Our first egg that we have ever incubated hatched!!!! We were beginning to worry as there were no signs of anything up until Day 23. Then, the chick made a little pip. We waited 7 hours with no change, but we could hear chirping. So, we broke away a tiny bit of the shell around the pip and put her back. The chicky made a slightly bigger hole in the inner membranes, but hours went by and no more change. Then by bedtime, we made a little more "zip" around the opening to try to encourage the chick to hatch. I knew this chick was big because it was so late, otherwise I wouldn't have messed with it... Then we put it back in the incubator and waited. I woke up after 11:00pm and checked again... lots of chirping but still no signs of any progress. The chick had not moved its beak any further than the first pip! She looked stuck! So I increased the zip by opening the membranes around as well, since things were beginning to dry out. Then I put her back to do the work again...and I went to bed!!! By 1:30am 2/13/09 I heard loud continuous chirping! She hatched!!!!! My goodness, I don't know how she fit in that egg. Her adbomen alone was the size of the egg! I had to take her out immediately because she was tipping over our little cheap incubator and we had two other eggs on day 18 only.
Within an hour she fluffed out and showed signs of healthy chick activity. Now only one day old she acts like a 3 or 4 day old and is verrrrry feisty! She is a Black Australorp/Auracana Mix Breed. The pics don't do her justice, she is so cute! How do I send photos?
There is hope for all of you with late eggs and had temp control issues if you had a cheap incubator like us! We tried so hard and were so diligent but still had what we thought were unhealthy fluxuations! We are hoping now for a purebred Auracana to hatch from our flock
~Shauna
& happy homeschooling children!
Within an hour she fluffed out and showed signs of healthy chick activity. Now only one day old she acts like a 3 or 4 day old and is verrrrry feisty! She is a Black Australorp/Auracana Mix Breed. The pics don't do her justice, she is so cute! How do I send photos?
There is hope for all of you with late eggs and had temp control issues if you had a cheap incubator like us! We tried so hard and were so diligent but still had what we thought were unhealthy fluxuations! We are hoping now for a purebred Auracana to hatch from our flock
~Shauna
& happy homeschooling children!
