The 4th Annual BYC Easter Hatch-a-long

[Shellz]

#2 zipping fast & furious! Making lots of noise! Woo hoo! Will join his sib soon! Yay!

 

[Shellz]

Hilarious!!! LMAO!!! Thanks, I needed that!

 

[ChooksChick]

Well, with all this activity I'm starting to think I ought to go look at my eggs...I just moved them down to the hatching area last night, having disposed of a fair number of clears and a few quitters...I think the count remaining was 75. I set mine late on the 9th, like 5 or 6, I think, so I haven't been in a hurry. I barely had room for all of those and had to stack 3, and that wasn't counting the remaining 4 turkey eggs (left in the turners, 2 of which I'm confident are bad). Anyway, I'll go look a bit later. It's going to be difficult to keep them all separate unless I'm on top of things once they start popping!

 

[Toast n Jelly]

#2 zipping fast & furious! Making lots of noise! Woo hoo! Will join his sib soon! Yay!

Way to go chickies!!!

 

[ImpulsiveFarmer]

First chick is out!

 

[Shellz]

#2 is out! From a little pink egg. Don't know who laid it. #3 is my largest egg & has a large pip in it. 9 left with nothing happening.

 

[delisha]

I have almost all of mine out. (25). Only 5 eggs left to go. I set 31. I am hoping for 100%. The last 5 have nothing going on that I can see. The humidity is pretty darn high. Every thing is open. I pulled old shells, an empty egg carton, and a handful of chicks. I hope that helps. Even the egg cartons are damp.

So far every thing is going great.

 

[CayuseRanch]

Ok....So I have a question. I had an egg pip this morning and right before I left for work it had cracked, not zipped. It is cracked about 1/2 way around the egg, like a pressure crack, not zip. It is still like that now that I am home almost 9 hours later. My concern is that the pip hole, Im not seeing a beak I am seeing furr, starting to dry. Also this egg in particular is very saddle shaped on one side. It pipped on the good side, but if it is twisted to the other side, where the saddle shape is, the membrane is going to be too far from the shell for it to pip/zip. I am thinking of assisting. While I wait for comments, I am going to go and look at sally's assist article, but appreciate any thoughts. This will be my first assist if I do, and first time Ive ever had this crack situation.

 

[noahsmom]

All of my babies are in the brooder and doing great, the last white silkie baby is in the brooder but in its own box because I'm afraid the others will try and peck/eat the attached umbilical cord. I'm constantly checking to make sure he/she is not getting to warm I decided the heat lamp 'dryer heat' would hopefully deal with the umbilical cord then heat and humidity in the incubator. He/She stayed in a few hours though. He/she is eating a little food and drinking. I The rest of the eggs are still in the incubator but I doubt anything is going to happen from here with them. I'm over all happy with my 14 babies Not as great as I would have wished, but glad to have gotten some - since I had only hoped for 1 of each breed.
I started with 33 eggs, 22 went into the incubator in the end (I cleared out eggs twice with candlings) and ended up with 14 chicks. So, what is that 42% hatch rate?
I hope to have some good pics tomorrow I'm going to get them all out in the laundry room to run around some, we have great natural light in there so should be able to get some better pics with my iphone!

ETA: The Umbilical cord seems to be shriveling up now it is definitely much much shorter, I HOPE it will fall off on its own! I'm not sure at this point. I read you could clip it with finger nail clippers but I so want it to fall off on its own.

 

[Jessshan8]

Ok here is my status as follows:
76 eggs set
6 blood ring/quitters
20 clear
53 made it to lockdown 45 in the bator and 8 I gave to a persistent broody last Monday

45 bator eggs 8 broody eggs
3 currently externally pipped 5 hatched
3 late quitters 3 Quitters
1 died after hatching
38 hatched and in the brooder

Totals = Blood rings/quitters + hatchers....... 6+44+3=53....... 44/53=83% hatch rate

Just waiting to see what the last three are going to do now.