~ Silkie Hatch-a-Long August 2015 (SHIPPED EGGS GONE WRONG!!) ~

[rosyamanda2000]

Congrats gitabooks, they are adorable!

The trio, Precious (the silkie), Adrian (the light one), and Enterprise (the dark one). They are really huge and they are all growing really fast. The trio with their older "cousins", the Twilight Bantams (Twilight, Eve, Dawn and Dusk) which are around a month old but for whatever reason are very gentle with the trio.

 

[rosyamanda2000]

Your post describes exactly what i experienced. I'm only sorry i didnt intervene sooner. I could've saved another 2 silkies

oh what a night.
2 zipped and raced thru to hatching, 1 died after pipping thru the bottom of the egg. discovered it when the hatching chick rolled the egg over. I have to admit I went into panic mode. opened the incubator and checked each egg. 1 other had also picked the underside, the others who mostly had been pipped for 12-18 hours by now weren't doing anything. I cracked shell off the oldest pip and found dry stuck membrane enveloping the poor chick, so i broke its shell off a bit more and wet the membranes. no blood so opened them a bit and it hatched in 10 minutes. I was so worried now, the humidity was at 70% and above, there was some condensation on the viewing window, so i think it was right but they were drying out. frenzy of panic continued and I opened all the egg ends. all were dry white and shrink wrapping. only 1 bleed. left it with a wet cloth on it and he/she hatched this am. all the others are fine, navels good, sleepy but sit straight up when they hear anything...
So why dry chicks???
day 7 showed a bit too much wt loss. I was running dry but it was only 20-25% humidity in the incubator. I increased that to 35-40 after 2 days at 60% by lockdown the wt loss was good 12-13.5% on all but the 2 problem porous eggs (both needed help but are fine by the way). did read the article about 16% wt loss and not increasing humidity until the first pip. I caved on that and put it up on day 18.5, they begun pipping 12 hours later.
temps were 36.5-37.5.
8 out of 9 are alive and yes 6 i meddled but was it wrong?
Could that initial 7 days have set the trend?
PLEASE HELP WITH ANY IDEAS...i have 5 shipped eggs with bad air cells and am so worried about them.

Lea

 

[Naliez]

Did I say I wanted to buy another brinsea out loud?? LOL. you're reading my mind. Yes, I talked to Walnut about the one she has for sale. I was at the beach yesterday and typed a bunch of replies on this thread and my reception cut out and they were lost! I wanted to tell you to make sure the children's vitamins don't have iron in them. Can you buy the sav-a-chick online? If you ever wanted me to mail you a couple packs, let me know. I'll look up the ingredients because I have a couple packs here. Maybe you could find or make something similar. I am prepared to assist these eggs, as you said. I feel that responsibility after all the shipping damage. I just hope they internally pip. I don't know how you found that beak under the membrane but you did a great job!! I'm scared to go into the membrane if they don't break it first. How are they doing, by the way? Is your hatch totally done now? Next spring I'll be hatching a ton but I'm "supposed" to be done for the year!!
Looks like a saddle shaped air cell! Was that egg shipped? That shape is normal for shipped eggs. I'm concerned about the fluid you are seeing. Are you sure the chick is alive? And are you sure it's fluid in there? Have you gone into lockdown?
Yup, I agree.

The egg was a shipped egg (one of 12) from eBay. It took 5 days and the weather is very hot, so I didn't have a lot of hope for it. I have it on lockdown today, stopped turning it, have it upright in an egg carton, temp 100, humidity is 60-70%. Not seeing any movement at all. Pretty sure this guy quit. I have 16 more shipped Serama eggs in the incubator, but they were kind of old before they got here, so I'm not holding out a lot of hope for those either. That would make 2 for 2 fails on my first attempts at hatching. Disappointed to say the least. We even bought TWO incubators for this AND lost our fav chicken to a hawk last week. This chicken business is not for the faint of heart. Lol

 

[silkienrescues]

The egg was a shipped egg (one of 12) from eBay. It took 5 days and the weather is very hot, so I didn't have a lot of hope for it. I have it on lockdown today, stopped turning it, have it upright in an egg carton, temp 100, humidity is 60-70%. Not seeing any movement at all. Pretty sure this guy quit. I have 16 more shipped Serama eggs in the incubator, but they were kind of old before they got here, so I'm not holding out a lot of hope for those either. That would make 2 for 2 fails on my first attempts at hatching. Disappointed to say the least. We even bought TWO incubators for this AND lost our fav chicken to a hawk last week. This chicken business is not for the faint of heart. Lol

Naliez,
Dont count this as a fail yet, give it time, but also prepare emotionally just in case it hasnt gone on. seeing movement now isn't easy. Shipped eggs are really hard work, so much damage is done before they even start incubating so please dont beat yourself up.
There was quite a bit said in she said he said thread about hawk proofing, maybe you can prevent further losses, but its heartbreaking.
Are you able to source local eggs, that would be much better for your confidence , and the little chicks.

