Set 3/9/12 HATCH ALONG!

[Hazelrah]

My first baby hatched about 10 minutes ago (yay) but it is flopping around inside the incubator, can't seem to get its legs under it and its tummy looks disproportionate to the rest of the chick. Like it swallowed a marble. Is this normal? It is peeping so at least its lungs work fine.

 

[bobbi-j]

Perfectly normal. It takes a bit for them to get their strength - hatching is hard work! Once it fluffs up, it will look much better.

My first baby hatched about 10 minutes ago (yay) but it is flopping around inside the incubator, can't seem to get its legs under it and its tummy looks disproportionate to the rest of the chick. Like it swallowed a marble. Is this normal? It is peeping so at least its lungs work fine.

 

[SierraView]

Congrats everyone!

The chickie pics are so cute.

I'm cleaning out the hatcher today, have another set going into lockdown in a couple day. I set some 14 more eggs last night.

 

[CALI CHICK]

Congrats everyone!

The chickie pics are so cute.

I'm cleaning out the hatcher today, have another set going into lockdown in a couple day. I set some 14 more eggs last night.

Incubating is so exciting, isn't it!

It's fun to watch the eggs go through all the different stages of growth and realize that you had a part in bringing a little life to being. When is your lockdown and what do you have "cooking"? Good luck with your 14 new eggs.

I've got 13 BBS silkie eggs in the incubator. I candled them last night (Day 14) and they were all showing good development, veins and aircells.

Lockdown is Tuesday for them and their hatch day is next Friday!

Maybe they'll hatch early like the EE's did, which would be fine with me. I just hope they all hatch.

These are local silkie eggs and the last time I used shipped eggs. Because of various "issues" only 4 out of 10 hatched. That's pretty normal for shipped eggs i was told, so I was happy.

 

[live2shine]

We woke up this morning to another chick- cute little black thing. I'm trying to get some pics. The 1 day old chick was walking around in the box. I'm thinking the eggs are going to keep hatching 1 day apart. I want to leave the hatched chicks with their mom but I'm constantly worried. Their mother hen is kind of a pushover and will let other chickens lay in her box. She yells at them but it does no good. I have a bantam that snuggled under her to lay an egg yesterday- with the new chick in there. I have 9 boxes!!! They all want the one.

I'm still debating if I want to bring them to brood inside after they're a day or two old.

 

[bobbi-j]

So what do you think - humidity is 90%, temp 100 - I have 7 hatched chicks, most of which are piled up in one spot between the egg cartons right now. One just hatched, one almost completly zipped, some with small pips. Once the last two are hatched and dried out - if there aren't anymore with zips or large pips - should I pull them out? It's getting awfully crowded in there. In the past I have taken them out probably too early and jeopardized the late hatchers by drying them out. I really don't want to do that again, but these guys are going to need some space very soon!

I may have to look into building a larger place for hatching. I'm mechanically impaired, so I'll have to do some sweet talkin' to get DH to help me.

 

[CALI CHICK]

So what do you think - humidity is 90%, temp 100 - I have 7 hatched chicks, most of which are piled up in one spot between the egg cartons right now. One just hatched, one almost completly zipped, some with small pips. Once the last two are hatched and dried out - if there aren't anymore with zips or large pips - should I pull them out? It's getting awfully crowded in there. In the past I have taken them out probably too early and jeopardized the late hatchers by drying them out. I really don't want to do that again, but these guys are going to need some space very soon!

I may have to look into building a larger place for hatching. I'm mechanically impaired, so I'll have to do some sweet talkin' to get DH to help me.

IMHO-I would leave all of them in the incubator. It doesn't hurt them to be crowded and they need to gain strength and dry good before moving. (I've taken them out too early before too

). Some people recommend keeping them in the bator a full 24 hours. They do not eat or drink the first day anyway because they are using nutrients from the recently absorbed yolk. Plus, like you said about the ones still hatching.

If I were you, I would lower the temperature by one or 2 degrees. They don't need it so hot now. Also, open up the vents to let out some humidity. When they hatch, they give off moisture of their own which adds to the water/sponges/humidity in the bator. The hatched chicks will take a longer time to dry in that high of humidity.

 

[SierraView]

Incubating is so exciting, isn't it!

It's fun to watch the eggs go through all the different stages of growth and realize that you had a part in bringing a little life to being. When is your lockdown and what do you have "cooking"? Good luck with your 14 new eggs.

