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

[onawhimfarm]

Hi WholeWheatChicken!! So far

my little chick with the yolk sack seems to be doing good! We are so glad!! I have him in the bator with one that is having problems with his eyes. They keep getting stuck shut? She almost acts like she is blind? When she was in the brooder with the other fuzzy's she would always end up sopping wet and in a corner peeping her head off looking for everyone, so we put her in with the one that wants to snuggle to see if she will get any better. We have 12 total hatched with 1 viable egg left. The last egg is a FBC Marans and we are really hoping it will hatch!! We did float test it and it showed to be good, so we are patiently waiting.... yeah... right!

We started with 24 eggs and put 16 into lockdown. We float tested 4 eggs this evening and only 1 was viable. So, we cracked open the other 3 to see what happened and they were all developed with feathers but we think they had a broken membrane because they floated very high. We are very pleased even if this last egg doesn't hatch. But boy oh boy does that bator stink!! WOW!! Does anyone else have that odor after their hatch? I will be SCRUBBING that thing as soon as that last egg is done!! WHEW!


So about your questions... I really wish I could help you with them but I don't have any idea's for you. I know that I kept my humidity between 25% and 35% for the first 18 days then upped it to 75% for the last 3 days. I used the paper towel method from this site (dry hatching) to keep it up for the lockdown. I also have a turner and had aquarium tubing one of the top vents to be able to add warm water without opening. But I think I had the temps a little high since my first egg hatched 2 days early? I had 4 thermometers in there... but only the 2 fish tank ones ever read the same! I had them setting at different levels so I could figure out if they would be warm enough when I took the turner out for lockdown. Other than that... I'm clueless and just lucky I guess.

Here is a picture of my little fuzzys!!


Oh, these are basically a barn yard mix. EE, Delaware, RIR hens with a golden comet roo, then EE, cochin, fbc marans, barred rock hens in with cochin and fbc maran roos.

 

[chiqita]

Well, i feel a bit terrible this morning.
We float tested the eggs and didn't think anything looked viable. And the I was eggtopsying the third chick and the darn thing was alive! (the only one the membrane broke on the first crack, go figure) there was bit of blood, and I freaked out. We freed her beak so she wouldn't drown and put her in the bator, she is cheeping up a storm. I don't know what to do now
Should we help her out or leave her in this weird hybred to see if she absorbs more yolk? Needless to say all the other eggs went back...

We really had problems with humidity, when all those chicks hatched it was spiking over 84% so we DID open the bator to get it back down into the 70's.
The other 2 we looked at before this one one never moved into positon, and one looked too big for its shell.

Gratz on all the other hatches, ill post more later when i'm more positive.

 

[wholewheatchicken]

Chiqita, I don't know what to say to help, but I will tell you more about my experience and what I am learning now that it is finished. I posted the first part of this event in the thread above. We did an eggtopsy last night and I had many, many that the chick was formed and had absorbed the egg sac, but they never pipped. My guess on what happened was I opened the incubator about four hours after the first chick was born to get it out and I think I probably messed up the membranes on all the rest of them. I am not even going to look in the last four eggs inside the bator...I can already figure it out. There were two that had pipped and so I knew there was a chick in them. One of them seemed too big to get out of the shell and I helped it over the course of time. It was born and had such a will to live. Unfortunately, its legs are cemented into the curled position and there was nothing I could do about that from the start. I am pretty sure I have read if they don't get out right it can mess up their feet and I think this one's legs were affected also. The second chick that had pipped was shrink wrapped and even though I had tried to help it, it didn't make it and died before it ever got all the way out of the shell. So you might have others in their eggs that are stuck in there. I don't know how a person could tell and I'm not sure if they could be born right.
And after reading last night trying to figure out what went wrong, it does depend on what type of incubator you have as to how much it will effect the eggs if you open your incubator. Styrofoam is definitely the worst and it inches up from there. If you have a top of the line one, it said it will take about five minutes to get the humidity up to where it should be. Styrofoam took hours, I think it said. I thought it was okay because the hydrometer was reading fine.
Since I do have it to do over again (lockdown for next batch is in two days after today) I will put in some of that spongy shelf liner like I saw the others have in their incubators in this thread. That was my number one problem. And I am going to put the incubator where I can't see it so much. And I am just going to leave it alone. I think too high humidity is better than a humidity spike, but, again, I am going to search threads and make sure on that. Cali Chick on this thread had her humidity spike and she had a way of venting and it worked very well for her. On this next hatch I am going to use the incubator that I use for days 1 - 18 and turn off the fan and it does have vent holes in it. I'm not sure if I will use them or not, but if I need to I will have the option.