Fingers crossed for you

 

[silkienrescues]

Did I say I wanted to buy another brinsea out loud?? LOL. you're reading my mind. Yes, I talked to Walnut about the one she has for sale. I was at the beach yesterday and typed a bunch of replies on this thread and my reception cut out and they were lost! I wanted to tell you to make sure the children's vitamins don't have iron in them. Can you buy the sav-a-chick online? If you ever wanted me to mail you a couple packs, let me know. I'll look up the ingredients because I have a couple packs here. Maybe you could find or make something similar. I am prepared to assist these eggs, as you said. I feel that responsibility after all the shipping damage. I just hope they internally pip. I don't know how you found that beak under the membrane but you did a great job!! I'm scared to go into the membrane if they don't break it first. How are they doing, by the way? Is your hatch totally done now? Next spring I'll be hatching a ton but I'm "supposed" to be done for the year!!
Looks like a saddle shaped air cell! Was that egg shipped? That shape is normal for shipped eggs. I'm concerned about the fluid you are seeing. Are you sure the chick is alive? And are you sure it's fluid in there? Have you gone into lockdown?
Yup, I agree.

Yes you did!
Will check the iron, it may well be, although this was supposed to be just vitamins.
thanks...I'm doing a bit of research into savachick, problem is I will need it in 3 weeks and post from the US is slower than that. there must be something local.
The 2 little girls are ding great, legs all good now.
I found the pip because i saw the wet area, otherwise would have been none the wiser...just follow the bleeding rule is all I can say, otherwise I dont think it did harm to take off shell.

 

[RubyNala97]

The egg was a shipped egg (one of 12) from eBay. It took 5 days and the weather is very hot, so I didn't have a lot of hope for it. I have it on lockdown today, stopped turning it, have it upright in an egg carton, temp 100, humidity is 60-70%. Not seeing any movement at all. Pretty sure this guy quit. I have 16 more shipped Serama eggs in the incubator, but they were kind of old before they got here, so I'm not holding out a lot of hope for those either. That would make 2 for 2 fails on my first attempts at hatching. Disappointed to say the least. We even bought TWO incubators for this AND lost our fav chicken to a hawk last week. This chicken business is not for the faint of heart. Lol

Shipped eggs are hard. And a 5 day trip is even worse. I'm working with my worst eggs yet and they were a 4 day trip. If you ever want any help along the way, send me a pm. I could go over everything with you and go step by step. I'd love to see you get a great hatch. Don't give up!!

 

[GitaBooks]

So adorable!

 

[Griffin Nest]

Hi everyone! OP again.
Looks like it's about hatching tome for everyone. I just went into lockdown this morning. I moved all of the eggs that made it into the hatch bator. The hatch bator is still air because I don't like having to clean fans or having the hatching chicks dry out too fast.

6 eggs made it into lockdown. I had a quitter on day 13, and the rest never started (probably died during shipping).

Day 11



Day 14



Day 17





The eggs are moved to the hatch bator which runs on a light and a dimmer switch. I don't use this for incubation but it's perfect for hatching since the temperature doesn't have to be completely accurate. Its running a steady 99-100 with 70% + humidity. Im really excited

First silkies ever!

 

[RubyNala97]

I'm so stressed out!! I had the incubator lid off last night and I was candling. I was almost on the last egg and the power went out! I don't have a generator or any backup. So I called my electric company and they told me their was an auto accident that knocked down a pole and that it would be out for several hours. So I panicked. I wrapped each egg, loosely in a paper towel and put them in a styro carton. And drove them and the incubator to my grandma's house that lives only a couple miles away. Of course the power came back on a few hours later. If I would have waited it out, it would have been out all night. Now I have to go back to her house and pick them up. This hatch was just never meant to be! I'm getting a small generator before spring hatches! Is there any hope left for these guys? I drove with them on my lap, very slow...

 

[Griffin Nest]

I'm so stressed out!! I had the incubator lid off last night and I was candling. I was almost on the last egg and the power went out! I don't have a generator or any backup. So I called my electric company and they told me their was an auto accident that knocked down a pole and that it would be out for several hours. So I panicked. I wrapped each egg, loosely in a paper towel and put them in a styro carton. And drove them and the incubator to my grandma's house that lives only a couple miles away. Of course the power came back on a few hours later. If I would have waited it out, it would have been out all night. Now I have to go back to her house and pick them up. This hatch was just never meant to be! I'm getting a small generator before spring hatches! Is there any hope left for these guys? I drove with them on my lap, very slow...

That's horrible!

Every hatcher's worst nightmare.

I have hope for you though! Once that happened to me and I had 10 button quail eggs on day 8. I drove them to my grandma's house that was an hour away and plugged the incubator in there. 8 eggs still hatched!

Don't give up!