Set Eggs April 30th... Whose w/ me?

[MyNameIs86]

Well, here it is on the night of day 22.

I think it's pretty safe to call it.

Out of 37 eggs that made it to lockdown, 35 hatched, two are just sitting there like a couple of duds. If there's nothing happening by tomorrow morning, I may eggtopsy them just for educational purposes.

I had two chicks that zipped, and then started to get stuck. One was stuck for so long I was sure it was just going to die halfway out of its shell. It had pooped in the shell, and gotten all stuck... I weighed my options and then decided what the heck, give it a shot. I soaked the worst stuck spots in warm water and got the poor thing unstuck. I seriously doubt it will be very hardy, and I may end up culling, but it was an interesting experience, and that's a big part of why I'm doing this. To learn.

All in all I am pretty pleased. For one of those wonky styrofoam incubators, AND having a snafu with the power halfway through, I would be a fool to complain about this success rate.

Wow... I had 2 die in the egg. One zipped halfway and the other just gave up after having a hole in the egg. Poor things. Out of 14 eggs I have 12 chicks... I originally had 24 eggs so I have a 50% hatch rate. lol. Most of my chicks are Leghorns/RIR combo. Cute little buggers. lol.

 

[Drewnkat]

Well, I read where you had a lot of cracks and issues with the eggs. I wouldn't call that a low success rate on YOUR part. You just got a bad batch of eggs.

I started out with 38, one was a clear at day 7, scrambled in the shell. I think it was a misfire from one of my hens, and not anything that I did, which is why I didn't calculate that when determining success rate this time.

So I think your hatch rate was pretty great, considering what you had to work with! I had the advantage of being able to control what happened with each egg from when it was collected, til incubation time. I also had my chickens out gobbling down all the goodies springtime has to offer in my backyard. I think the fresh air, exercise, and nutrition probably helped their fertility.

 

[dreamer5577]

I have called it. My incubator shut down for the year! I started out with 15 shipped eggs. 6 were clear, 1 died while zipping, 1 quit around day 18ish ( maybe due to the power outage), 1 didn't make it due to the odd shape of the air cell. I have 6 beautiful fluffy little silkies. I think that's great for shipped eggs!


Congrats to all of you!

 

[fouroaks]

Congrats on all the fuzzy butts I had 2 hatch 2 died but happy with 2. I will be putting eggs in again in about 1 week.

 

[MyNameIs86]

i am thinking about getting more eggs too, but from another place since the eggs I bought from the farm keep having hair line cracks in them. Weird.

I also found out where the nut came off from my incubator. It was from the bottom of the heating unit.

 

[Drewnkat]

Incubator has been emptied out.

The two duds were eggtopsied for science.

The first one had a developed chick in it, but some of its internal organs were externally located.

The second one was badly deformed. Scissor beak, missing one eye, head badly misshapen. The poor lil things were never gonna make it.

Based on how healthy and happy the rest are, I think the two deformed ones were just due to some kind of random mutation. If my birds had some kind of genetic issues, I'd expect to see a lot more scissor beaks and other genetic problems.

 

[fouroaks]

Incubator has been emptied out.

The two duds were eggtopsied for science.

The first one had a developed chick in it, but some of its internal organs were externally located.

The second one was badly deformed. Scissor beak, missing one eye, head badly misshapen. The poor lil things were never gonna make it.

Based on how healthy and happy the rest are, I think the two deformed ones were just due to some kind of random mutation. If my birds had some kind of genetic issues, I'd expect to see a lot more scissor beaks and other genetic problems.

I did a eggtopsied on one and and was full term and yoke sac absorbed don' t know why it died didn't pip just died.

 

[Drewnkat]

Update on the stuck chicks:
Still going strong, drinking water with nutri-drench, up and walking. So far they look fine. Only time will tell I guess.

 

[kmartinez]

All 14 of my turkey eggs made it to lock down last night. Now it's a waiting game lol. I hope I don't foul this up. Already got the brooded set up. I put a piece of felt under all the eggs. Keeping my humidity in the 70,s. I feel uncomfortable turning the temp down. It took me 2 days to regulate that temp it was not easly I fiddled with it alot. I'd Rather not risk going up in humidity and down in temp. I read to many things it seems it not necessary but tell ya the truth all the info on turkey hatching bogged the brain down lol.

 

[Drewnkat]

I had a scare this morning. I was getting the chicks ready to show to someone who had expressed interest in buying some, and I found one lil floof ball who wasn't standing on one of her legs (OK I don't know the sex, but I'm using "her" for convenience). She was standing kind of on the side of one foot, and didn't want to walk on it at all.

I held her up, examined for signs of injury, all I could see was one toe that seemed to be a bit crooked. I was expecting the buyers at any minute, and my guests for a holiday get-together shortly after! I quick chucked her into the special care brooder box with the two sticky babies. I didn't get a minute to check back in until late this evening. I went down to snap a couple pics so I could ask about it here.

I'll be darned if she wasn't standing nearly normally. She still has a slight limp, but she's up and walking, all toes spread.

What I was seeing earlier looks exactly like the pictures of curled toes. One of the listed causes for "curled toes" is "inconsistent temperatures during incubation." Hmm... well I can definitely say there was a BIG temperature fluctuation during incubation. So maybe...? The other working theory is that at some point one of the other chicks knocked into her/stepped on her or otherwise injured her, and having a day to rest with only two other chicks did the trick.