The 4th Annual BYC Easter Hatch-a-long

[LFchixranch]

 

[Chick Li]

Good Afternoon, well it has been kind of rocky with my first home made incubator use. First #1 and 5 egg were not good. They are out and have 14 left. Then yesterday, day 18 in the incubator and the temperature and humidity gauges to haywire. For about 15 minutes the temp read 114 and the humidity started to go down. I had perfect temp and humidity all morning then bam! The controls won't work. I had another temp/humidity gauge inside for a fail safe and it was reading the 114 and the outside one wouldn't stop blinking. It did start raining for a little bit, I don't think it was the culprit. the third thermometer on the outside was reading 96 the whole time and the inside ones finally when down to 111 then 103. Yes DH and he wanted to be sure about everything. So last night he reread the manual for the Zoo Med Hygro/Therm and put the alarm on. Today we have been sitting at 55-60 for humidity and temp 98. I took the advice from this thread https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/156559/how-to-raise-humidity-in-incubator-help and have aluminum container sitting under the heat source with water and sponges in it. I hope the humidity comes up. On a better front the little black cochin is still sitting on her four eggs. No peeps yet. She is happy and will even let me look under, i did this 4 days ago and they are very heavy. Her hatch day is tomorrow. I am praying. The incubator should hopefully start hatching between Sunday. - Wed. I am hoping. If they hatch it will be a total of 16 eggs.

 

[JoyfulPromise]

Well, we went to a conservatory for my Sister's B-day, and were gone 4 hours! When we got back, I rushed to the incubator, and checked all the eggs with a flashlight and peeped to them. ................................ nothing.

No pips, no peeps, NOTHING!!!! Now I am starting to doubt that I heard that faint "cheep cheep" this morning!

Trying to be patient... and FAILING!!!!

 

[18Peeps]

Egg#3 is out! And now 2 more eggs have pipped. This is so exciting. Our kids loving this! As you can see they are glued to the incubator.

Thank you Happy Chooks for reminding me to wait patiently for the chicks to hatch. Hatching is hard work for chicks! From first pip to unzip, this baby took approximately 13 hours.

Happy Hatchers here...we were pretty nervous since this is our first hatch and we built the incubator too, but so far, we have one happy healthy looking baby. Yay!








Smiles for everyone from chick#3...or will she be called "Smiley"?

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Don't have time to go through all of the posts but, I HAVE 2 PIPS!!!! Yay!!!!

Okay, I'm done.......

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Oh my goodness, they don't stock the pond with the fish already that big do they? Wow..that's a nice size fish. Bet he had a blast!

yes they do!!

 

[audrey02026]

one duckling out and two pips in my other two eggs...got three in the mail all made it to lockdown and all three have activity.

 

[Shellz]

Now these 2 won't shut up! Lol!

 

[rarebear]

WOO-HOO

 

[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.

Hey Sally did you see this? im really torn here...membrane is drying and so it tiny tuft of hair at pip. but still technically a day early and only pip....thoughts?