"Springing in the Chicks" 2016 April Hatch-a-Long Hosted by Mike & Sally

[Feather duster]

As it stands right now out of 26 eggs put in lock down 20 have hatched . Three didn't pip at all,and it looks like another one died during the zip process. I have one that has a tiny pip in it, but has made no progress all day long.
The final one has a hole in it about a little bigger than a dime. I can see its head and beak moving,but it can't seem to get into position to zip. When I get home in the morning if its still alive I will try to assist it. By then it will be about 28 hours like that, so it should have absorbed its yoke by then. I've never done it before, so I'm a little nervous about it.

Another update:
When I got home from work this morning the one I was going to assist had died over night. The one that had the tiny pip that didn't do anything all day yesterday hatch out during the night. The three that didn't pip at all I candled and they had died. So I ended up with 21 chicks out of the 26 that went into lock down.

 

[mammat]

Is there anything I can do for huge air cells on day 8? On all the shipped eggs the air cells are ridiculous. On my eggs the air cells are normal so obviously it is not TOO dry or ALL the air cells would be too big. I have been running 50% humidity in the hovabator and my my other incubator is a brinsea that I have never had an issue with. Majority of them are saddle shaped so it is difficult to tell how big they really are. Should I raise the humidity?
Had five hatch under broody #1!
Cleaned out 6 clears and 2 blood rings today.

 

[mammat]

Quote:
Congratulations! 21 out of 26 is good I had to do an assisted hatch yesterday am and again this morning. I hate doing it

 

[LeroySouthpaw]

I don't understand why, but two eggs that were zipping yesterday evening died during the night. The power remained on all night, the temp and RH were correct when I walked in. They were just stillborn. Also one of the chicks that had already hatched had died in the night. I took the four "early risers" over to their brooder in case there was some problem there. This afternoon I have two more eggs that have pipped and are in the process of zipping, but they were zipping from "underneath." I turned them upward, but that's all the help I gave then put the incubator lid back on immediately. I have plenty of RH, so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong here.

I'm sorry for your loss. Here's hoping for the rest of the hatch to go smoothly.

 

[mamahmendez]

So, I discovered / realized that the auto turner on the incubator was unplugged tonight. I have no idea how long it has been unplugged, I know it was over 24 hours though. So, we will see how this effects my already set-late-shipped-with-abnormal-aircell eggs. UHHHHH!!!!

 

[LeroySouthpaw]

@mlm Mike our babies!

PRETTY!!!!

 

[ShrekDawg]

Yep, white silkie! They are supposed to have walnut combs. And the kicker? I can see her comb at 4 weeks... Because she has NO crest. Notta. Not even a tiny one.

Awesome! They are absolutely adorable!!!!

But oh wow! That is absolutely awful!! How terrible :/

 

[LeroySouthpaw]

What an AMAZING rooster!!! What breed is he???????

 

[Balloonjuice]

I'm sorry for your loss. Here's hoping for the rest of the hatch to go smoothly.

Thanks for the commiseration. Of the two zipping one made it fine and the other stopped.

These are from my own hen house and are barnyard mix. Figured I'd make my first hatch be with eggs I could afford to lose (XL tells me it costs me about a nickel's worth of feed for an egg). I set 40 and had a couple of clears then 5 quitters on day 7. There were some that I concluded were "iffy" on day 18. Anyway, I learned a lot by doing the HAL and following a lot of really good advice from the good folks here at BYC. But I'm definitely going to do some more "cheap hatches" before spending any $$ on eggs.

I'm going to leave my remaining eggs in the bator until Saturday just to see what happens next.

 

[rossfam06]

So yesterday was day 14 on my SLP eggs and I lost 2 out of 18. So that leaves me 16/18 I am hoping to lockdown on Sunday. And on my Silkie eggs today is day 7 candled them all and 100% growing!!! So that's 15 eggs!