This is why you wait past 21 days.

[laura877]

This egg was started 4-6-12 and just hatched....after 25 days.





I must confess though that its been unzipping for over 48 hrs.




Its all worth waiting.




for.

 

[thomaschickens]

Congrats!!!! What kind of babies are they?

 

[stevearino]

Wow, congrats! This actually made me feel a little better about my own hatch going on right now. It's only my second attempt, and so far I've never had a chicken hatch. I had 2 out of 7 eggs make it to lockdown, and today is day 21 and still nothing. Maybe they will come late like yours, maybe not, but at least now that I know of your success, it is a little easier to have patience!

Thanks for sharing this! And again, congrats on the hatch! They chicks look great!

 

[A.T. Hagan]

If they did not hatch until the twenty fifth day I would definitely test the incubator thermometer because it sounds like it's reading higher than the actual temperature.

 

[chickenlover237]

really adorable babies! congrats!

 

[laura877]

This batch was just mutt chicks. I have bought so many thermo/hygrometer and I found one at Home Depot for $10 that seems to be really good. Its an Accu-rite I think. I have spend $20-30.00 on ones that are two pieces (one goes in the bator and the other outside) and those don't seem to do as good as this little $10.00 one.

My last big hatch was 72% and those were mostly mutt eggs and 10 maran eggs that I bought off of eBay. The blue maran eggs I got 10 out of 10 live chicks. Since I read the post here on dry hatching, that has increased my hatch rates.

I have to admit that I should have taken my own advice though. I still had 4 eggs that hadn't hatched that started on 4-8-12. Thats 24 days ago. I gently cracked one open and it had a live chick in it. I felt bad. So I will leave theother 3 eggs. I have no idea why these are taking so long.

 

[laura877]

I have a leghorn hen and a beautiful golden duckwing ameracuana rooster that few years ago I got a little cream colored hen out of. She lays huge green eggs and hardly eats anything. I still have the leghorn hen and the golden duckwing Ameracuan rooster. She has to be over 4 or 5 and he is at least 6 yrs old. She gave me 2 eggs a day last summer and is still giving me one egg a day now. The little cream colored hen with ear muffs and lays the biggest green eggs every day.

I have been wanting to get more hens out of this cross before I lose this line. The old man rooster is still protective but his libidio is pretty much gone. I do have an almost identical son that is doing dad's job though. So I have been hatching eggs here and there out of this line so I think some of these are out of them and some out of my RIR's.

These late chicks are all from the same hatch. Some of them are 3 or 4 days older then the litle one in the lower left corner. The other ones in the hatch have already been moved to the brooder outside.

.

This one is quite little compared to the others so I am going to have to really protect it.