for me. I kept my humidity around 25-30% and I would let it get down to around 16% before I would add more water. I didn't have any plugs in the incubator and set it up on a few blocks to encourage air flow. I used an auto turner also. I really think that this whole incubating thing really is dependent on where you are and what the temps/humidity is in your location. It's definately a very steep learning curve!!

 

[wholewheatchicken]

Onawhimfarm, I'm so sorry to hear about your chick. We had to euthenize Jedi today also. I was amazed at his will to live up until the very end. Glad to hear your second NICU baby is not blind. Pictures....pictures....pictures!!!!!!

 

[BoutrosBoutrosGalusGalus]

Well we eggtopsied the remaining eggs today and I think the humidity spikes finished off some of the late hatchers. It didn't seem like there was much of an aircell for these guys. I wish I would have looked at the eggtopsy thread before doing one. Then I might have paid more attention to orientation bloodspots.

Sorry to hear about everyone's euthanizations - it was tough when I had to do it to our lil silkie premie.

 

[wholewheatchicken]

TODAY IS LOCKDOWN!!!! Again.....
Super excited and can't wait until Sunday. I'm so hoping things go a little better this time around.
Miss Pretty is sleeping through the night in a little box with a heating pad and towel in the bottom. I cover her up and tuck her in and she stays there until I get her up in the morning. This morning I was peeking in at her at about 6:00 and she was awake, hunkered down just hanging out.

 

[CALI CHICK]

TODAY IS LOCKDOWN!!!! Again.....
Super excited and can't wait until Sunday. I'm so hoping things go a little better this time around.
Miss Pretty is sleeping through the night in a little box with a heating pad and towel in the bottom. I cover her up and tuck her in and she stays there until I get her up in the morning. This morning I was peeking in at her at about 6:00 and she was awake, hunkered down just hanging out.

I hope you have a great hatch this time.

Aww, glad Miss Pretty is doing better. We almost thought we were going to keep "BB" seperate. Our last chick to hatch is SO tiny (and cute) like a round ball of grey fuzz--thus the name BB! However, she/he is the sound-alarm for all four chicks. I think she got a little more attention at first from us and then she was demanding it all the time. For several nights last week, BB, would chirp so loud on and on while the other 3 chicks tried to sleep. She has calmed down some, but whenever there is loud chirping, we know BB is trying to tell us something.

 

[wholewheatchicken]

Hi, Cali Chick. I had a great opportunity to meet with someone today who raises SQ silkies. So you know one of my top questions was at what humidity do you incubate and hatch at. She said 45% days 1 - 18 and 60% on lockdown. I also was reading on Bobbi Porto's Web site and the Web address is indigoegg.us and she has a lot of great information on hatching and raising silkies. Hope this might help in the future.
Cute name, BB. I just bought seven birds today that I am trying to think up names for. And hopefully on Sunday I will have some more fuzzies to name again.....
Where is the picture updates anyway???? You have the cutest props!!!!

 

[CALI CHICK]

Thank you, WWC, for the information and web site. I will definately read that asap! Guess what?!?!...I'm getting at least 6 B/B/S silkie eggs on Wednesday from a local breeder. He is even bringing them to me so I don't have to drive an hour to his place. I will also ask him what humidity he uses. He probably uses a big sportsman, but that might not make a difference with humidity. So excited to incubate a new batch of babies and totally hoping for 100% hatch this time.

I'm cleaning up the 'bator and making some improvements with the placement of the temperature probe and sponges, etc.

Sunday can't come fast enough.

Were you the one that called these your "church babies" since you'll be gone when they start hatching? Good idea! PLEASE keep us posted with what's going on and pictures.

Yes, I need to take some more pictures...I have some ideas for cute background props. You'll have to check back in tomorrow to see the photo shoot!

Hi, Cali Chick. I had a great opportunity to meet with someone today who raises SQ silkies. So you know one of my top questions was at what humidity do you incubate and hatch at. She said 45% days 1 - 18 and 60% on lockdown. I also was reading on Bobbi Porto's Web site and the Web address is indigoegg.us and she has a lot of great information on hatching and raising silkies. Hope this might help in the future.
Cute name, BB. I just bought seven birds today that I am trying to think up names for. And hopefully on Sunday I will have some more fuzzies to name again.....
Where is the picture updates anyway???? You have the cutest props!!!!

 

[wholewheatchicken]

My son called them the church babies since we will be gone most of the day with church activities. I know he is really watching me to see if I will keep out of the incubator and so far so good. Will post pictures of Miss Pretty soon. She's not always the happiest because she has to live in the brooder full time and is lonely, but it is the only way to keep her heat regulated and have available enough food and water.
I am not trying to be intrusive, but I was curious what you will be paying for the hatching eggs and what quality they are? I am hoping to sell some of mine soon, but am trying to decide what is reasonable. I have partridge that are from SQ lines that are laying right now. But if I sell a little later in the spring I just added a partridge hen from Bobbi Porto's line and a roo that is from Catdance Silkies. Mine that I have are from Bat Cave Silkies. I see what people pay on the auctions here, but since I'm just getting started I am trying to set things up to get "off" the ground, so to speak. If that is too personal, please just ignore me!

 

[CALI CHICK]

WWC, I paid $30 including shipping for the dozen last time. The parent birds appear SQ and I was hoping to get SQ offspring -not to sell or breed, but to show myself! Unfortunately, I'm not sure they are SQ because their toes don't look right to me. I know silkies have 5 toes, but some of mine seem to have "claw feet" or two toes/nails coming out in weird places?? I'm not sure if it had to do with the incubator heat/low moisture OR if it is a genetic issue from the parent stock. Either way, they are my first incubator babies and will live long happy lives as pets even if they grow up to be less than SQ!

The eggs I'm getting this week are___?__ in regard to quality! I didn't have a chance to look at the parent stock.

The breeder mainly raises them to sell as day old chicks. His Craigslist post said fertile eggs were $8 per dozen of many different varieties of chickens. But I'm not sure how much he will charge me for 6 silkie eggs. I will let you know. He will be calling on Monday to set up a time to meet on Wednesday. I hope they are SQ, but even if they aren't, my main goal is to try incubating again in the new incubator with better humidity and temperatures.

Sorry, I wasn't much help, Darla