My First Official Incubation: Fayoumis crosses and Leghorn crosses

[davemonkey]

Here are the eggs numbered just as they are in the incubator. If you want to follow along with a visual, now you have a good reference. The red "x" marks the eggs that have pipped so far (as of 12:20 pm).

 

[davemonkey]

We have a hatch!!!

Okay, I though #9 would be first, but I was WAY wrong. #29 pipped between 7:30 and 11:30 this morning, and is our first hatch. This is a Fayoumis/Australorp (OR Barred Rock). It has been all over the incubator since hatching and seems to enjoy playing kickball with the other eggs, or using them as stepping stones.





Rule #1 - NEVER open the incubator until all/most of the eggs have hatched!!!! It could shrink-wrap the other chicks that have externally pipped. Okay, that having been said, here's Rita holding the new baby.

If you look closely at the bottom-right of the brown egg that the chicks is resting its wing on, you should be able to make out a pip.



Okay, let's do a recap of what we have so far on hatch day.

-At 4am I pipped egg#9 (but apparently didn't need to...oh well...he/she's doing fine so far).
-By 7am, egg #10, 11 and 26 pipped.
-Between 7:30-11:30 am, eggs # 4, 24, and 29 pipped.
-Between 12:30-3:00, #12 pipped.
-Between 3:00-4:00, #30 pipped.
-By 5:00, #20 pipped.

10 pips, 16 to go, and now 1 hatch. I predict that #11 will be next to hatch.

 

[davemonkey]

10 hatched chicks as of this morning when I left. From first unassisted pip to first hatch (not the same egg) was 12 hours. Shortest span of time for a specific egg between pip and hatch is 9 hours so far (I think it was Egg #20, which hatched at about 2am...I'll check my notes this evening), and the longest is 22 hours (pipped at 7am yesterday, hatched at 5am this morning).

There are at least 2 that still have not pipped. And there were at least 3 malpositions where the chick pipped the wrong end. Of those, 2 have already hatched successfully, and 1 looks like it will be fine. There are a couple more that I can't tell if the the chick is malpostitioned or if the air cell shrunk up incredibly during the last couple days (they pipped the middle of the egg). Photos and details will come later tonight or tomorrow.

Oh, and we got a surprise. Turns out, "Lil Red" was sneaky. The pullet egg (from a Production Sex Link) is ALL RED. Every other egg from Foghorn so far has had a yellow chick. The full-blood leghorns have not hatched yet as of 7 am this morning, but they were moving so I'm not worried.

 

[davemonkey]

2 more hatched (21 and 20,). We are at 46% hatch-rate (only counting the eggs that made it this far) so far with 14 more to go.

 

[davemonkey]

Quick photo-reference recap:

The red "x" now is for eggs that have hatched out. The 2 eggs with the purple belts around them are "malpositioned"* chicks that have not hatched yet (2 others hatched on their own even though they were malpositioned). The eggs with the yellow cirlces have not pipped yet. They may be slow, or late "bloomers", or might have died. Tonight will be 24 hrs past-due, so I will candle them at that time and see if I can tell what's going on there if they have not pipped by then. If they HAVE pipped by then, then I'll let them sit a bit longer.


* "Malpositioned" means that the chick is facing the wrong direction, with its head toward the narrow end of the egg. (It can also mean other wrong positions, but for now this is close enough.) This can be a big problem because there may not be enough room for the chick to turn while "unzipping" the shell, and may not make a large enough hole to hatch out of. We'll give those chicks more time to try on their own and may assist if they start to get too worn out. Assisting a hatch is a last-resort...and requires MUCH patience. Rushing a hatch while assisting could kill the chick if its not ready to come out.



Quick Quiz: If the purple belts around eggs # 13 and 18 are shown in the correct place where the pip occurred, which chick will have a harder time getting out, and why?

 

[davemonkey]

18 hatches so far, with 1 on the way. The rest are not looking good...not a pip in them and no movement. Assuming they don't make it, that brings the hatch rate to 19 out of 32 original eggs. That is 59%. I think the low count is due to having the temps somewhat less than ideal before I figured out there is a 4 degree difference from top to bottom in the incubator, instead of the 1.5 degree difference I "thought" there would be.

Anyway, here are some photos I'd like to share to conclude this hatch-along:

This shows the actual hatching progression. This is egg #11 (being cheered on by the first hatcher from egg #29). The chick has "zipped" the shell several hours after the initial "pip". This took a matter of minutes. About 5 or 6 good shoves, and out it came.








Here is a picture of a "pip". (The egg in the middle with the big "O" facing us.) It's easy to get excited when you see a pip, but this egg didn't zip and hatch until about 14 hours later. We had some take as long as 22 hours, and we have one straggler (the last leghorn) at 24 hours and still counting.

 

[davemonkey]

Chicks don't really have a sense of courtesy when it comes to hatch mates. Do you remember the nice lines/groups I had the eggs in? That didn't last very long after the second egg hatched. It was a matter of hours before all the eggs were scattered all over the place.



Here are a couple examples of what the inside of the egg looks like after a hatch. All that's left is membrane and dried blood vessels. Sometimes you'll see some cord, which I guess could be likened to the placenta in a human.






Here's another example of what an egg looks like after a hatch. Seriously though, some of our chicks hatched and immediately started hobbling all over the place, taking very, very short naps from time to time. Others collapsed and slept for a long time afterwards, like this Bantam Brahma/Leghorn mix (egg #3). Hatching is strenuous work...exhausting for some chicks.

 

[Veer67]

Aww, nice congratulations on the hatch!

 

[davemonkey]

Earlier on I claimed that it would be easy to tell the chicks apart based on the Rooster that fathered them. I was actually not 100% sure that this would be true. As it turns out, it's pretty easy. We had to laugh as each egg hatched and there was no doubt at all who the "dad" was. And it was especially neat to see that "Little Red" got to participate in this project after all. See if you can guess which chicks are from Chuck's line, and which from Foghorn's...and which was snuck in by Little Red. (Note: not all are pictured here...there were 2 still in the incubator that have since hatched.)





So, what will these chicks look like when they grow up? No one really knows. I have some idea about the Fayoumis/Easter Eggers, since we have one right now that is almost 4 weeks old. But with mix breeds...you never really know what you'll end up with until they grow up. This is "Skylark", our other mix.



GOOD NIGHT!!!!!!!!!!

 

[davemonkey]

Aww, nice congratulations on the hatch!

Thanks! We had so much fun, but I have to admit, I am exhausted! I feel like one of those chicks who has to work really hard to hatch...ready for a nice long night's sleep.