She said/He said Who's right? Who's wrong? No one!

[cppeace]

I don't have a thermostat but the bulb/fan keep the temp stable unless the living room is shut up and starts getting too warm with high 90 degree days. This is only an issue because I don't have central AC and when we go to bed(Which is during the afternoon aka heat of the day) the living room gets warmer from lack of ac. I had to tinker with it a few days before I put eggs in to get the temp right.

 

[sideWing]

If you cut any treat in half, it allows the calories to evaporate out of the middle. So, you can eat 1/2 now, and come back 5 minutes later. the net result is that you have allowed calorie evaporation, plus the extra exercise of walking away, and walking all the way back again. all good, yes? Especially, if it's dark chocolate.

I wouldn't have them, unless I planned on eating them, and if my Grand daughter took care of them, I doubt she'd be too keen on eating them. Though she did like to watch when we butchered chickens. Had to keep pushing her away cause she was hanging her nose over the table. "What's that, Grammy???"

Sounds like your grand daughter is going to turn out just fine.

Post 2100, Time for pics of coop and the chicks from my first hatch









Coop is all second hand except for the crews and flymesh.

Cool coop and inexpensive too.

Im now Up to post 2900,
I set 18 eggs for that hatch
15 got to lockdown.
those 2 hatched day 24.
12 were shipped eggs.
all but 3 looked like this when opened.
The other 3 were scrambled or blood ringed
1 piped but down into the incubator floor so it never zipped.

These are the 2 more recently at about 18 weeks old




One is a pure RIR (one of the shipped eggs) the other is a barnyard mix from my flock.
The Incubator was the cheap Chinese octagon 60 I mentioned earlier.

I am currently waiting for Zorrow to lay some eggs to put in another batch, this time with a thermometer and hygrometer.

Congrats on the new chicks and sorry to hear about the non hatchers. I was getting the same thing due to no air flow into my incubator but it sounds like yours might be from delayed hatch.

I commend you for going back and reading so much of this thread! (and still sticking around! LOL) I'm sure you can see we get a little silly, but can be serious too. So I'm glad you're here!

Day 24 hatches usually mean temps too low. Development is delayed, but growth was good, so they just weren't able to finish. New thermometer and hygrometer, tested for accuracy, should help you solve that problem. Best of luck, and I'll be waiting to see what Zorrow produces for you!

Great advice!

Well I had to show it off!!!! Its my first one! I was so proud of myself!

That's a good start!

I've never done one trying to rescue one I believed to be alive. But since my first "eggtopsy" attempt found a live chick, I go into every eggtopsy assuming it could be alive. I have a seam ripper that has a nice sharp point that I have used to scratch the surface and weaken it before poking through. I've also used one of those tiny Phillips screwdrivers (like you work on eye glasses with) to "drill" a pilot hole. A nice sharp knife works too, if the shell is scratched really well first.

What happened to the live chick you found in the "eggtopsy"?

Well duck egg number 3 is getting very close to hatch, I'd say within an hour or so. Can feel movement from both eggs due in a few days so they are all still looking good. If even 6 outta the 8 eggs I had left hatch will be far better than I expected with this this experimental test run on the homemade incubator.

Do you have pictures of this incubator?

It's a very very simple incubator. It's a large Styrofoam ice chest that I have a socket and 40 watt bulb in being run by an extension cord. Have a window in the front with a glass pane gotten from a picture frame. Have a 1x2 inch hole on the right side that I am having a fan blow in from the outside. I also have a piece cut out from the top, but I keep the styrofoam in it and only pivot it open if I'm having a too hot day that I'm worried about the temp going up too much. I use sponges/ towels to control the humidity. I have a pan and stretched shelf liner over it for the eggs to rest on. I turn them by hand 3 times a day. The incubator cost around $25. The combo thermometer cost almost $20 on top of that. I also had reptile thermometer and hydrometer from hermit crabs we used to keep and also have an aquarium thermometer in there. I primarily watch the digital combo for my temps but will average out between the 3. If I happen to have a high spike(Which I had at least 3 times where the temp registered at 104 for unknown amount of time) I let it cool down to 95 and then let it slowly warm back up. I also have been squeezing some droplets over the eggs when I re-wet the sponges. So far seems to be working out for me.

So you have air blowing in from the outside constantly?

 

[cppeace]

Sounds like your grand daughter is going to turn out just fine.

Cool coop and inexpensive too.

Congrats on the new chicks and sorry to hear about the non hatchers. I was getting the same thing due to no air flow into my incubator but it sounds like yours might be from delayed hatch.

Great advice!

That's a good start!


What happened to the live chick you found in the "eggtopsy"?

Do you have pictures of this incubator?

So you have air blowing in from the outside constantly?

yeah, it's how I keep the temp fairly even throughout the incubator. I move it closer if the temp is warmer than normal in the living room or further away if cooler.

 

[cppeace]

and number 3 has hatched!

 

[WVduckchick]

What happened to the live chick you found in the "eggtopsy"?

It was my first try at incubation. I bought the incubator from a local dude, about 10 minutes away from my house, and he already had 7 eggs in it, on day 12! I thought "cool, I'll have chicks within 10 days!" Duh. Not my brightest move. lol I had the humidity way too high because the unit was so wrong. By day 23, nothing had hatched. Day 24, I opened the first one, it was wet and gooey, strong veins still across the top of the membrane. I didn't feel any movement, so I slit the membrane, clear across the top! Then it stated moving! That may be when I joined here to find out what to do. It chirped for several more hours, but sadly it died. I turned off the incubator after that, and it took me until the next day to open the others. I'm pretty sure I drowned them all. None hatched.

 

[WVduckchick]

and number 3 has hatched!

Nice!! Looks like a good, clean, perfectly-placed zip! Congrats again!

 

[cppeace]

thanks Looks like number 2, very rouen Is very active for a new hatchling as well. Usually they collapse as rest for an hour or two this one already offbalance flailing all over the place lol

 

[sideWing]

It was my first try at incubation. I bought the incubator from a local dude, about 10 minutes away from my house, and he already had 7 eggs in it, on day 12! I thought "cool, I'll have chicks within 10 days!" Duh. Not my brightest move. lol I had the humidity way too high because the unit was so wrong. By day 23, nothing had hatched. Day 24, I opened the first one, it was wet and gooey, strong veins still across the top of the membrane. I didn't feel any movement, so I slit the membrane, clear across the top! Then it stated moving! That may be when I joined here to find out what to do. It chirped for several more hours, but sadly it died. I turned off the incubator after that, and it took me until the next day to open the others. I'm pretty sure I drowned them all. None hatched.

I'm sorry to hear that. That's a heart breaker.

You can only drown them if they pip into the air cell and have water in there right? Or am I confused?

 

[cppeace]

I'm sorry to hear that. That's a heart breaker.

You can only drown them if they pip into the air cell and have water in there right? Or am I confused?

or if the air cell is too small that they don't have enough air to have the time to absorb the yolk

 

[WVduckchick]

I'm sorry to hear that. That's a heart breaker.

You can only drown them if they pip into the air cell and have water in there right? Or am I confused?

I guess that's the usual thinking... after they pip... but a couple of these had developed to at least day 19-20, and were still super wet inside the membrane. Air cells were too small, etc. So maybe drowning them wasn't the right term for what I did. I'm just not sure what else you would call it. I feel like that's why they quit... too much fluid.