THE MOTHER'S DAY HATCH-A-LONG!!!! The last day to join in and set eggs with us is April 28th.

[silkiemelon]

Question: I had 4 silkie chicks hatch (yay!), and one was struggling due to a creamish bimp on her vent. The next day, I checked on her in the incubator and she was dead, and her intestines had come out.
Is this common?
I've never heard of anything like this happening before. It kind of freaked me out. The other 3 silkies are doing fine, luckily. But I am confused to what happened to the other silkie.
Can anyone shed light to what happened?

 

[yinepu]

Ok, really happy that you mentioned Fedex here. They never mentioned it on my order. So, went to Fedex with the tracking number..which I promise..no Fedex mentioned, and tried it. It worked..it is supposed to come by the 17th! Next Thursday! What?
Anyway, had tried usps with that number and ups with it, I just didn't figure it was Fedex because it's taking forever!

you may get it a lot sooner.. just keep an eye on tracking.. a lot of time I get packages from Fedex before they say i will...

 

[ghostwolf]

So, so far I have only one to show of the 8 eggs that were placed in the incubator. The other died in the egg almost out. None of the others are doing anything. So frustrated. The seven quail eggs I got at a swap were not even fertile. Had to throw them out.

 

[Tripp16]

Wow has alot happened since I went to work! Congrats to all the new chicks and sorry to everyone whos hatches didnt go so well. Always so discouraging.

But I have a few questions.

My hatch day isnt until May 20th (Next sunday) I have heard that the fans dry the chicks out before they can hatch. Mine is a Still air with a installed fan. I thought about disconnecting the fan when I went into lockdown but Im afraid the temp will fluctuate with the fan not running and kill the chicks growing.

What should I do? Im really worried about this part.

I saw someone suggest a paper towl over the top. Will this work for mine? and will it actually help? Also will it suffocate the chicks?

 

[Arielle]

I think I have 28 chicks out of the 38 I locked down and they are still hatching. Last night my son told me he took the first chick out of the bator 4 times

Kids. Then last night I saw one zipping and this morning it still wasn't out so I got a wash cloth, wet it and dripped a few drops onto the chick and stuck the cloth in the corner by the chick. A few hours later the chick hatched.

if I was doing this for any other reason than for my kids I think id be ripping my hair out. The kids love the chicks.

I love having the kids--I do more things than I would if I didn't have kids. They keep my mind active , my body active and otherwise aging me quickly!!

Quote: Each of the carriers are quirky. Horse semen is only sent FedX, usually overnight but even they can send a shipment to everywhere but the destination. UPS was a bomb until a new driver was assigned to my route. He's not afraid of my dogs ( they are behind a 6 foot picket fence) and delivers to my side door ;the other driver drops it somewhere along my 1000 foot driveway! Lost one package over a 5 foot snowbank--fortunately DH saw it from the bottom of the drive and picked it up. THis driver claimed he "left it at the front door" on the records. Really? He unlocked a gate with 3 latches and entered the dogs yard and made it out in one peice? Not likely-- my rotties are on duty and they mean business. All the carriers can be very frustrating to deal with.

PS. When my dogs are out in public they are sweet hearts; it's when they are on their turf they are on duty. They used to bark at the planes too.

So, so far I have only one to show of the 8 eggs that were placed in the incubator. The other died in the egg almost out. None of the others are doing anything. So frustrated. The seven quail eggs I got at a swap were not even fertile. Had to throw them out.

Sorry.

 

[crazypetlady]

This is so much fun I have 4 out 11 pipped and more chirping and rocking. On a sad note I bumbled an egg the other day it was smushed I left it unjust in case. I checked it today and the smushed part was hard as cement so I opened it up to find a dead lavender chick, that sucks it was a mix but very pretty.

​

 

[yinepu]

Wow has alot happened since I went to work! Congrats to all the new chicks and sorry to everyone whos hatches didnt go so well. Always so discouraging.

But I have a few questions.

My hatch day isnt until May 20th (Next sunday) I have heard that the fans dry the chicks out before they can hatch. Mine is a Still air with a installed fan. I thought about disconnecting the fan when I went into lockdown but Im afraid the temp will fluctuate with the fan not running and kill the chicks growing.

What should I do? Im really worried about this part.

I saw someone suggest a paper towl over the top. Will this work for mine? and will it actually help? Also will it suffocate the chicks?

since you don't have a separate hatcher.. leave the fan alone.. just be ready to cover the eggs IF you need to .. since not all fans will dry out the chicks..

it really depends on how the fan blows.. in my Reptipro it just circulates the air.. but in every Brinsea I own the fan blows down on the eggs.. and i never had a problem with fans in home made bators.

I've never had a sticky chick in my Reptipro.. and I open that door a lot during hatch.. in the brinsea it's another matter.. it got so bad with chicks getting stuck to the shell that I had to cover the eggs if I decide to hatch out in them... I'm in the process of getting rid of the Brinseas.. problem is I had so many of them I wish I would have known better and gotten Reptipros instead!

I do have an LG with the fan kit.. but I only use it for emus and I've never had a problem with sticky membranes .. heck.. they don't even require higher humidity at hatch since their membrane turns dry and brittle.. they just pop right through it (they don't zip either.. just bust out of the shells like they used a hammer from inside the shell)

 

[Arielle]

Quote: I have noticed that dry shells are very brittle. Once I noticed this I wondered why the chicken eggs need a 50-60% RH to hatch. The hen doesn't change humidity, so why do we alter the incubators.

Sorry, I have a math head, that sees the world in patterns and corelations.

 

[yinepu]

I have noticed that dry shells are very brittle. Once I noticed this I wondered why the chicken eggs need a 50-60% RH to hatch. The hen doesn't change humidity, so why do we alter the incubators.

Sorry, I have a math head, that sees the world in patterns and corelations.

the shells become more brittle as the chick grows because it is absorbing calcium from the shells in order to grow it's bones.. as the shells lose the calcium they become more brittle

yeah.. the hen doesn't increase the humidity at hatch.. but she is also incubating naturally...
lately (for chickens) I have been dry hatching in the Reptipro (not adding any moisture at hatch to see how the chicks fair).. they are hatching just fine since as soon as the first one pips the shell the humidity rises on it's own... just like it would under a hen (they are also being dry incubated).. I haven't lost a single egg that was growing an embryo.. I have also opened the door a lot to LOWER the humidity since I still have eggs incubating in the same bator

Now I couldn't attempt that in the Brinseas because of the location of the fans.. they HAVE to have more humidity to counteract that darn fan.. (and broody hens don't have fans on their bellies).. besides.. i refuse to try to HATCH anything anymore in the Brinseas since the Reptipro is doing an amazing job...

I will still raise the humidity for my goose and muscovy eggs when they move to teh Brinsea for hatch since this is something new I have been trying... and I don't want to play around with the goose and muscovy eggs since they were shipped and I paid for them

I do have a lone turkey eggs that my husband added because it was pure white.. so I will experiment with it and see how it does at hatch .. normally i would raise the humidity up to 80% for turkeys at hatch.. but I'll risk this one and see how it fares

 

[java girl 2]

I do have a lone turkey eggs that my husband added because it was pure white.. so I will experiment with it and see how it does at hatch .. normally i would raise the humidity up to 80% for turkeys at hatch.. but I'll risk this one and see how it fares

I would not do that!!!!!!!!!!! I did a dry hatch on the turkey eggs and I lost the hole batch!!!!!!!!!