Setting eggs on FEB 10

[bugglesmommy]

My pollish are suppose to ship tomorrow. I'm also going to throw in a few of my new Polish ladies eggs in when I set to see if my old silkie roo still has any steam left.

 

[CowgirlHC]

Haha well hopefully after we let them set a day or so, we can set together Might as well make this a team effort!

 

[CowgirlHC]

Does anyone think maybe I should set a wet sponge in my 'bator and wait another day or so? Should I candle now? I'm so confused it's been 21.5 days now and no pip and I was certain 2 were still set to hatch.

 

[bugglesmommy]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/step-by-step-guide-to-assisted-hatching

This may heglp you figure out what to do.

 

[CowgirlHC]

Thank you very much for that! I looked over it and being a little over 21 days, I took the advice of the post and candled to see if we had any internal pips/movement. I have one that MIGHT be starting to do an internal pip and my husband and I BOTH swore we saw movement, so we marked the air sack (also recommended by the post) and back in the bator. The other one we were sure of we thought we seen movement, no internal pip, marked and back in. The other 2 we thought quit on us looks like they actually have made some progress. Still not convinced they're going to hatch....heck maybe they're just turning into gunk but nonetheless we marked them and put them back because we did see some sort of change. We put a wet sponge in there to help up humidity and are just going to wait and see. According to that post, I shouldn't completely give up until day 25 so here's to hoping. I didn't hear any chirping inside, but heck maybe I wasn't doing it right who knows lol. Thanks again for the post, I can never find good posts like that in here when I look and I don't know why.

 

[bugglesmommy]

That guide saved my chicks. I wouldn't have done anything right on my own.

 

[my sunwolf]

I agree, thank you, that article was very helpful!

That guide showed me that if the membrane was tan you should assist, so I assisted one who had pipped 24hrs ago and been struggling for hours. Now that chick is happily drying off in the incubator. I tried to assist another that had pipped on the wrong side but got a little blood, so I've left it to its own devices for now. The others I tapped and heard nothing

One was definitely mush, no chick there, so I marked it but left it in the incubator (dunno why). The others seemed solid and if they haven't pipped by this evening I'll candle to look for air cells and internal pips and see if I should help anyone. Ah, Day 22...

Moved the 6 fluffies to the brooder this morning, 1 of those is weak and sort of flopping around, it was in its shell for a long time and I didn't even think to help it. The others are eating and peeping and keep losing their water so I try to go show them where it is again every hour or so. They're very happy to have the food to peck at! They were getting pretty tired of pecking at eggshell bits.

I also saw that the article said some could hatch on Day 25 and was a little dubious... if that's true, along with other reports, then chicks can hatch anywhere within an 18 to 25 day window. Yikes, nature doesn't make any convenient plans.

My total chick count is up to 8, but two of those are looking shaky. Next hatch we are erring on the side of too much humidity, as I'm pretty sure this "dry hatch" thing worked out very badly. Possibly I'm doing something else wrong.

 

[CowgirlHC]

Im now into day 22, and still nothing. I upped the humidity to help, still convinced 2 are alive, but I never heard chirping inside. Is that normal? Do they always chirp? We have a friend going to lend us a turner for the next batch where we're going to put all of them more central in the bator and get another thermometer/hygrometer to check the viability of the one we got w/ the bator before setting our new eggs. I'm just afraid to act too soon w/ calling it quits and performing eggtopsys.

 

[R2elk]

I am also into day 22 today. It took every ounce of control I had to not open the incubator until this morning. It is a wood cabinet so there is no seeing what is inside without opening the door. There was also no ability for me to hear any chirping over the sound of the fan. My humidity was holding steady at 58% since starting lockdown and did not have any spike in humidity associated with the hatching chicks.

When I peeked in this morning there were what looked like lots of chicks (to me) and empty egg shells. I finally got the brooder ready and took out 22 chicks and relocated them to the brooder. I left 6 chicks in the incubator that are still wet and two eggs that are pipped and chicks looking alive and well inside them. That accounts for 30 out of 45 eggs that went into lockdown. I will leave them alone and check on them again tomorrow morning.

 

[bugglesmommy]

Im now into day 22, and still nothing.  I upped the humidity to help, still convinced 2 are alive, but I never heard chirping inside.  Is that normal?  Do they always chirp?  We have a friend going to lend us a turner for the next batch where we're going to put all of them more central in the bator and get another thermometer/hygrometer to check the viability of the one we got w/ the bator before setting our new eggs.  I'm just afraid to act too soon w/ calling it quits and performing eggtopsys.

I'm getting another bator with an automatic egg Turner and fan. Ill see how my hatches are effected byit next hatch.

My hatch is done. Out of. 30 eggs 22 were fertile, 1 quit early and 4 didn't make it through hatching. I'm really disappointed that the last one died after popping. I have 17 healthy chicks though, so overall I'm happy.

When I do eggtopsies I proceed as if assistanting a hatch just to be safe.