 

[CALI CHICK]

Hi Everyone, I apologize for not participating or responding to my thread much this weekend. We have family staying with us from the Bay Area so I've been busier than usual. I just got everyone outfitted to go up to the snow....which gives me some time alone. I like to unwind by spending my "free time" on BYC with all of you.

First I want to confess that I've been having a pity-party because only 4 of my 10 chicks hatched. This was my first time incubating. I realize that many of us (most of us) didn't get 100% hatches. Maybe this will encourage you -another BYC friend reminded me that even a broody hen doesn't always get all her eggs to hatch. All of us did everything in our knowledge to hatch and assist these eggs and chicks. When we didn't know what to do, we asked. When things went wrong, we researched and got advice. I hope everyone (including me) will try to learn from their experience and try again. I wish I knew what I could have done to have a better hatch. I really can't put my finger on any one thing. But like another BYC friend told me, "Don't beat yourself up with what coulda, woulda, shoulda...Just enjoy the chicks that did hatch. They are truely special!"

Here is another picture of my 4 babies. My husband helped me put little band-aid braces on 3 of their legs because they were sortof straddling when they walked. I even have shelf liner in the 'bator, so I don't know why they developed like this. But, they are doing GREAT at getting around now. (You can see 2 of the band-aid splints...They don't hold still for pictures)


I will be doing a float test and candling my other 6 eggs today. I still have them in the 'bator...holding out hope. I'll be sure to let you know what I discover and I'll let you know what I find if I do eggtopsies.

If nothing else, I will learn WHEN they died.
Take care, Cali

 

[wholewheatchicken]

Cali Chick, first let me say my heart is breaking for you too. The babies you do have are so beautiful and I know you will enjoy them every second. It seemed like reading your posts you were doing everything right so I too would say learn all you can from this experience for your next hatching. I was so sad on Saturday I was never going to hatch after this next batch. Today I am still researching trying to figure out what went wrong and can't wait to try again. Sadly, my big baby Jedi is not going to make it and if he doesn't pass on his own soon we will help him let go. He is such a fighter. His legs are curled and locked so he would never be able to walk and I don't think there is any splinting that will help it.
If it's not too painful, I would really like to know what you find on eggtopsy. We had so many babies that had totally absorbed the egg yolk in the shell and then died. They never pipped. I'm just guessing that the membrane must have been too dry. I thought they would only shrink wrapped if they had pipped and these had not so I am left feeling very confused. I did have some that were quitters that I didn't affect during lockdown, they were already gone. I have tried and tried to find out about the ones in their shells and I just got on BYC again and am going to post in the hatching section and see if I can find someone who can tell me what went wrong. I am also trying to research venting during hatching and the air exchange. I also wonder if I dried them out too much during incubation, but the main idea I read was too little humidity was better than too much humidity. I found this site and thought the table at the bottom was interesting and it has some information about cripples ohioline.osu.edu/b633/b633_4.html Sorry it doesn't seem to pop up in a link. From all the reading I've done, I would have thought when I opened the lid and had one or two pips I would have harmed those babies, not the entire hatch, because the ones that didn't break out, but had absorbed the yolk, were wiggling after day 18 and I knew there was a baby in there.

