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

[scflock]

Is 20 what you need to make 90%? Too lazy to do the math...lol

Come on chickies!!!!! And Red Rules!!!

Congrats!!!

But I wanna parade!!! Get in there and whisper sweet nothings to those eggs!!!

RIght!!! lol

I have never had to cull a chick I helped (knock on wood), but to be fair, the ones I have helped have been on time hatches and I think that is the big difference. I totally agree after day 23 the chances of them NOT having some kind of problem is much lower. My 24 day hatcher has leg problems. I love him very much and he is my baby and I am soooooo glad he did hatch regardless, but it does show how delayed development increases problems. I could never pull the plug if I knew there was life, this is where SC and I differ BUT I totally understand his method and his reasoning behind it. I'm am curious to see what the findings are from the eggtopsies.

This is pretty much how Amy and I met. People posting threads about whether to assist or not. We had completely different philosophies, and would give our reasons, but never argued. We didn't start arguing until we found out I was a jerk and she was a wee bit sensitive

Yes, ding dong, 20/22=90%

I have a question for you. On my last 2 hatches I had eggs that were still alive after all the others had hatched. I couldn't pull the plug either because I could see movement in the eggs. But there were no internal pips, and I knew in my gut that they were not going to hatch. I let the incubator run a few more days. Then shut down. There was another member that suggested going into the egg and making an internal pip for them if their beak could be located. But this freaks me out. Very nerve wrecking for me. Don't think I could do it. But they end up dying anyway. Have you ever tried such an assist? Later when I eggtopsy and see fully formed chicks, with yoke absorbed I wonder if I should have tried. What's your thoughts?

After day 23 I would never check an egg for life. This is just me, now, but that's how I do it. No water candling, no regular candling, nada. I wouldn't even entertain the thought of opening the egg to check for life. You will see this tomorrow. Total shutdown after work, regardless of how many eggs are left. The thing I am dreading is the eggtopsies. If they happen to be alive, it's an automatic cull, but I don't want anything that hatches after day 23. If it's not healthy enough to hatch on it's own, chances are it's not healthy enough to live without some special needs. Amy loves her special needs roo, and that's fine for her. I don't say that it's my place to tell her she shouldn't have done it. In my case, I have too many chickens that I am raising and trying to sell to have time to deal with special needs. She does it her way, I do it mine, and we both have legitimate reasons.

 

[scflock]

Pretty duck!

I don't feed the chickens the cat food on purpose. The little stinkers know many ways to get to the food. Will it effect their laying negatively?

I wouldn't worry about the hens, but it will turn your rooster into a....cat

 

[silkiecuddles]

I wouldn't worry about the hens, but it will turn your rooster into a....cat

The roosters are scaredy cats (pun intended). They stay by the coops and woods.

Depending on exactly what type of cat food and just how much they are stealing it can.

I think it's Meowmix or Purina or something like that. Between the 7 laying hens they're probably eating a handful a day. I don't know exactly.

 

[WVduckchick]

Thank you for clarifying that! I won't go up against the big guns till next year!

I figured I could blame the incubator if I lost, since it will be my first time using it!

lol... cat food stealing chooks...

I have a grey Call duck who steals cat food any chance she gets... spoiled rotten but she's molting right now... besides causing fat chookz, it's just too expensive to keep replacing the cat food... :/

She's a beauty! I want to hatch calls.

 

[scflock]

I figured I could blame the incubator if I lost, since it will be my first time using it!

You never blame the Brinsea

Brinsea is infallible

 

[WVduckchick]

You never blame the Brinsea

Brinsea is infallible

Well, then I could blame my learning curve...

 

[scflock]

Well, then I could blame my learning curve...

You have a great mentor

 

[scflock]

Well, then I could blame my learning curve...

I'll dual you for the humidity pump

 

[lazy gardener]

Is 20 what you need to make 90%? Too lazy to do the math...lol

Come on chickies!!!!! And Red Rules!!!

Congrats!!!

But I wanna parade!!! Get in there and whisper sweet nothings to those eggs!!!

RIght!!! lol

I have never had to cull a chick I helped (knock on wood), but to be fair, the ones I have helped have been on time hatches and I think that is the big difference............................this is where SC and I differ BUT I totally understand his method and his reasoning behind it. I'm am curious to see what the findings are from the eggtopsies.

Ditto that.

How do you know that they are still alive at that point?
Any egg of mine that cheeps for more than 24 hours will get opened. I did 3 this hatch and now 40 hours after incubator shutdown you can't even tell which ones they were.
I have not yet found a cheeper without an internal pip though. I did have 3 that died around day 21 without pipping though.

I agree. If it's talking, it's internally pipped. No air = no noise IMO. There could be a lot of reasons that an internal pip does not advance further: malposition (may be caused by humidity being off, or the chick just being too big for his container. Glad we don't use the same criteria to not help w/human babies!) or dry, for example. Both of these could be caused by operator error in terms of incubation, and I am willing to give them a chance, with the realization that if they haven't at least externally pipped, chances of them successfully completing the hatch w/or w/o assist are minimized. Still, if I've incubated, I feel the obligation to give every chick my best effort, and will willingly cull after the fact if necessary. I've never had to do that though.

 

[WVduckchick]

I'll dual you for the humidity pump

I actually wonder if I'll need it. Humidity in my neck of the woods is usually normally pretty high. We don't get the "dry heat" like everyone else, it seems to stay hot and wet here. I'll set it up for a few days without the pump and see how it goes, then decide if I need to add the pump or not.