Setting eggs 6/11 and 7/4 - Join me!

[classicsredone]

Yay! And I just put the first of the peafowl eggs on lockdown. I'll be having "lockdown" mode for the next like... 2 weeks I think. I hope SOMETHING hatches after all this trouble! Too bad my parents keep turning the AC on and off, and the temp inside the incubator gets thrown off... not exactly hopeful. I wish I could convince them that NOT switching the house between freezing and sweltering is a good thing... Cannot WAIT to move to my own house... hopefully in about 2 weeks!

You know, the reason I wasn't going to set any eggs is because I was hoping to find a house and move, and I didnt want to mess around with having peachicks or turkey poults when that happened. But I was having such rotten luck with house hunting, I set these eggs... and my luck is exactly that I found the perfect place right as they are about to hatch!

We're living with my mom right now, and that was an issue, too. I told her we'd pay for the electric bill if she kept the thermostat at the temp I programmed it for, so that the chicks would have a stable temp in the incubator. Luckily she really likes chicks. (Although, not so much full grown chickens, go figure.) My husband has been in the bedroom whistling at the incubator, and I promised my daughter that I'd let her know when it I notice it zipping.

 

[classicsredone]

We have our first tiny babe! Six or seven more have pipped.

 

[classicsredone]

Woohoo! Got back from running errands, and 6 are hatched and bopping around. Most of the others have pipped and are singing in the shell. I'll get some pics up later today of the little ones.

Edit: I'll post pics as soon as I can, but these are the breeds. I didn't separate the batches of eggs, but I'm sure I'll figure them out eventually. Half of the birds have nice feathering on their feet.

Batch 1:
Japanese
Frizzle/Cochin
Rapanui
D'uccle
OEG
Easter Egger
*One egg labeled cochin has hatched. I think it is one of the light colored birds, but I didn't see it hatch.

Batch 2:
Serama
Silkie
D'uccle
Frizzle/Cochin
Seabright
*He said he'd go heavy on D'uccle eggs, so we'll see.

 

[classicsredone]

Well, I think I have a light colored cochin. (Maybe white?) It looks like I might have a lavender d'uccle, too. There are several black babies with feathering on the outsides of their legs and third toes. Maybe silkie crosses? The first to hatch was a tiny little brown thing. I'm thinking serama or seabright, but not sure. It is a beautiful chocolate color with some yellow on the belly. I've still got some pipping and zipping, so I don't have the best pictures right now. The current count is 8 hatched, 4 pipped from what I can see. That leaves a few, so we'll see what the count comes to later. (Some are hard to see because of the stupid split window on the LG incubator.)

I have the incubator in our bedroom and hubby is crashed on the couch, so I doubt I'll get much sleep. The babies get quiet and sleep some until another starts hatching, and then they decide to party again.





**On an interesting note, that purple line is the air cell on day 14. I managed the humidity better this time, and the air cell grew beyond that mark. Almost every chick has pipped right about on the line, though.

 

[classicsredone]

We have ten out so far, and one working on zipping. One more is pipped, and I think it has made a bigger pip in the last few minutes, but I'm not positive. Eleven or twelve wouldn't be too bad. (I went into lock down with 19 shipped eggs.)

 

[Kedreeva]

Keep us updated! I am running to the incubator every hour or so and checking on the eggs. no pips so far! I listened closely for a while, and I think I heard some tapping... maybe they are going for the "waking mom up at 3 am" hatch again. Le sigh.

 

[classicsredone]

Lol - I didn't sleep much last night. I think I finally got to sleep at about 3, and then had to wake up to nurse the baby a few times. I finally gave up on sleep at about nine when the bedroom starting getting sunny and it woke up the chicks. We've got eleven out now. The most recently hatched looks like a little yellow chipmunk.

 

[classicsredone]

We got 11 total. The others hadn't pipped internally except for the egg that pipped and stopped. Kind of sad because you can see that it was trying, but most not have been strong enough. The incubator is kind of funky smelling now, so I'll be glad to get it out of the bedroom.

The two last chicks were a little sticky, so their feathers are matted down. I guess I'll try to clean them after they have had a chance to get their footing. I'm not sure why they would have been sticky, since the others were okay and I hadn't opened the incubator. Maybe just because they were late and exposed to the higher humidity for longer?

 

[Kedreeva]

It happens sometimes, the sticky membranes. I'm not sure what causes it, only that it sort of sucks. Grats on your hatch!

I'm still waiting on my eggs. At work now, hoping I come home to at least a good pip!

 

[classicsredone]

Any pips?


The sticky chicks have puffed up, but the last to hatch is really strange. One half of it is fluffy, and the other has sparse down that looks scorched. It is really weird in person and doesn't look like egg gunk.