Starting staggered hatching adventure

[Redhead Rae]

I got my LF White Cornish eggs today!

 

[Ducklover2]

 

[Redhead Rae]

So, update!

I have a two week break between hatches because the eggs that were supposed to hatch on Wednesday, were the ones that the "broody" was on and they got scrambled.

So, I had 11 eggs that are due to hatch this week. Unfortunately, I think the temp fluctuations we have been having recently combined with my incubators getting too cold, then too hot, 7 of the eggs didn't make it to lock down. Only 4 made the switch and I only feel good about 3 of them.

Yesterday (day 10), I candled the LF White Cornish eggs. Sadly, only 4 of the 17 look really good at this point. There are two questionables. 9 of the eggs looks like they got started and quit, and 2 are completely clear. I really hope that I at least get a pair out of these eggs.

 

[Redhead Rae]

Only 1 of the 4 eggs I had in lock down survived and that was after a LOT of assistance in hatching. It has severe problems because of the temp fluctuations. The Franken-bators aren't holding temp really well, they either get too hot or too cold with the weather warming up in the day and cooling off at night. I may have to move them into my already crowded bedroom so they don't experience such temp swings. If you want to follow the journey of Gimpy the chick, go read this thread.
Splayed leg chick not doing well in hobbles

I should be putting my LF White eggs in lock down tomorrow. I think I'll be using my Brinsea since it is less susceptible to temp swings and these eggs are important.

 

[Redhead Rae]

I had to cull poor Gimpy. It was a lost cause.

However it looks like the heat spikes didn't hurt this week's hatch. I had 4 Dark Cornish eggs left and I didn't think they were going to make it. 2 of the 4 had piped this morning and this baby hatched on its own and is already sitting up after less than a hour. I guess they were at a less critical point of development when the heat spiked.

I'm now erring on keeping the one Franken-bator a little cooler rather than focusing on keeping it right at 99.5. I have this batch hatching in the Brinsea because I don't want to risk the 6 shipped LF White Cornish that made it to lock down to my Franken-bators (2 have pipped!). After this hatch, I'll move back to starting the eggs in the Brinsea and hatching in the Franken-bators.

 

[Redhead Rae]

Got my first LF White chick!

 

[Redhead Rae]

I now have 2 LF White Chicks and 3 LF Dark chicks!!! I had to help the last two of my Dark Cornish babies. They had both zipped really well, but they both were stuck to their shells REALLY badly with this goopy fluid from inside the egg that turns almost concrete like when exposed to air. Very similar to what happened to Chicken Surprise (a chick I hatched in Dec) I think it is another effect of the temperature issues I've been having. Thankfully, they both look WAY move vigorous than Chicken Surprise did, and she was touch and go for a while but survived.

 

[Redhead Rae]

Let me just say, nutridrench is MIRACULOUS stuff! One of the chicks I assisted kept turtling on its back any time I set it down. It was trying to pick its head off the ground but would flip over. I gave it a drop of nutridrench straight, and within 5 min the chick was holding itself up without flipping over.

 

[Redhead Rae]

All 5 chicks are doing great and are a week old now. (pic is from a few days ago)

I created a thread on the Eggtopsies I did on the unhatched eggs from this batch.
*GRAPHIC* Post Hatch Eggtopsy on Dark and White Large Fowl Cornish

I just moved 9 eggs to lock down. They are due to hatch Sunday. I normally set eggs every Wednesday so they hatch on Wednesday. However, I put a week and a half between when I set eggs for my last hatch and this hatch because I was trying to figure out what was wrong with the Franken-bators that was causing them to overheat. The following hatch will be spaced a week and a half from this weeks hatch because I wanted to get back to my normal hatching schedule. So these will both be larger than normal hatches.

 

[Redhead Rae]

Of the 9 eggs that were supposed to hatch Sunday, only 2 pipped yesterday. One died in shell and looks like it had a scissor beak. The other hatched fine and it is withe the chicks I hatched almost 2 weeks ago.