I had 4 eggs under a Hen who decided to quit, I took her eggs as soon as I realised and was extremely concerned they would die but candling showed that only one had a chick and the 3 others had nothing. I now feel even more anxious knowing I only have one, I never candled before I just left them under the hen and left her alone in the little brooding cave she choose, blocked it off to keep the other chickens and any predators out. She was very happy, then we had 2 nights of bad winds where everything was blown everywhere and was very loud. I woke up the next morning and she was eating and i just had a gut feeling something wasn't right so I watched her for a bit and she wouldn't get back on the nest, I opened the blocked off part and she bolted to the main pen with the other hens. I felt the eggs and they felt pretty cold so I grabbed them and my incubator. It was not up and running and was the first time I used it,I know you are supposed to run them for a while before putting the eggs in but I felt i couldn't wait because it had already been long enough without warmth.
The incubator has been running well with 3 other thermometers in there i know how out it is as all the thermometers show the same temp and humidity but the machine says something different. I have set it to what the other thermometers are saying, The humidity has been good between 65% and 73% pretty consistently, I did open it to quickly put wet sponges when it had dropped to 52% in the middle of the night (the alarm is loud) since then no more probs.
At 5pm last night I had not seen any egg movement in at least 18 hours and was feeling pretty disheartened and so to stop torturing myself I stopped looking in the incubator windows. at 7pm the alarm went off so I got up to check it and out the corner of my eye I noticed the egg had a tiny triangle pip that had not broken all the way through. My mood was immediately better I knew my chick was alive, the egg was moving again which when you only have one egg and have broken your back to save it in the last 48 hours it is a massive deal (this is also my first hatch) I guess if I had candled then I probably would have known but I don't think anything can really be achieved from candling and I don't want to handle my egg incase it harms it hatching. Also because my incubator is brand new and only been running for 48 hours I think it was way to temperamental to be opening it continuously.
It has now been 12 hours since i saw it so possibly 12 - 14 hours since it cracked and there has been nothing but some slight movement around 8pm. I set a recorder up overnight but still stayed up till 1am and was up at 5am so I watch the four hours and nothing no movement or further piping. The only thing I'm concerned about is it hasn't actually broken through, it is just a triangle that looks chipped out about half way through the actual shell. I know that my chick is most likely resting right now and technically 21 days is today so I know I should take a deep breath and stop stressing but only having one i can't even think well if it doesn't hatch there are others so it is ok and if it doesn't hatch I wouldn't think there was a problem with the actual chick I would think it would have a lot more the do with the last couple of days adventures.
If the chick hatches it will be going in with my 4 day old silkies (5) that I just bought, they are the biggest attention seekers one of them when it spots you will scream its head of till you come and pick it up, but if you stay out of site she is fine. As soon as I get her she will settle down in my hand, poke her head through my fingers and go straight to sleep, She is the only thing keeping me slightly sane right now.
I have everything crossed hoping for my chick to hatch, I will never trust that Hen again while the wind may have cause it she may have also just gotten fed up. I absolutely adore that Hen so I want to breed more of her so I will just plan it with the incubator from the start next time.
Back to my obsession.
The incubator has been running well with 3 other thermometers in there i know how out it is as all the thermometers show the same temp and humidity but the machine says something different. I have set it to what the other thermometers are saying, The humidity has been good between 65% and 73% pretty consistently, I did open it to quickly put wet sponges when it had dropped to 52% in the middle of the night (the alarm is loud) since then no more probs.
At 5pm last night I had not seen any egg movement in at least 18 hours and was feeling pretty disheartened and so to stop torturing myself I stopped looking in the incubator windows. at 7pm the alarm went off so I got up to check it and out the corner of my eye I noticed the egg had a tiny triangle pip that had not broken all the way through. My mood was immediately better I knew my chick was alive, the egg was moving again which when you only have one egg and have broken your back to save it in the last 48 hours it is a massive deal (this is also my first hatch) I guess if I had candled then I probably would have known but I don't think anything can really be achieved from candling and I don't want to handle my egg incase it harms it hatching. Also because my incubator is brand new and only been running for 48 hours I think it was way to temperamental to be opening it continuously.
It has now been 12 hours since i saw it so possibly 12 - 14 hours since it cracked and there has been nothing but some slight movement around 8pm. I set a recorder up overnight but still stayed up till 1am and was up at 5am so I watch the four hours and nothing no movement or further piping. The only thing I'm concerned about is it hasn't actually broken through, it is just a triangle that looks chipped out about half way through the actual shell. I know that my chick is most likely resting right now and technically 21 days is today so I know I should take a deep breath and stop stressing but only having one i can't even think well if it doesn't hatch there are others so it is ok and if it doesn't hatch I wouldn't think there was a problem with the actual chick I would think it would have a lot more the do with the last couple of days adventures.
If the chick hatches it will be going in with my 4 day old silkies (5) that I just bought, they are the biggest attention seekers one of them when it spots you will scream its head of till you come and pick it up, but if you stay out of site she is fine. As soon as I get her she will settle down in my hand, poke her head through my fingers and go straight to sleep, She is the only thing keeping me slightly sane right now.
I have everything crossed hoping for my chick to hatch, I will never trust that Hen again while the wind may have cause it she may have also just gotten fed up. I absolutely adore that Hen so I want to breed more of her so I will just plan it with the incubator from the start next time.
Back to my obsession.
