September Hatch-A-Long

[Impatient]

So side note: does anyone else enjoy showing off their eggs to friends who have never been around/experienced egg incubation? A friend was over last night helping me build some Ikea stuff and I asked if he wanted to see my eggs and the embryo move and I candled one and it put on a good show for him. Friend was awe struck and loved it

 

[ChickenMath101]

Well. We moved the top shelf into the brooder, so...chick pics!
(Or not...they are huddled under the heater! Lol!)
Ended up chipping a little away around the stuck-ish unhatched chick. The membrane was white, no blood vessels. Cracked away around half of the egg and then put her back. As soon as I closed the hatching drawer, she popped out. No bleeding, yolk is absorbed. She's flailing around quite a bit, as they do, but seems lively enough.

Threw in another humidity pad to bump up the humidity level. It was sitting at 63-65%, now it's at 69%.

 

[ChickenMath101]

 

[JacksonPearce]

Looks like my 4th pipping chick didn't make it-- she'd stopped zipping and I could see through the cracks enough to tell she'd stopped breathing. It looks like she didn't fully absorb the yolk. I'm not sure the remaining three will hatch; I candled but no movement! The three that did hatch seem to be doing great though, and are out of the incubator and in the brooder.

 

[ChickenMath101]

Bummer, it stinks when things go wrong! I hope some of the remaining babies will hatch. Did you water candle?

 

[JacksonPearce]

Bummer, it stinks when things go wrong! I hope some of the remaining babies will hatch. Did you water candle?

I didn't, because I don't know what that is! What should I do?

 

[ChickenMath101]

I didn't, because I don't know what that is! What should I do?

I've never done it, but you get a glass of water water (not hot) and gently put the egg in it, big end up. The egg will wiggle on its own if it's alive. You won't necessarily SEE movement in a live chick this late in the game, because they are so packed in that there is nowhere to go!

 

[Cassie29]

Day 20. First pip!!!

 

[ChickenMath101]

Final tally, out of 17 that went into lockdown, I have 15 babies. One egg was iffy on day 18, I didn't see movement but it was the right size so I went with it. Upon examining the egg today, it ceased growing when I suspected and was beginning to rot. The other baby was fully grown. The outer membrane was white and had the "shrink wrapped" look to it, it was sucked in all around the top of the baby. The inner membrane was still moist and had active blood. The yolk was not completely absorbed. I'm thinking a day 21 baby should have had all of this work done already. :/ I never opened the incubator but for some reason 14 hatched with absolutely zero problems, they are fluffy and peeping and eating and running. Clean shells, fully absorbed yolks. And then the 15th, I had to help get out, it's pretty well covered in cemented goo but it's running amuck with the rest of them. Is one loss and one emergency out of 16 viable babies a humidity problem?

 

[Impatient]

Could just be luck of the draw if all the other chicks made it out no problem. Were the failed to hatch eggs near each other? Maybe humidity isn't distributed evenly? But honestly I'd chalk it up to luck.