Nursing Home hatch-a-long, set 4-14

[what did I do]

This Sunday we just candled the eggs. We went into a large closet to do it. We had the incubator sitting on one of those rollie things that you eat off of in the hospital. Everyone gathered around including two people in wheelchairs. I showed the kids what to do and set them loose. I don't know how many times we shined the light into the eyes of the two elderly people in wheelchairs but they never complained. The kids ended up telling me that they were having a blast. It is neat to see the kids interact with the elderly too.

We ended up removing 6 clear eggs but it was only 6. We just have one duck egg left but it is growing - do ducks need friends? I had 6 eggs on the side of the turner so we still have an incubator turner full. There are 3 questionable eggs that might come out next week but most look good. We have 42 eggs in there right now.

We didn't do any other activities because I thought we would have another meeting to go to but that has been changed to the day we are set to hatch It is a good thing that the chicks will start hatching before and after the other meeting.

How are your eggs doing?

Adding - We had a lady bring in a bunch of Ameraucana eggs so we will have some wonderful colorful chicks.

 

[drlcb]

Sorry to hear you had to get rid of the six. The duck will just think it is a chicken and fit right in! That is really cool to have an attentive audience... I have grand kids that are interested but they are all under five and I cringe when they even get near the incubator :-()
My La Bresse had 60 out of 61 showing signs... I decided not to pitch until second candling since the incubator (home made) has been performing flawlessly. Maybe it will be my first ever perfect hatch but realistically I only expect a 50% hatch rate. I hope I don't have any eggplosions in the next 5 days!
Keep posting your updates!

 

[drlcb]

Any updates? Mine just went into lockdown and they are kickin!

 

[what did I do]

Any updates? Mine just went into lockdown and they are kickin!

/

Sorry for the delay, I thought life would be a little slower by now but we just hit the all consuming button. We are starting to farm and have to brand calves inbetween... I between what.. dinner and breakfast.

The nursing home called tonight and said one egg was zipping. I can't go in tomorrow until we finish branding for the day so I set some other people to go check them out.

 

[what did I do]

Oh man, my first chick hatched with its intestines on the outside. The inside of my incubator is covered in blood I have never had this problem before I did have the chick put down.

When I left today there were 6 more with pips.

 

[drlcb]

Hmm, sounds traumatic.Did it stink? Could have been infection... I hope the others fare well.
My last few are just finishing up... Overall a good hatch. Probably end up with 70-85% hatch rate.

 

[PoultryGirly]

My duck eggs just went into lockdown this evening! 15 out of 16 that are in the 'bator seem to be alive and they're supposed to hatch on Wednesday evening

 

[what did I do]

We have 7 good chicks so far. This hatch is going slow so very slow. The people at the nursing home kept turning the heat up in the incubator, not killing high but just higher than what I run it at. It was always in the 100 but I usually run it a little cooler. I fear the hatch wont be that great but at least there are some hatching.

I do hope the dirty incubator doesn't affect the hatch. I can't believe I haven't taken any picturesof it all. I take my camera but fail to take pictures.

 

[what did I do]

I feel like this is a total mess one lady found another chicken that she thought had the intestines outside so she put it down. It may have been the duck I question the knowledge of what they see I just cringe and walk away. This is harder than I thought it would be. I live 50 miles from town out in the country so I can't be there as often as I'd like. :: deep breath, turn around and walk away :: life will go on.

 

[drlcb]

Well God bless you, all you can do is learn from what went wrong, correct the mistakes and try again.
There can only be one chief of the incubator. My five year old grandson is in kindergarten and takes a lot of interest in the incubator. He just recently learned "big" numbers and is always telling me the incubator temps and humidity.
But he knows hands off and that he is to never, ever,ever,ever adjust anything. Mine ran cold a few days and there was a 102 spike for a few hours but overall a good hatch for the first two days. I stay right at 99.5 with a semi forced air set up.
I made the mistake of opening after two days to remove about 40 fluffs and move them to the brooder. I used a misting sprayer with hot water to close it back up and had a few more zip out but still had to assist 8 sticky chicks last night so I could sanitize and set today. I must have been tired because it was late but the last one a runt had both eyes glued shut and I found it tonight hiding behind the thermometer in the brooder. Poor thing seemed pretty excited once I got his eyes cleaned up and he could finally see. Gave him a drink of water and stuck his head in the feeder and he ate his fill. I had two that didn't make it out due to the humidity drop and couldn't pip out. One I did help had intestines hanging out and was struggling. He had to be put down. Things can and do go wrong. But we can be glad that the ones we do successfully hatch aren't stuck in some cage for a lifetime.