November hatch-a-long

[britesidefarm]

Here are my two lavender fluffington (Orpington) chicks! There is one egg left in the incubator at day 23... feeling a bit sad, it has a kinda wonky saddle shaped air sac but I still see some movement inside. Do I wait til day 25 to give up hope?

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As long as there’s movement, the chick is still alive. If your worried it might not find the air sac, you can make a safety hole.

 

[The Cave]

Here are my two lavender fluffington (Orpington) chicks! There is one egg left in the incubator at day 23... feeling a bit sad, it has a kinda wonky saddle shaped air sac but I still see some movement inside. Do I wait til day 25 to give up hope?

View attachment 2403864

I have made a safety hole a couple times in fear of chirping getting slower/struggle chirps and it has worked well so far. You just have to be super careful not to touch inner membrane (blood vessels running all through it...of the times I have done it on day 22/23 the chicks have already internally pipped so I’m mainly just insuring their oxygen doesn’t run out and I wet the membrane with olive oil and put a damp small towel in under babies to keep humidity high enough for them until they are ready to burst out !

 

[The Cave]

Also an update we have chicks pipping left right and center ! 3 already broke out and 2 are very close to bursting. 17 left to go

 

[The Cave]

Here are some of the babies hanging out after I lifted the heating plate off them to get a pic

 

[LadyCraig]

Sadly my last Orpington egg with saddle air sac was no longer alive by the time I tried the safety hole... no movement. Never even internally pipped.

On the same topic...Here is one of my Deathlayer eggs which is growing a huge saddle air sac. Day 11. Is there anything to be done other than keeping it upright? Ugh! I don’t want to get too excited because 6 of the 7 eggs have little wigglers including this wonky one!

ps the funny color in the back is my wax patch job on the cracked one....

 

[The Cave]

Sadly my last Orpington egg with saddle air sac was no longer alive by the time I tried the safety hole... no movement. Never even internally pipped.

On the same topic...Here is one of my Deathlayer eggs which is growing a huge saddle air sac. Day 11. Is there anything to be done other than keeping it upright? Ugh! I don’t want to get too excited because 6 of the 7 eggs have little wigglers including this wonky one!

ps the funny color in the back is my wax patch job on the cracked one....

I lost one chick my first hatch that did not internally pip either...movement until day 21 then nothing So sad.

As far as saddle air sacs go I have never dealt with one but I have had a few chicks all of a sudden develop pretty big air sacs during lockdown, scary for sure but I just made sure to keep the humidity at a good % once they pipped so they didn't get shrink wrapped.

As far as my hatching goes....I feel the grey hairs. I had one come out with blood (more than usual) we figured it poked a blood vessel on pipping or twisting because the blood was all at back of egg when it came out and trailed a bit out of egg. I gave that one some electrolytes and looks good so far.
I have 3 with splayed legs....so we have yarn hobbles on those and they are enjoying their sense of freedom with the training wheels.

Lastly my possibly final chick popped out with a inflamed abdomen, possibly not fully absorbed yolk. I made a post to get some advice. So fingers crossed for the final baby. It is still pretty fresh and wet so I am just letting it rest while I figure out next steps for that one.

Two are still in eggs, but I have a bad feeling they have passed away. I had 23 in and the last two have not pipped yet...I quickly checked for heartbeat and couldn't hear anything when removing dry chicks earlier.

 

[LadyCraig]

I lost one chick my first hatch that did not internally pip either...movement until day 21 then nothing So sad.

As far as saddle air sacs go I have never dealt with one but I have had a few chicks all of a sudden develop pretty big air sacs during lockdown, scary for sure but I just made sure to keep the humidity at a good % once they pipped so they didn't get shrink wrapped.

As far as my hatching goes....I feel the grey hairs. I had one come out with blood (more than usual) we figured it poked a blood vessel on pipping or twisting because the blood was all at back of egg when it came out and trailed a bit out of egg. I gave that one some electrolytes and looks good so far.
I have 3 with splayed legs....so we have yarn hobbles on those and they are enjoying their sense of freedom with the training wheels.

Lastly my possibly final chick popped out with a inflamed abdomen, possibly not fully absorbed yolk. I made a post to get some advice. So fingers crossed for the final baby. It is still pretty fresh and wet so I am just letting it rest while I figure out next steps for that one.

Two are still in eggs, but I have a bad feeling they have passed away. I had 23 in and the last two have not pipped yet...I quickly checked for heartbeat and couldn't hear anything when removing dry chicks earlier.

ok funny you mention grey hairs!!! I didn’t type it but definitely said that to my mom! Sounds like you are having a bumpy journey- or is this just how it goes with incubating? The DL will be my third batch... so I’m still so new, but may not try this again for a while! One of my Orpingtons took a day or so to really find its legs, and would tip over, and I was thinking about the splayed leg, but it’s up and running with the others now without intervention. Fingers crossed for your little fluffers and hope you keep your hair!

 

[The Cave]

ok funny you mention grey hairs!!! I didn’t type it but definitely said that to my mom! Sounds like you are having a bumpy journey- or is this just how it goes with incubating? The DL will be my third batch... so I’m still so new, but may not try this again for a while! One of my Orpingtons took a day or so to really find its legs, and would tip over, and I was thinking about the splayed leg, but it’s up and running with the others now without intervention. Fingers crossed for your little fluffers and hope you keep your hair!

I did my first two incubator hatches ever this year both around the same time so they could grow up together. The first one went really well, only lost 1 out of the 8 that went into lockdown no struggles. My second batch 23 went into lockdown. I used two different incubators one had an egg turner the eggs sit in pointy side down and the other rolled them on their sides.

The turner with the pointy ends down I noticed when candling the eggs they looked so different. The only splayed legs and difficulties I got were from that turner ! So I’m wondering if that has something to do with it.

 

[SchmidtChicks]

We have 5 eggs set to hatch 28-29th of this month Until we get our incubator, they are under a newly broody Silkie pullet. She won't be keeping them past hatch, but we are excited to see what hatches as I don't know the genetics~

 

[AUChickenGal]

Well, I don't know what happened today, but my broody only has one of her four eggs left (the unknown one, naturally). There was some residue as if one or more egg had been broken, but not so much as a single egg shell particle. So....? Maybe there was a squabble when one of the others came in to lay and all but one got broken and then eaten? Seems unlikely, but with one original egg still intact and four new eggs laid today in there, I don't have many other guesses.

I've never had to remove a broody from the communal nests for her to hatch before, but maybe this one isn't dominant enough to hold her own. So now I need to either start her over again with new eggs, try to find some cheap chicks, or break her.

Decisions, decisions...