My First Hatch

[kpmk06]

So before then beginning of Feb I knew a chicken was a chicken and that was it. For some reason, I decided I wanted chickens and i was going to incubate them myself. My first step was talking my hubby into it ( check) getting the information I needed (check) getting the incubator (check) and getting the eggs (check) I started out with 24 eggs, one was accidentally broken by my other halfs daughter, so I was down to 23. The eggs were all just an assortment, I know there are some EE, 1 Silver Spangled Hamburg, some BWJ, some bantam mixes and the list goes on. I was a wreak putting the eggs in, I know they are just eggs, but they seemed different because I bought these specific eggs with the intent to make little chickies. I put the eggs in at 10:00 p.m on Feb.6 wich I found out on this helpful site that it was still day 0, which I would have wished I found out earlier because come Sat night when nothing was happening yet, I felt like the worst egg mom! I have learned a lot through this process and this site has taught me alot. I have weeded out the duds, I even cracked them to make sure and I was right with all of them, I have even gotten to see a dead germ that was about 12 days.

Come time for lockdown, I had 16 that were still alive and kicking, so far as of today, 8 in total have started the process and one of those hatched at 7:40 a.m this morning. It is a cute little black chick with white tipped wings. So my first questions are..........

He/she is moving around or should I say flopping around quite well, he has pushed an egg to the outside of the bator and has moved others. Is this an issue, some have pipped and I am afraid they may get pushed so that they are facing downward. I am also wondering about a specific chick who was the furthest along yesterday. It has pecked a good size hole closer to the small end, I can see it, I can hear it, but since 12:00 p.m yesterday it really hasn't made a change. Now that they are in the hatching stage I am even more of a wreak!, please HELP! I think I just need words of advice and encouragement!

 

[kpmk06]

So chick number 2 has just hatched and it seems to be dragging it's umbilical cord??? It is stuck to his body, the first one didn't have this, anyone............?

 

[dianneS]

That might just be some membrane. If the chick is getting around okay, leave it be. You don't want to open the bator right now anyway. Don't worry about the eggs getting knocked around by the chicks. They always do that, they'll be fine. Usually once one starts hatching, more join in, they sort of encourage each other. If you are concerned about the one with the big hole in its shell and its hasn't made much progress in the past 24 hours. You may want to check and see if its membrane is too dried out. You may want to help it along. I've found some like that and they were dry and shrink wrapped, I just kept removing shell until I was sure that there was no blood and actually delivered the chick almost entirely myself. They have all been okay for me. Some would tell you not to help, but its always worked out for the best in my cases. If you do have to remove a chick from its shell, and its toes are curled up, don't worry about that either. That's just because it didn't push its way out of the shell and as it learns to walk, its toes will straighten out! Good luck!

 

[kpmk06]

Thanks for the response, it did eventually fall off and despite the rocking of the other eggs, I now have 7 chicks and 5 more that have piped. The one who had piped yesterday is out and it is one big chick!

 

[tnchickenut]

Quote:
Sounds like you are a natural! You'll be hatching again before summer... I can tell.