November/December "Hatch-a-Long"

[Kylie A]

One egg has a crack... IT HAS A CRACK! It is gonna be a longgggg day!

 

[LoveToFarm]

One egg has a crack... IT HAS A CRACK! It is gonna be a longgggg day!

U have a pip? That's great news!!!!!

 

[Farmer Viola]

Ahh congrats!! what breed are these? (sorry, latecomer)

I'm thinking that the upright hatching position is to try to encourage them to find their way to the top as many times shipped eggs have horrible air cells and cause the chicks to be malpositioned....I don't know if it would help??!! I don't do it that way...I try to do things as close to what a hen would as possible..."I" believe that laying them flat so they can maneuver and roll around, as they would in the nest, must be of benefit. I will say that the last few shipments of eggs has had a higher hatch rate...I'm positive due to the lower temps while shipping...during the summer months the heat was destroying the eggs.

should I hope most of your eggs hatch or not?? lol you maybe over run with chicklets in a few weeks

oh I know about the little lives...if I lose one I'm crushed! but it happens!! it's part of it!

I was having trouble getting my chicks in the brooder warm enough.. it's in the high 70's in the house but even with the heat lamp I couldn't get the brooder over 80...I got a heating pad and put it under the brooder and put the heat lamp over them...finally it's about 91 and they all seem fine with that! little puddles of feathers all laying out sleeping!

Yes, I sure hope most of them hatch! If I end up with more than I can keep, I have a nice friend with a farm who is looking to start a new flock of egglayers and will take them off my hands.. so I really do hope that all of them hatch!! I am trying to be realistic and keep a goal of 50% hatch rate since they were all shipped (except the silkies!). It's all a learning experience! I have a nice brooder setup from the last time I did meat chickens.. large area, 2x brisnea 50 chick brooders plus my 2 silkie mommas, so we should be all set for any number of chickies!! Man.. I am so excited!

After several hours, the rice in the bator hadn't changed the humidity and I moved it into my bedroom, away from the bathroom. It went from 67% to 63%, so some improvement.. I am also taking the lid off the incubator periodically to ventilate. Really wish the humidity would drop!! The chambers are empty also. I am planning to pull the vent plugs out after 10 days (Dr.Bramwell Discussion), is that what you ladies do? The incubator manufacturer instructs to remove them at day 18.

Candled silkie egg #3 (it's day 7 today) and it looks good!! 3 of 5 silkie eggs confirmed so far.. excited about these ones because I don't know what they're crossed with, AND they're due to hatch a week before the incubator!

 

[sweetappleacres]

Hey guys, so I miss-calculated the days, I'm actually on day 22. I candled most of them and saw movement in most the ones I candled. Hopefully I'll have some chickies here real soon.

 

[Heidisgran]

Quote: I would leave the plugs out...help get the humidity down

 

[Heidisgran]

Hey guys, so I miss-calculated the days, I'm actually on day 22. I candled most of them and saw movement in most the ones I candled. Hopefully I'll have some chickies here real soon.

 

[LoveToFarm]

Hey guys, so I miss-calculated the days, I'm actually on day 22. I candled most of them and saw movement in most the ones I candled. Hopefully I'll have some chickies here real soon.

 

[Farmer Viola]

I would leave the plugs out...help get the humidity down

OK! Thank you!!!

 

[MrsJenSmith2007]

Ok, so on day 22 today. No movement, no sound no pips. Since I have eggs set to hatch in a few days, I wanted to be sure I wasn't soon to have exploding eggs so I did the float test I read about on here. One of the eggs floated with just the tip of the small end out of the water and the other floated with about an inch out of the water. The really crazy part is I think MAYBE one of the eggs was kind of moving a little, but I'm not sure. After the water settled it seemed to kind of bop around the bowl ever so slightly? The crazy part...it was the one I have seen NO movement from yet. So should I stick by these eggs a little longer?? Am I nuts or have you seen them do this during the float test?? Sorry if I'm driving everyone nuts!!! Hopefully next hatch I will have a better handle on this!!

 

[Heidisgran]

Ok, so on day 22 today. No movement, no sound no pips. Since I have eggs set to hatch in a few days, I wanted to be sure I wasn't soon to have exploding eggs so I did the float test I read about on here. One of the eggs floated with just the tip of the small end out of the water and the other floated with about an inch out of the water. The really crazy part is I think MAYBE one of the eggs was kind of moving a little, but I'm not sure. After the water settled it seemed to kind of bop around the bowl ever so slightly? The crazy part...it was the one I have seen NO movement from yet. So should I stick by these eggs a little longer?? Am I nuts or have you seen them do this during the float test?? Sorry if I'm driving everyone nuts!!! Hopefully next hatch I will have a better handle on this!!

did you candle the eggs? you would want to make sure they haven't internally pipped before you put them in water....yes it would bobble around if it's got a live chick...it's way too soon to give up on them they could take up to 25 days for various reasons!