The Little Incubator on the Prairie -- an incubation diary

[PrairieChickens]

#2 has just appeared on the scene!

 

[Jmpeters]

Great thread! I sat their watching ur eggs for 10 min. The suspense was killing me. Like turning the handle on a jack-in-the-box.

 

[PrairieChickens]

#3 has hatched, and #4 & #5 are hatching now.

Sadly, #1 passed away. It's my own fault. He got too hot. I've adjusted the heat lamp and will be more vigilant in the future.

 

[PrairieChickens]

Alright, I think we're done! Out of 20 eggs, four were duds, one quit early, and it looks like I have 3 late quitters. 12 chicks hatched, I had one casualty, and one chick still in the incubator with an unabsorbed yolk sac. (She's otherwise healthy, but I'm not putting her in with the others until the yolk sac is no longer a temptation for the others to pick at.) I'm leaving the late quitters in for another day just to make sure they're actually quitters. I'd hate to throw out a viable egg in my novice ignorance.

If you'd like to see my new babies, they got their own Ustream channel here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/cute-baby-chicks-cam

I will be putting new eggs in as soon as my last baby has graduated from the incubator. They should hatch just in time for this batch of chicks to be moved to the coop.

 

[PrairieChickens]

One of our hens went broody as the last batch of eggs was finishing up in the incubator, and due to challenges in relocating her to a secure brooding area, I ended up adopting 8 eggs. I went ahead and put them into the incubator, even though I had plans to assemble another clutch from a select group of hens.

The broody's eggs look to have about a week left to go, and even though I realize there are challenges associated with this decision, I decided to add 18 eggs last night. I've been assembling a collection of eggs from my favorite hens, and even though this means a juggling act of turning some eggs by hand while others hatch, I am eager to hatch more babies from my "super hens". 8 more eggs went in tonight, just because I had them on hand and there was room in the incubator.

Part of my motivation to go ahead to add eggs to the incubator was the fact that my polish have started laying again. I've only been able to collect two eggs from them so far (I'm deliberately avoiding eggs from my neurotic Polish hen, Bjork),but one of them is showing clear signs of fertilization, only 24 hours into incubation. The other one, unfortunately, does not appear to be fertilized.


A fertilized polish crested egg, 24 hours into incubation.


One of the adopted broody eggs, 2 weeks or so into incubation.

 

[PrairieChickens]

48 hours into incubation

 

[PrairieChickens]

Same egg on day 4