Setting Thursday March 25.. Anyone want to join me??

[crosbygroup]

I have one pip on egg number 21. I hope we have a chick by morning.

 

[Daidohead]

OK, I have been adjusted. I bragged early this morning about my first chick pipping, zipping , and feet on the floor in less than 30 min. I have now watched 9 pipped eggs show little to no progress for the last 20 hrs. I promise to save any future bragging until the last chick is hatched.

 

[MrsCluck]

Quote:
It is a long process isnt it - we have 9 out of 22 so far out but last 2 nights are taking their toll on my sleep!! Very tired.

 

[gckiddhouse]

Well, after listening to a chirping egg all day and begging for information on BYC about how long a chick can be in the air cell but not pipped before it dies - and getting nothing!!

I couldn't stand it anymore.

I thought I had seen the egg move, and I was going to wait until tomorrow since today is only day 21, but I stopped hearing the chirps. So I ran the shower in the bathroom until it was all warm and steamy. One by one I pulled, candled, and opened the eggs. The one that had pipped the air cell, but not the shell had died. Should have done it earlier!!

There was one that was still alive, so I wet its membrane and put it back in the incubator while I opened all the other eggs. All dead. When I checked on the one in the incubator, it was still moving, but I thought i better help it get a breath. So i turned on the shower again and when I went to get it, it had stopped moving. It was upside down in the egg. I couldn't figure it out fast enough to save it.

The broody is on at least 11 eggs that have not hatched. I am worried that they are all dead. I guess i will do the same with them tomorrow. I will go get them all and check them. If they haven't hatched by now, they aren't going to. I know, I know, wait until day 24. I would if there weren't 3 healthy chicks out there. They all should have hatched by now.

I am so bummed.

This means that ALL my shipped eggs are a bust. Even my Ameraucana eggs that should have done well are all dead. I can't believe that out of 38 eggs, I have 3 chicks. I really suck at this. Whatever advice I have given you, please disregard it. Clearly I have no idea what I am talking about. Even my broody can't hatch eggs. Of course that may have something to do with the silly Sussex that continually disturbed her eggs every day!!

How could I have not known this.

*sigh*

good night all.

 

[Daidohead]

Quote:
I am so sorry about your hatch, They are very hard calls to make. Help too early and you might hurt or kill them, Help too late and....your too late. I hope tomorrow is a much better day.

 

[MrsCluck]

Quote:
I am so sorry about your hatch, They are very hard calls to make. Help too early and you might hurt or kill them, Help too late and....your too late. I hope tomorrow is a much better day.

What sad news - so sorry - at least you did what you did I wouldn't have had a clue about all what you did - this hatch I used all my own hen eggs and seem to be doing well but I have ordered in the next batch as want different breeds/new blood so now I am worried - maybe they dont travel well.

 

[smchickfarm]

Ok it is day 21 for me and nothing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have had no pips at all!

I keep telling myself that maybe they are going to be late.....................but my hope hatching anything is very low

So glad you all are having babies

I just want some too!!!!!!!!

 

[Rammy]

I woke up to six fuzzie butts this morning!! There are four or five more showing pips but no zip. One white egg from my leghorn shows signs of a pip but this morning no more action. I hope its ok. Im hoping for a few more when I get home from work. It was hard leaving!!

Rammy

 

[GreenGoddess]

Quote:
I am so sorry...

I know what it's like to wait and wait and wait because everyone always tells you not to intervene unless you absolutely have to only to lose the hatch because you waited! Unfortunately not every hatch is the same.. We all have different incubators, different homes with different temps/humidity, and different eggs.. So what might be best for one person, may not be the best for another.. You still give valuable information but there are going to be times where even the best advice won't help.. We are all in this group because we have a love for our chickens and want to be as involved as we possibly can.. We come here for friendship, information, advice and support.. Each of us has our own trials and tribulations and what works for one person will not always work for the next.. We can take all the information we soak up here and apply it in most cases but there are going to be those times that we make mistakes, albeit not intentional and do more harm than good.. Those are the times that we learn from our mistakes and try again, applying what we learned in the past based on our OWN experiences... In a sense, we are playing God when it comes to incubation.. We are taking a natural process and altering it so that we can create something that wouldn't have been otherwise.. In that, we will ALL have failure to some degree.. But if we are willing to try it again, we can perfect it more and more each time... Yes, it is very time consuming, stressful and heartbreaking at times.. But, it can also be extremely rewarding too!

Goddess

 

[GreenGoddess]

WOW!! So many fuzzy butts hatching in this thread!! Congratulations to you all!! Here's my update!

I ended up with 4 fuzzy butts before i went to pick up my new golden comet chicks from the feed store and then I had 2 more before I left to go to a congressional meet and greet for one of the local candidates yesterday afternoon, with several more pipping.. Everything was fine when I left.. One of the americaunas that I was worried about was just about zipped all the way finally and I was glad to see it was finally going to make it.. Well, I came home about 10:30 last night (Amanda was home the whole time taking care of things) to find it STILL had not hatched! I was completely and totally exhausted and would have done much more damage if I did anything at that point so after only getting 2 hours of broken sleep the night before and then staying up for another 21 hours on top of that, i decided to lay down for a few hours.. I got back up at 4:30 this morning to realize that I had 3 chicks that were shrink wrapped so badly that they couldn't move anything but their beak! I did take that one chick that the others were attacking out of the incubator and put him in the bathtub brooder I set up to better his chances but i made sure I did it when the humidity was very high and I had 2 more zip and hatch out after that.. I only lost 2% humidity when I did it... That was several hours before I left last night so I know it had nothing to do with that.. I cannot get a confession but I KNOW the incubator was opened last night, either accidentally or purposely! When I woke up this morning and found the chicks glued in place, I brought the humidity way up and grabbed 4 eggs, one of them being the Am chick that was completely zipped.. Helped hatch that one and another just fine.. The third one, the yolk was not absorbed so with 2/3 of the shell still on it, I wrapped it in a wet hand towel and placed it back in the incubator.. The fourth one, it wasn't completely shrink wrapped (the latest to start zipping) so I took about a thumb nail size of shell off and dripped water on the inside of it's shell to wet the membrane and placed it back in the bator.. I don't have a spray bottle so i put water in the iron and used the spritzer on it to spray some water in the bator to raise the humidity a bit more.. I have 5 eggs that that not pipped yet at all that I can see and two that I am just waiting to finish absorbing the yolk and hatch.. When i put all eggs back, i also took the chicks that were dry out of the bator and put them in the brooder.. Unfortunately, that attached the one from yesterday and started to pull the yolk back out.. I took him out and put him back in the incubator with the wet chicks and will see how he does over the next few hours to decide if he will survive or if I will cull.. I want to give him every chance possible and right now he is resting but I went into this with my eyes open and mentally prepared myself to the best of my ability to do it if needed... The rest that have hatched, they are all doing very well...

And without further ado, I present The Hatch!! (there are a LOT of pics so i didn't want to make it impossible for some to not be able to read the thread.. Just click on the link below!

)

http://s135.photobucket.com/albums/q139/nc29beachgal/Chickens/Incubator 2/Hatch/

Goddess