The 8th Annual BYC Easter Hatch-a-long!!!!

[brucifer]

No they are from her ducks but her ducks never came to lay on them and so she wanted to make the most of them.

One way or another, don't worry about it. It's not like the duck-egg police are going to come knocking on your door. Just enjoy your hatch and have fun.

 

[feedman77]

I just looked at mine and I can't tell which direction it is blowing.  The air feels like it's coming out of the clear plastic holes around the edge, so I'm thinking the fan is blowing up and it circulates around?  I don't feel air blowing directly on my hand when put below the fan.  It feels like it's coming from everywhere.

Can you try a tissue paper test. Put it next to bottom of fan and see if if it sucks up or blows down.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1074417/brinsea-mini-advance-20-fan-direction/0_100

 

[brucifer]

Finally have a single pip on a single egg - one of my crele orpington eggs.

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Chicks and poults and pips oh my! They're popping out all over the place in the hatcher

 

[Razadia]

Ohh, great, early again. Hopefully they don't take three days to all get hatched again.
Can running too dry during first 18 days, or using older eggs cause some to hatch early?

Not as far as I know. I've used older eggs and I don't add water during the first 18 days. Ever. It's a disaster waiting to happen for me. Higher temps can, though.

Well, maybe I waited too long, or not long enough....maybe I messed everything up but....

By 10 pm I had 3 turkey's hatched out of 3 of 4 eggs (one of which was questionable). I had 2 ducks pipped for 8+ hours, and other ducks pipped for less time. I opened the bator and pulled out one pipped duck egg I'd not seen move for awhile, and he was dead. Pulled out the other I knew was pipped a long time, and he was also dead. Waited a couple more hours with no more progress, pulled out a third duck egg. It was alive, and I peeled it, no blood, all was well, he's healthy duck #2. Pulled out another duck egg, peeled a bit, and saw some blood, put him back in there, might have killed him, not sure. Next duck egg, peeled most of it, and he's fixing to be healthy duck #3, even though I didn't completely remove him, he seems great.

THIS is why I HATE hatching eggs. My hatch rate sucks. 80%+ at lock down drops to 20% or less at hatch and I never know when to help, or not help. SOOOOO frustrating.

Sounds like either the humidity wasn't high enough or the ducklings grew too much and couldn't turn to zip. I actually had to help a bantam Welsummer because it was too big to finish zipping. I let it go longer than I probably should have but after several failed assists I basically stay hands off until it's completely obvious it can't hatch on its own. Hatching is stressful all around but you have figure out where things went wrong so you can correct them next time. Asking why things went wrong here is a good start since so many of us have been there and have an idea of what could have happened. Sometimes it's something you did and sometimes it's something totally out of your control.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Quote: Good idea. The fan pulls the air up through the center (away from the eggs) and circulates it down around the sides. Mine is a Octogon 20.

 

[Karen523]

One of my eggs has pipped at the wrong end. I saw it when I did the final candling right before I put the eggs in lock down. It's pretty early and there is blood. I laid it into the hatching tray with the other eggs. I don't plan to help it at this point since I don't think it's ready to hatch anyway. The other 6 eggs are looking good for a Sunday hatch.

 

[lilwildrabbit]

Good idea.  The fan pulls the air up through the center (away from the eggs) and circulates it down around the sides.  Mine is a Octogon 20.

I would say the fan pulls up that way the heating unit is hit with colder air first heating it up then flowed to the outside and down to the water to pull more stare into the dried air from the heating element then it circulated under the eggs back up to the fan

 

[yotetrapper]

Well, the hatch is now officially done for me.

Of the 5 original Royal Palm turkey eggs I set, I hatched out 3. One was clear, and one was iffy all along.

Of the 10 Magpie duck eggs I set, I hatched out 4. One was clear. Two others never pipped. Three died between pip and hatch.

So my total hatched for this hatchalong is 7.

 

[Marthab1953]

Congrats to all who are already hatching etc. and good luck to everybody.

I have 3 hatched this morning and others piping. Picture below not very good picture but can see a little.







the 3rd one is hard to take a picture of back in the far corner below



2 bantam Easter Eggers and 1 Blue Tailed Buff Japanese so far.