November Hatch-A-Long (2014)

[Junibutt]

Nope. No sleep. It's 7pm here at the moment....2 hours into day 21.

No cheeping, no pips...nothing. Very very quiet.. I'm so tempted to candle.

Ive almost convinced myself they must have died. I've been reading how so long as there are no external pips that opening the incubator wont effect anything. My incubator happens to be excellent at bringing the humidity up within minutes.

Oh...I am so tempted. It's a shame on your side of the world that everyone is asleep right now. I think I need someone to hold my hand.....and smack it if necessary!

Will update tomorow.

I up and ready to talk. I have cheeping but I think my broody has crushed the egg. or its a sticky baby that needs to be rescued. I lifted her gently and saw an egg which is crushed all over but the baby can't come out. I don't know what to do. Shall I take the egg form her and take off the pieces? or let nature take its course? No pips from other chicks.

 

[Kaylish]

Hello everyone!

Well, unless I am VERY lucky and the ninth egg hatches (no pips on day 22 so I doubt it, sadly), here are the babies from left to right!

Line one: White silkie (first to hatch, my halloween baby), partridge silkie, a greyish silkie (that one doesn't look yellow in the real world).
Line two: A very golden-looking silkie who is asleep all the time (preferably on me) , all the babies in one big cheepy pile, silver laced wyandotte (second to hatch).
Line three: Silver laced wyandotte, red ancona, and the last to hatch - a red ancona who yells its head off constantly and kind of hilariously.



All of them are strong and running around happily now, though the two halloween babies are so dried out and fast they are annoying the others by running over them while they sleep. They're all also drinking from the hamster waterer, and I am SO GLAD that I decided to use it and train them with it. Sure, it meant a bit of time tapping their beaks on it, but now they have clean water they can easily reach and can't kick over.

One thing I find kind of (horribly) hilarious is that for whatever reason I've been there for their first poos. And each one of them has done the same thing - they tense up, poo, and look absolutely, horribly appalled by the experience. The startled, horrified expression is the same on each chick's face, a kind of 'What the hell, man. What the hell is this' look of deep disappointment in the world.

The sleepy silkie seems healthy, but is sleepier than the rest, if I pick her up, she suddenly chills out, stretches out, and falls asleep.

Congrats! They are adorable!

I have been up all night checking on my broody every hr or so. I am hearing cheeping but have not seen any chick come out from under the mama. Not lifting her because of what happened yesterday. Did see her roll 3 eggs though. So at least 3 haven't hatched yet. I will be happy with even 3.

I up and ready to talk. I have cheeping but I think my broody has crushed the egg. or its a sticky baby that needs to be rescued. I lifted her gently and saw an egg which is crushed all over but the baby can't come out. I don't know what to do. Shall I take the egg form her and take off the pieces? or let nature take its course? No pips from other chicks.

Sorry, not enough experience to answer the question but I'm sure hoping for you!

 

[thailand]

Junibutt.... I think I may just be able to help you.

I had the exact same thing happen with a broody hatch only 2 weeks ago. Here's what I did to save the chicks, 2 of them:

I quickly took them away from the broody and put them in my incubator. While they were resting there I gathered a few things. You'll need blunt end tweezers, q-tips and warm sterile water. Note - I live in Thailand and so humidity isn't an issue for me. I don't know what the room humidity is like where you are. Only you can decide if you should do the following procedure in a steamy bathroom or not. I didn't need to.

Ever so slowly and carefully, take your tweezers and gently pick away tiny pieces of egg around where the beak is only. If you hit a vein and bleeding starts....IMMEDIATELY STOP. Once you have a breathing space clear around the beak, dab the moistened q-tip over any areas where the membrane is showing....this part is really important.

Now just put the chick back in the incubator and WAIT. If after perhaps an hour or so nothing more is happening, then repeat the above if necessary just to clear away some of debris. BUT AGAIN if you hit a vein or bleeding starts, stop what you're doing. So long as the chick now has a breathing space it can take all the time it needs to hatch...no problems. Remember it may need the extra time to absorb the yolk and for the veins to recede.

If you can see the chick still breathing/cheeping through it's breathing hole then it's all good.

My two chicks are completely healthy and I can't even tell them apart from the other chicks now.

Disclaimer: the advice given above is totally from my own recent experience. You may want to check out Sally Sunshines article in the sticky under incubating and hatching eggs.

On another note: It's looking like I will be up all night. I did decided to candle my day 21 eggs. Just as well too because that was when I noticed that one had externally pipped in the lower 1/3rd of the egg! I've upped my humidity (now sitting at 82%). All 5 eggs showed live, moving chicks when I candled!! Yaay!

I think it's going to be a long night! Oh, and I just heard cheeping a short while ago.... that makes it all worth it.

 

[rachelpotter]

Nope. No sleep. It's 7pm here at the moment....2 hours into day 21.

No cheeping, no pips...nothing. Very very quiet.. I'm so tempted to candle.

Ive almost convinced myself they must have died. I've been reading how so long as there are no external pips that opening the incubator wont effect anything. My incubator happens to be excellent at bringing the humidity up within minutes.

Oh...I am so tempted. It's a shame on your side of the world that everyone is asleep right now. I think I need someone to hold my hand.....and smack it if necessary!

Will update tomorow.

Candleing will do NOTHING at this point!!!! SLAP SLAP SLAP that hand away from the bator!!!


there... did that help? <3

 

[rachelpotter]

Steampunkd!!! Yay!! for babies!!!



I'm starting to get worried. I have two eggs set to hatch Wednesday. WHAT IF only ONE hatches??? It will be another 10 days before the other chicks get here??? I just put out a call on FB for any young extra chicks on standby in case.



Lockdown for them starts after I candle one last time for the next week. I'm COMMITTED to candle today and then not again until day 14.

 

[charnic44]

I just put 18 eggs in the incubator last night. Did anyone else? Just wondering if I'm gonna be hatching with somebody.

 

[pickledpenny]

I just put 18 eggs in the incubator last night. Did anyone else? Just wondering if I'm gonna be hatching with somebody.

I'm setting quail today! They'll be here sooner though.

 

[thailand]

Thanks Rachel.

I'm a hopeless case I'm afraid. LOL

I decided to help my chick that has pipped at the wrong end. Just nicked away a tiny piece of shell and made a very small slit in the membrane. Put the egg back in the incubator now.

Chick is cheeping a little bit very occasionally, and I can now also see chick trying to cut away more of the shell itself. Chick wasn't doing that before and I was worried it might suffocate due to pipping so far away from the air cell. I had no idea before candling that there was even a pip as it was located on the underside. I've now also propped up the egg a little on a folded piece of cloth so that any liquid that might be still in the egg is kept away from where the beak obviously is. Just to confirm....this is 7 1/2 hours into day 21 for this egg.

Junibutt....how's things going with your chick??

 

[pickledpenny]

Can week old babies and new babies be put in the same brooder? These guys are exactly a week apart. The size difference just amazes me! Both are California Whites. Scramble on the left, Omelet on the right.

We had three hatch out of four and three still in the incubator due tomorrow. Two of them have internal pips!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Can week old babies and new babies be put in the same brooder? These guys are exactly a week apart. The size difference just amazes me! Both are California Whites. Scramble on the left, Omelet on the right.

We had three hatch out of four and three still in the incubator due tomorrow. Two of them have internal pips!

Wow! You don't realize how big of a difference a week can make until they are side by side!!! lol