Here is a hug. If you would like me to let you know how my next hatch goes to see if I fixed any problems and can offer any advice as I'm learning too, please let me know.
And I want to say your BYC friend is right, just because a momma hen hatches her eggs doesn't mean she gets a good hatch either. My Maggie loves, loves, loves to have babies. She just had her first successful hatch for me since we just started having fertile eggs and she hatched out four of eight. I couldn't get my husband to look in those eggs to see what went wrong, but something did. My guess is they were okay and at the very end Maggie had the diarrhea and got a lot of the eggs dirty and scooted some of them out of the nest that night, so they either got cold or the poo killed them. She did the best she could. She sat for almost eight weeks to get her little guys. She's a wonderful momma and takes the best care of her little ones and enjoys every second of them. She will raise them up and then I bet in about two months from now she will be ready to get herself some more little ones to snuggle with. I just want to say I personally don't care for sitting with the baby.......I am having to momma Miss Pretty since she's all alone and we spend a lot of time in bed under the electric blanket. She's tickly and feels like a spider crawling around on me. So far I've managed not to squish her and my dog seems to realize I have something in there and hasn't squished her either. I tried to buy a friend for her today, but the person I called didn't have any little ones so it's just Miss Pretty, myself and my son, who graciously spends a lot of time holding her too.

 

[chiqita]

CAli and wwc, thanks for your replies. We do have a hovabator, and it is Styrofoam, but its the deluxe one with the moving air, etc, and it seem to hold humidity REALLY well. The 3 that we opened that were dead we def not shrink wrapped, But we DID spike the humidity to have quail eggs last week, and i wonder if that had an affect.

I beat myself up too, I don't think this little one will survive, she is still all curled up, but i fed her some vitamins so shes got some strength and she is cheeping up a storm. This has required opening the bator however, so Ive got not a lot of hope for the other eggs, even though it still says its not down under 60% humidity. But, honestly while we could probably improve our hatch rate, I'm not unhappy with it except for where i think i will have killed this one.

Cali, 4 out of 10 on shipped eggs is still good! I can still hold out hope for your little babies that they may find their way out. Those band aid splints are awesome!

WWC, I'm really interested to see if your next chicks see how your next chicks do, keep us posted. I'm guessing we are too grabby on that bator, but the chicks were all sitting on the pipped eggs.( ON the pips) and I was imagining them all dying in there. I think if I do the Easter hatch a long I may leave that weekend ! lol I intend to learn from what you do differently and if it has an effect. I Will post on the eggtopsys, wont do it for another day however as now i'm not 100% certian they are all passed.

But Now my biggest problem is the 3 4 week olds that are semi sharing the brooder keep trying to get into the little ones cage, and then the babies all run under them and freak them out.

Thank you all for participating this weekend, it was wonderful to share the experience.
Princess
Jesse
pompom
welshie
tres Leches
rug ( also known as pompom2)
and a whole bunch of FBCM's I cant yet identify individually(10 total)
All thank you for listening to the stories of their births!

 

[wholewheatchicken]

Don't know if you know, but keep the big ones away from your newbies because they will run them over and hurt them.
Funny note, if anyone goes over to hatching eggs, there is a lady posting from Costa Rica and she had a broody hen and put an egg under her two days after she started sitting. The babies hatched out and momma stayed three more days and left the nest and the lady left the egg in a warm area. They have high humidity where she is. Today the egg started chirping and then a pip. She posted on here wondering what to do. The last I saw was the baby was hatching. Wow!!!! AMAZING!!!! And here we are trying to get our temps and humidity right so we can hatch eggs. I have been posting to her and I think it could be beneficial to ask what their ambient air temps and humidity are. Any egg that can hatch on its own like that, there is something to it.
Splinted Jedi's feet. We couldn't bear to euthenize without trying one last step. The little chick holds its head down a lot and splinting seemed to really stress it out. I put it back in the brooder to let it rest and will take it one little step at a time.

