School Hatching Eggs!Help!

[Teacherchick18]

I'd give it some more time. Can you do it real quick?

I have 4 IB's about to hatch - the breeder told me they were 5 days along when in fact they were more like 15 days. And I have been handling, candling and rotating them religiously since I put them in only 6 days ago. I have 2 rolling and tapping and cheeping in there def ready to come out. Have you tried shining a torch on them through the viewer if possible? Mine seem to react to it! My point was though, that everyone says don't touch them at this point however mine don't appear to have been troubled by it - BUT technically they haven't hatched yet either!! If you do make sure not to turn them round/upside down, you might shift the beak.

I will probably do it as fast as possible. As for not turning them around that is a moot point because the chick has already knocked all the eggs. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[ashem0]

I know what you mean - mine are rolling all over the place - I'm glad I put a separater in there or they'd be all over my day 7 Marans eggs! Goodluck!

 

[serama hen]

3 hatched 2 needed assisting. all is well for the 3 chicks they all are jumpy and cute in the brooder and it seems they dry faster outside the incubator the black one was washed blow dried then put in the brooder and is a little cute energetic ball the other one that was flipped is ok but its bleeding from one of its wings what should i do the blood seems still wet and sometimes theyd get tired and fall on their behinds the bedding is aspen.Also there is more pipping in the incubator yay but their a problem wont bacteria grow from the other chicks that hatched i took out whatever debris i could and their is still duck eggs inside aswell they are still turning will this affect them in anyway when should i sterilize.

 

[serama hen]

the black one was a sticky chick

 

[serama hen]

and one got out no problem the other was turned and began bleeding so i had to help it its still bleeding but what shoudl i do.

 

[Sphinx]

Glad you got some chicks, serama hen. I wonder how your chick injured it's wing to bleed? I have never had that happen, and am not sure how to handle that.

TeacherChick, did you get any more after that first baby came out?

 

[wolfandfinch]

I too am hatching chicks in a classroom, my son's classroom. I'm not the teacher, so I don't have great access - she would let me in on the weekend but she's not allowed. Of course we didn't get the details on that until we had set the eggs. We will be at day 21 on this coming Monday and I'm starting to get nervous about being able to be there. I can be in the classroom all day Monday but not Tuesday, I have to work. The teacher has no experience. I guess the worst case scenario is that some chicks will die in the hatch, right? That we wouldn't be able to assist like I would if they were at home? I can't bring the incubator home with me, and we chose the Monday because back then I thought I could also take the tuesday off. Now I can't. EEK!

I just need a little positive reinforcement or support or whatever, or a worse case scenario description as I've never incubated eggs before. I will go to work late on Tuesday so that I can go in Tuesday morning and get rid of any dead chicks before the kids see them, that I can do. And I can be there lots on Wednesday.

Glad I'm not the only one struggling with the classroom hatch, I thought maybe I was being ridiculously naive thinking it was doable. We did it when I was a child and it's my fondest memory of school. I am setting up a brooder at the school that I'll take home (with the chicks!) on the following Friday. THat way the kids get to have the chicks around for a bit. We will probably have to keep then in our home for a little bit as we're ALMOST done the coop but not quite. Then they'll move outside until I can sex them. We're only allowed to have 4 hens, no males and no more than 4, so it's going to be a bit stressful until I can move some of the chicks! We set 24 eggs so i was thinking best case scenario I might have 17 chicks to deal with!

 

[Sphinx]

I do 4-5 hatches in classrooms each year, and I've had great success. Well, I have fantastic success with my Brinsea mini advance- this year I got 6/7 7/7 and 5/7. With the farm innovators, we only got 7/19.

I usually set so that they hatch on Wednesday, that way, nobody surprises me on the weekend.

Where you are due to hatch Monday, I'd put the eggs in lockdown late Friday, and then expect the babies Monday.

Also, I almost never assist in hatching. It's been my experience that the chicks either pip and hatch, or the egg just stays whole.

Remember too that a chick can easily be in an incubator for 24-48 hours after hatching without a problem. I personally don't like to leave them that long, but due to timing, I've easily had them go 12-18 hours.

 

[wolfandfinch]

thank you so much sphinx for all this useful information. I went and candled today - day 16 and had to get rid of 12 eggs. i checked them at home and most of them were never fertile (9) 2 seem to have had an infection early on (day 1-3) and the last had an embryon , maybe day 6 that was stuck to the shell and obviously dead. 8 eggs look good and 4 seemed small. I'm going to check those ones again on Friday before lockdown and remove them if they haven't grown any more.

my air sacs seem small though, so I've not added any more water. I'm a little worried about it. I'll post a picture in a bit for some advice on how bad you think they are...

 

[wolfandfinch]

day 16. worried the air sacs seem small