Thanksgiving Hatch- Anyone want to join in?

[evonne]

i gave in and pulled one to candle and saw no movement.. checked a few more.. ditto... so i pulled them out and popped the aircell area of all of them.... the ones that had pipped into the aircell were shrinkwrapped, but the ones who hadn;t pipped had a LOT of liquid inside the membrane... kinda wierd... anyone have anyideas?? i'm totally blaming the homemade incubator for bad humidity and temps... i might get a new lid that isn't as "vented" as this one was.. and see if i can get it stable.. if not i'll pitch the whole thing... lol... not gonna mess with it anymore.. so no more staggered hatching for me until i get another good bator...

 

[Jacksonmom]

3 hatched little cuties...and about 8 pipped...all Olive Eggers. I have 2 bonus silkies that were thrown in as lagniappe...but nothing from them yet.

evonne, I just thought I'd mention that I'm "dry incubating" this time and one of the things I read was that when there is too much humidity, the chicks can actually drown in their air cell b/c it gets full of water. I don't know if that's what happened for you, just a thought. Here's the link to that article:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=26580-good-links

It's under all of the links.

 

[catwalk]

Quote:
Try throwing a blanket over the incubator. I put a giant window in my homemade incubator, and then I poked it full of vent holes; it's as good as no lid at all! I still need to use it because it's the only one that the turner fits into, but a blanket fixes my problems. Actually, it gets my coat when I'm in the house, and I trade it the blanket when I go outside!

Here's my first Thanksgiving baby! It's from a black over buff Cochin cross, and she answers the oft asked question, "what do I get if I cross a buff and a black?" She's buffish black.

Lost a light bulb in the hatcher during lockdown, so I expect the other chicks shortly.

 

[evonne]

yeah, this bator is a small ice chest from wallmart.. and the bulb was just hanging through a hole cut into the top.. well that melted a HUGE hole into it.. i mounted the buld onto the side of the thing this time, and figured since the temps were so wonky and had a tendency to be high.. there's no thermostat on this... that the large hole would be fine... and i had cardboard over the topthat could be moved to let more heat out or less... it also sat ot 104 a bit... but the therm was higher htan the eggs and since it's still air i thought i'd be okay...
oh well.. these were my own eggs and there will be more... but i will not be moving the duck eggs when they need to lock down.. i'll just have to hope for the best with higher hum for the ducks.. they're actually due 2-3 days before the chicks.. so i'm hoping to lock down and up the humidity next thursday and hope the ducks come a day early get them out and let the humidity drop a tiny bit back to where it should be for the chickens...
granted.. i'm saying all this with nothing to actually guage the humidity on... lol..
i have a digital meat therm for temp and nothing for humidity.. lol..
oops

 

[blasto]

Of my 6 shipped silkie eggs just two made it to show veining (the shipping box was pretty well banged up when it arrived--one corner was crushed in and the other eggs were scrambled in shell) and then one stopped developing. My one lone chick just hatched this morning and sadly, s/he has a crossed beak

. I'm waiting to hear back from the breeder to see if she thinks s/he can survive but it doesn't look good

. I'm really sad because s/he's a beautiful blue color.

 

[Freckle Face Farm]

Quote:
blasto sorry about yor silkie chick with the crossed beak..My first silkie has a crossed beak we love her.. You may have to keep her seperate for a while to make sure she is eating as long as she is eating she will be fine.. Good luck with the little one

 

[neferset]

I cleaned my incubator today. Tonight after dark, I candle the late Leghorns and put them in. The eggs...I admit that I have issues candling and telling the difference between a rotten egg and a chick when it's late in and the egg appears full. I think I had 20+ rotten eggs this time. The remaining silkies and seramas (the ones that didn't leak or pop) were sloshy. The duck eggs were bad. I mistook a leaking egg for a pip at one point.

I knew the duck eggs would be difficult, since they all came with large displaced air cells. I feel lucky to have gotten the ducklings I got.

Evonne, I will get a mate for this lone little silkie. He/she might have to have some indiscretions with some splash OEGBs until I do, but come spring, I will make that happen.

 

[babymakes6]

Quote:
I would be very careful doing this-you will drown the chicks in their shell. Ducks need a much higher humidity than chicks (in my experience), and the humidity will get in the chicks shell and drown them when they pip internally.

 

[evonne]

i know... that's why i'm hoping they will hatch early and the eggs can lose a little humidity and water before the chicks pip internally... there's nothing else i can do at this point...
i might go down on friday and get another of the same ice chests and use the new lid and get a humidity guage and see if i can set this right before the ducks need to go on lockdown....

and then i just realized i took an offer on the designer egg train and theyll need to go into the bator when they get here... UGH.. lol... i wonder if it might be smarter to use the one that doesn't hold humidity but holds temp for the first half of the hatch.. then use the LG for the lockdown... my last hatch went ssoo well....

 

[newduckie]

what do you have to check the humidity? I have a thermometer only and don't know what to buy