 

[CALI CHICK]

Don't know if you know, but keep the big ones away from your newbies because they will run them over and hurt them.
Funny note, if anyone goes over to hatching eggs, there is a lady posting from Costa Rica and she had a broody hen and put an egg under her two days after she started sitting. The babies hatched out and momma stayed three more days and left the nest and the lady left the egg in a warm area. They have high humidity where she is. Today the egg started chirping and then a pip. She posted on here wondering what to do. The last I saw was the baby was hatching. Wow!!!! AMAZING!!!! And here we are trying to get our temps and humidity right so we can hatch eggs. I have been posting to her and I think it could be beneficial to ask what their ambient air temps and humidity are. Any egg that can hatch on its own like that, there is something to it.
Splinted Jedi's feet. We couldn't bear to euthenize without trying one last step. The little chick holds its head down a lot and splinting seemed to really stress it out. I put it back in the brooder to let it rest and will take it one little step at a time.

Wow-that's pretty cool. BTW-When we 1st put the band-aids on our chicks, they squaked and complained & pecked at them like crazy. Then they would roll in a forward or backward somersault trying to get their balance. NOW-they are walking around very well. I could never cull a chick either. I just tried to help one of my 6 eggs out of the shell because I thought (?) I saw movement. Well, it isn't moving but I still put it back in the incubator. Maybe I should take it out.

Is it safe to say "it's NOT sleeping?" It is shiny because it's wet...That's not the membrane. Instead of a rescue, I think it was more of an eggtopsy.

Here is a peek at it...

 

[wholewheatchicken]

I didn't think to take pictures of ours, but that is pretty much what I saw. There was one that just had a little egg sac to absorb and the others had absorbed the entire thing. So why would they be alive and absorb the sac and ours the blood vessels were shut down so no blood came through the membrane and not pip out and die inside the shell like they suffocated?????? When we find the answer to this question, we will know exactly what went wrong.....at least that's what I'm hoping.
Okay...so the lady in Costa Rica I was talking about, her chick hatched out. She has pictures of it. She put it on top of a heating pad and covered it with a towel, or something, to dry it off and fluff it up and is planning on adding it to the broody hen with her chicks when it's dry. I forgot to ask what the ambient temps and humidity are, but I think her story could have some very useful info. Here we are keeping a close eye on everything and hers hatches by itself. Also, I want to say when my little Peppie was born, I didn't even know Sophie had a fertile egg and didn't know when it was supposed to hatch. So I looked in it on the 4th of February and it was born on the 7th of February. So I took it away from her and candled it and it didn't hurt it. Then on that Tuesday morning I got Sophie up to go outside to use the restroom and I heard this peeping and figured out it was coming from the egg and picked it up and listened to it and got my husband to listen to it and then went in the house to get the kids to listen to it. Still didn't hurt it. Later that afternoon I went out and moved Sophie over a little and then checked on it again that night when I got home. Still didn't hurt it. So how do you figure that out????? I never touched that day until the end and then kept messing with it and it didn't appear to hurt it at all. So much to think on.

 

[ggarratt]

I'm sorry so many folks had tough first hatches. But please don't give up. It's a gradual learning/tweaking process, and it takes time to get it right. It took me a few hatches to realize that my thermometer was off so I was running my incubator too cool, then after I fixed that and my chicks started hatching on time, I was still having a lot of full formed chicks not hatching. Then I realized that my humidity was to high because I live in a foggy area on the coast where ambient humidity can be 80-90%, so I learned that it's impossible for me to get a decent hatch during the foggy season. This time I tried a dry hatch and I think the humidity was just a bit too low because my house is so dry because of the woodstove running in the winter.

So please just remember that it's a gradual learning process, and if you don't get it right the first time (or the second time) just make a tweak and try try again!!