My first baby Bobwhite ever

[bbqsfarm]

My first ever incubation. Tomorrow is technically hatch day. However when I got up this morning I had one baby. I am doing a hatch of Northern Bobs (local) and Ten Reds (shipped) from 2 different breeders!

Not sure when the little guy hatched overnight but was still damp when I got up. I did a ton of research set my eggs in a special way to hatch per some stuff I read. However, the little monster is screwing things up! As it is running around its turning the eggs!

This is one of the local eggs. I am going to have to open the bator to get him out. However everything I read says don't open. Well heck you don't have a choice!

PS. With the local eggs nothing was by the book (before incubation) and it still hatched........Happy to post details if you want them.

Wish me luck. I have 36 eggs left waiting to hatch in there!

 

[Mwilliams32931]

Babies can stay in the incubator for up to 24 hours before you have to take them out but if your brooder is ready and he is all fluffy and dry then I say go ahead and take him out.

 

[TwoCrows]

Congrats on the new baby!!!

If nobody else is zipping and all is quiet in the bator, AND he is dry, you can remove him. Just make it quick. If others are pipping, zipping and all over the place, leave him in with the others.

I try to get them out long before 24 hours so they can start eating and drinking, but you can leave them in there as long as 24.

Good luck and get that camera ready! We need baby pics!!

 

[quailtrail]

Congrats! !!!!

 

[SavageChick]

Congratulations!

Yes, I would love to hear the details - the things you did differently per your reading - with your hatch.

 

[bbqsfarm]

I have seen the little guy both eat and drink so I am pretty excited. No one mentioned they try to commit suicide when you try to catch them. My next batch the bator will be on the floor!

 

[TwoCrows]

LOL....yeah, they are fast little buggers, and slippery as a watermelon seed. And are sure you are out to eat them. LOL Great to hear he is doing well.

 

[bbqsfarm]

The incubation was pretty standard but I am referring to how the eggs were handled to begin with and my observations;

I was offered some free eggs and told by the guy they have never successfully had any hatches in the incubator but his hens go broody and hatch their own.

He did not gather the eggs daily he just left them out (it was freezing nights then) they were also quite dirty. I just showed up on a Saturday morning and picked up what I found. (20 eggs). He has a nice coop/run. He had more males then females also. Of the 20 eggs 19 were fertile. Due to how dirty they were I decided to wash them. I used hot water, almost as hot as I could stand and Clorox wipes. I put the wipe under the water to heat the wipe and wiped down the eggs with the then diluted wipe. I let them set until that afternoon and put them in with my ordered eggs.

I did candle the eggs on day 8 and made quick notes on the eggs with a pencil. G=Good, B-thinking bad, BR for those I thought had Blood Rings and W for those I wiped. I put them in the turners so I would know what was what. I only tossed the non fertile eggs that were obvious. Thank goodness. I re candled 3 days later and had made a ton of mistakes. (My first hatched baby was marked "B W").

I have 6 in there now with internal pipping. Some local eggs and some shipped eggs. Hatch day is technically tomorrow. Wish I could paint the toes so I could continue to track the progress. I might be off a day or two as my thermometer only reads whole digits and it has stayed pretty consistent at 99 or 100.