Hello new chicken friends! I have had lovely chicks and layers in the past but am brand new to incubator action and it is stressful!
Today was supposed to be hatch day but it starting early Sunday morning with a 3;45am hatch!
Yesterday 7 hatched with no issues, and 2 had yolk sac/bad belly and their siblings were pecking it, so I popped them into coffee mugs and back into the incubator. They have been cheeping and vigorous and the cups got very yolky and and so did the babies. When I removed the healthy hatched fluffy chicks to their brooder, I took the cup babies out one by one.
I tried to quickly and gently clean them in warm water and dilute chlorhexidine, then a little paper towel diaper on the exposed yolk. Then I popped them in their own brooder space. They are dry but crusty. They are super loud! Sometimes they fall over but they almost never stop cheeping. They are not resting like the other chicks. I have given drops of electrolyte water to each of them.
I hope I am doing this right!
The incubator still has all my copper blue Maran eggs in it, and a few “indeterminant” eggs. Due to thick shells I have not been sure if these are all growing.
All in all I dont think I’m about to have an exploding egg but maybe I am. I think I am making the right choices, but it is so hard to balance the health of the not yet pipped, the pipped but not zipped, the zipped but not hatched, the hatched but with yolk attached and the fluffy chicks who want to be in the brooder.
I AM EXHAUSTED!!!!!!
Any loving or helpful hints would be so appreciated. I am in awe of those of you who do this over and over!!
Today was supposed to be hatch day but it starting early Sunday morning with a 3;45am hatch!
Yesterday 7 hatched with no issues, and 2 had yolk sac/bad belly and their siblings were pecking it, so I popped them into coffee mugs and back into the incubator. They have been cheeping and vigorous and the cups got very yolky and and so did the babies. When I removed the healthy hatched fluffy chicks to their brooder, I took the cup babies out one by one.
I tried to quickly and gently clean them in warm water and dilute chlorhexidine, then a little paper towel diaper on the exposed yolk. Then I popped them in their own brooder space. They are dry but crusty. They are super loud! Sometimes they fall over but they almost never stop cheeping. They are not resting like the other chicks. I have given drops of electrolyte water to each of them.
I hope I am doing this right!
The incubator still has all my copper blue Maran eggs in it, and a few “indeterminant” eggs. Due to thick shells I have not been sure if these are all growing.
All in all I dont think I’m about to have an exploding egg but maybe I am. I think I am making the right choices, but it is so hard to balance the health of the not yet pipped, the pipped but not zipped, the zipped but not hatched, the hatched but with yolk attached and the fluffy chicks who want to be in the brooder.
I AM EXHAUSTED!!!!!!
Any loving or helpful hints would be so appreciated. I am in awe of those of you who do this over and over!!
Glad you joined.
had a friend with a yoke problem she kept it in the incubator until the yoke was absorbed, also tried to oil it not sure what she used, sometimes you lose them but that's part of hatching a roll of the dice, do what you can, I have lost some in the shell stopped growing, you can do everything right and by the book it works. I hope you have good luck butdon't give up
If im correct, you say some shells are to thick and dark?
