The 4th Annual BYC Easter Hatch-a-long

[Gardengirl73]

If you read a bit about hatching Silkies..it seems they like the first 48 hours a bit warmer than normal. It has to do with the exchange of carbons and other things. I think they say to put them on 102. Leave the plugs in, (turn the fan off) and make it have less air flow. Than turn them down to 99.5. and make your incubator exchange air.(turn the fan on) I of course read tons and tons of information after I bought my second set of Silkie eggs and did not do so well hatching. I am hoping the additional information I have read really helps me if I try to hatch more Silkies.
I usually have a pretty good hatch..but those Silkie eggs are so difficult. I am a bit cautious to try again.

I agree with Ron. Good quality is key. I bought bearded silkie eggs from a lady in Morriston Florida for this hatch. They are npip eggs. She sent 9 eggs and all 9 hatched! Just beautiful. Her ebay name is chickenlittlefarm. I know she has auctions going on right now for several color silkies. She has great feedback if you want to try her. I will be posting pics of the babies later. So sorry that you had bad luck with your little silkies.

 

[Daniel1974]

Has anyone had eggs set at the same time in the same incubator hatch at completely different times? 16/18 of my EE eggs have already hatched (started Friday. finished early this am), but only 1 of 10 of the Ameraucana eggs has hatched (early this am) and I am not seeing any more pips. I know that they were all growing before lockdown... Whats the deal??!!

Yea this hatch I hade Chicks on Wed, friday, saturday and Today

 

[CowgirlHC]

re-candled the last 4 in the bator and removed one that was an early quitter. I was concerned about it when placing it, but being a newbie I stuck it in anyways. 2 of the 3 are so full and darker eggs its almost impossible to see much, but it looked like something was moving in it as I rolled the egg to candle. The last egg has a funky air cell I didn't notice before. Instead of just going around the top portion it sort of runs down the side of the egg as well. Is this normal? Any hope for it?

 

[Sueg4332]

HEYYY. I want to see how many chicks other people have hatched so far, can everyone please quote this comment and then say the amount you hatched! Cool thanks! Lets see!

76 alive 3 died shorty after hatch 2 died in shell. 1 more pipping as we speak. will check for duds tonight. I don't candle113 set (not done)

 

[Sueg4332]

76 alive 3 died shorty after hatch 2 died in shell. 1 more pipping as we speak. will check for duds tonight. I don't candle113 set (not done)

PS do you figure total set or subtract clears

 

[williab]

Well so far so good! 6 cream legbars, an oeg and a speckled sussex have hatched. Pips on a couple more legbars

soooo what is up with the blue laced red wyandottes that looked exactly the same when I put them in lockdown as the CL's? Nice veining, good air sacs, movement in many??? Really hope that they start to hatch soon! Gonna wait to day 25 like suggested by others...but as of today (day22) not a one has pipped and the one that was rockin and rollin has been very still...

 

[txrobnla]

I'm also at low number right now. I had 24 in lock down and so far we have only got 2 chicks. One hatches just fine and the last one had to be an assist. It's in the incubator drying off. One other egg has pipped. But no activity on the others. Some of the eggs that I know had moving chicks at lock down have not done anything, so I'm hoping there is still a chance I'll have more hatch.

 

[ThaiDye]

Oh, dear ! That is from the humidity being too high the last 3 days of your incubation period ! The chicks fail to absob their yolk sacs.
This is what was recommended to me, and has worked very well for me:
Keep the humidity around 50% for the first 18 days, and 70% the last 3 days.
If you aren't sure, get a Temp. / Humidity thing (actually called a Hygrometer) from Wal-Mart. I use the DIGITAL black square ones, about the size of a pack of smokes. Sells for $8.95, at Wal-Mart. They are in the lighting / light bulb / thermometer area of the stores.
I got ONE chick to survive when that happened, but it wasn't as severe as yours. Unfortunately, the ones that are as severe as yours usually do not survive.

I am so sorry !! I had 5 of them born like that in a single hatch, and lost every one, BEFORE I got one of those Hygrometer things I just told you about. WELL WORTH THE LITTLE MONEY THEY COST ! I have had NO problems with the "protruding belly-buttons," since ! Just put it somewhere in your incubator as level w/ your eggs as you can...I put mine on top of my eggs which are in turner racks. When I take the eggs out of the turners, I just set it in there (with the pipping eggs) to continue monitoring the humidity. Don't worry so much about the TEMPERATURE it tells you; that can vary a lot within diff. spots in the incubator. If you are getting a decent hatch rate, then your temp. is fine. But start watching the HUMIDITY very closly thru-out your entire incubation as well as the actual pipping and hatching.
Best of luck, God bless you and your little peepers, and I hope this will help !

I did have a hygrometer in it. The one from Wally's didn't work right, so I got one at Home Depot. It ran around 40-50% all thru incubation. Then at lockdown, I added water to the other trough, opened the vent a little more & removed the hygrometer since it had nowhere to lay except on top of the eggs. It's inside now & it reads 65%. It may have spiked because of my assisting. I didn't want to membrane to dry out, so on my first assist (same chick), I wrapped the egg in a damp paper towel. After I removed the chick several hours later, I did add about 1/4c to the bottom of the bator. Didn't bother to put the hygrometer back in. My fault

This was my first hatch, so all considered, I think I did fairly well.

 

[noahsmom]

Does anyone else have chicks that seem overly infatuated with you? If I stand over the brooder and talk to the chicks the first rir that hatched will chirp at me and run quickly to where I am and jump, jump, jump to try and get to me! Once I pick him up he's completely content to sit with me or be on me while I walk around the house, I find it odd but so adorable. My little while silkie who I helped out of the egg loves to sit on me as well, he will click its little beak. I had parrots/birds that did the same thing when on me sleeping, I always thought it was a sign of contentment and this little baby will close his eyes in my hands and click his beak. love my babies.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful hatch I'm going to try and catch up on what I missed tomorrow morning at work.

 

[ThaiDye]

Does anyone else have chicks that seem overly infatuated with you? If I stand over the brooder and talk to the chicks the first rir that hatched will chirp at me and run quickly to where I am and jump, jump, jump to try and get to me! Once I pick him up he's completely content to sit with me or be on me while I walk around the house, I find it odd but so adorable. My little while silkie who I helped out of the egg loves to sit on me as well, he will click its little beak. I had parrots/birds that did the same thing when on me sleeping, I always thought it was a sign of contentment and this little baby will close his eyes in my hands and click his beak.

love my babies.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful hatch I'm going to try and catch up on what I missed tomorrow morning at work.

Yes! The first to hatch. It's a brown leghorn/ee cross I named Lil' Pecker cuz she pecks at everything!!! She (I hope its a she) follows me everywhere. Was totally hogging the camera every time I was trying to film a chick hatch or just get pix in general. Girl or boy, Lil' Pecker's a keeper.