I've got 13 BBS silkie eggs in the incubator. I candled them last night (Day 14) and they were all showing good development, veins and aircells.

Lockdown is Tuesday for them and their hatch day is next Friday!

Maybe they'll hatch early like the EE's did, which would be fine with me. I just hope they all hatch.

These are local silkie eggs and the last time I used shipped eggs. Because of various "issues" only 4 out of 10 hatched. That's pretty normal for shipped eggs i was told, so I was happy.

I have 6 buff silkies and more of my cochins not sure how many till I start moving them over. Mine are due same as yours! The person I got the buff silkies said they been hatching a day early for her, like my cochins have been doing. I liked using the cartons so going to use them again. I'm not going to hatch large fowl with bantams again. I don't like leaving the little bantams in the hatcher for 2 days waiting on the large eggs.

These chicks are so friendly, they come right up showing no fear.

 

[bobbi-j]

IMHO-I would leave all of them in the incubator. It doesn't hurt them to be crowded and they need to gain strength and dry good before moving. (I've taken them out too early before too

). Some people recommend keeping them in the bator a full 24 hours. They do not eat or drink the first day anyway because they are using nutrients from the recently absorbed yolk. Plus, like you said about the ones still hatching.

If I were you, I would lower the temperature by one or 2 degrees. They don't need it so hot now. Also, open up the vents to let out some humidity. When they hatch, they give off moisture of their own which adds to the water/sponges/humidity in the bator. The hatched chicks will take a longer time to dry in that high of humidity.

Crowded I can live with - they're climbing all over the unhatched eggs, and piling up between the cartons. I didn't want any weaker ones to get squished. I did lower the temp to 98, and the vents are out (actually, I didn't have them in at all - starting with incubation). I can't get it any lower. Hmmm... I wonder if a fan on the incubator sucking air out of it would help lower it? I know they can go up to 36 hours without eating because of the absorbed yolk. I'm just wondering about the ones that are dried off well and strong that are wandering around on top of the eggs. I'm going on 18 hours for my first hatched one. The rest have all hatched today. Maybe if I get a pause in large pips and zips I'll take out the dry, strong ones this evening. What do you think?

ETA - It's now so humid in there that the water is dripping off the windows. I don't have any that are actively zipping right now (at least not that I can see through the foggy windows) so I'm going to try to slip my hand in and grab a couple of the most active ones.

ETA - I pulled out 7 of them. All very dry, fluffy and active. The incubator was open for maybe 5 seconds or less, and the humidity is still at 80%. There was only one egg pipped with membrane exposed, and one partially zipped, but I'm confident that with it being as humid as it is in there, they will be OK. Hoping so, anyway. I have a total of 12 hatched out so far. Some are showing no signs of hatching at all. I'm hoping it's just because they're late bloomers and not because of the elevated humidity. I told DH we need to build a hatching box if we intend to fill the incubator every time we want to hatch, then said, "We have a whole year to think about it." He said, "Well... let's see how this goes - we might do it again this year!" (You have to know my big, burly Norwegian to understand the significance of that statement. Admittedly, he's seeing drumsticks and canned chicken, but still....

)

 

[CALI CHICK]

Crowded I can live with - they're climbing all over the unhatched eggs, and piling up between the cartons. I didn't want any weaker ones to get squished. Hoping so, anyway. I have a total of 12 hatched out so far. Some are showing no signs of hatching at all. I'm hoping it's just because they're late bloomers and not because of the elevated humidity. I told DH we need to build a hatching box if we intend to fill the incubator every time we want to hatch, then said, "We have a whole year to think about it." He said, "Well... let's see how this goes - we might do it again this year!" (You have to know my big, burly Norwegian to understand the significance of that statement. Admittedly, he's seeing drumsticks and canned chicken, but still....

)

LOL- My DH is nearly jealous of my "chicken obsession"!

He'll say things like, "I don't want you getting anymore eggs" or "You have enough chickens!" But, every time we have new babies, they sort of soften him up-hehe!

This is a picture of one of my first hatchlings (in a different batch) waiting for others to hatch. She climbed over and plopped herself right in the middle of this group of eggs. They DO like to crawl over the late bloomers, don't they?


She doesn't look like it in her first picture here, but MistyBlue is turning into one of the prettiest blue silkies. I'm hoping to show her. Here's a more recent photo @ 5 weeks. Can't wait to see her @ 5 months: