Tis Time for a March 2020 Hatch-a-long!

[dougieee]

Normally you could see them up until the chick has grown to a decent size. Then you look for movement instead.. I have seen them on day 14 of candleing. But mostly at the beginning

Ive never had any late quitters come to think of it, i get early quitters that blood ring in the first 7 days which i assume is genetic and the embreyo just doesnt fully form and then occassionally DIS fully grown.
I guess that as long as your bator doesnt play up once the embreyo is fully formed the growth stage in the middle is pretty uneventful until it comes to hatching which spawns its own set of problems.
In answer to your question if you see a blood ring on day 18 it will have happened early on and there will be a lot of clear space in the shell, by day 18 the egg will be pretty much taken up by the chick and you shouldnt be able to see any space apart from around the air cell.

 

[Mylied]

My cat runs, i keep the chicks in a kennel in the house for a day or two before moving to the coop brooder. and he runs.. it’s funny...

My cats would kill them if they had the chance. They are excellent mousers. I have to be careful.

 

[FortCluck]

My cats would kill them if they had the chance. They are excellent mousers. I have to be careful.

Mine is the same way. I have to lock him out of the room when the chicks start hatching. He used to be a feral cat who lived in a barn. We got him from a vet for Christmas.

 

[Lins_BE]

Mine is the same way. I have to lock him out of the room when the chicks start hatching. He used to be a feral cat who lived in a barn. We got him from a vet for Christmas.

Your vet gives you cats for christmas??

 

[FortCluck]

Your vet gives you cats for christmas??

It wasn't my vet, but yes he gave me a cat for free for Christmas. He had this cat in his office for months and nobody wanted to take him home because he was mean. I heard about how mean he was and nasty he was, but it didn't stop me from meeting him. I opened up his cage and sat on the floor... He crawled into my lap and started purring really loud. The vet said "well I guess you got yourself a free cat for Christmas." The vet had neutered him, given him all of his shots, and tested him for every disease he could.

He's my buddy. I can pick him up and everything. I named him Jack after Jack Frost and Jack Skellington.

 

[julskinka]

So where do you keep your incubator?

Mine is in my living room. Probably not a good idea since my 3 year olds love looking at em and sometimes touch the side table enough to rattle the eggs a little, although as each day goes by they look at them less.

I keep mine in my bedroom, in the box the incubator came in and sitting on a towel. The room tends to stay around 65 degrees.

My toddler (2) also loves looking at them. I grilled it into her head that if she tried to touch them there wouldn't be any baby chicks, so now if she manages to get in the room ahead of me, she'll run and pick up the flashlight to shine in the incubator while yelling "NO TOUCH JUST LOOK!!" I've also got cats so I mostly just try to keep that door shut though.

Edited to add: Just on the floor. I find it's easier for safer candling and handling. Also ameliorates the risk of it getting knocked off a higher surface!

 

[FortCluck]

So where do you keep your incubator?

Mine is in my living room. Probably not a good idea since my 3 year olds love looking at em and sometimes touch the side table enough to rattle the eggs a little, although as each day goes by they look at them less.

I keep mine in the spare bedroom. once I start getting external pips I can shut the door of the spare bedroom so that the cat won't knock over my incubator.

 

[julskinka]

I’m headed off to bed, but I do want to ask a question that I’ll read answers to tomorrow at some point.

When do you see blood rings? Can you find them even on Day 18? Or are they usually only toward the beginning?

I think others have answered this pretty well, but basically if you're seeing a blood ring after around D10, it's probably because it quit before that point and you just missed it. Later losses, D10-18 - which I do find to be rarer - will look like the growth has stalled out, a lack of movement, or the embryo just sort of turns into a dark blob mass.

I always do eggtopsies. Does anyone else here?

 

[FortCluck]

I think others have answered this pretty well, but basically if you're seeing a blood ring after around D10, it's probably because it quit before that point and you just missed it. Later losses, D10-18 - which I do find to be rarer - will look like the growth has stalled out, a lack of movement, or the embryo just sort of turns into a dark blob mass.

I always do eggtopsies. Does anyone else here?

I do egg topsies. I think they're fascinating to do and you can learn a lot from them

 

[hysop]

I do egg topsies. I think they're fascinating to do and you can learn a lot from them

I think I will too. This is my first batch so I haven’t yet. But I did crack the egg that was a yolker on Day 8 I think. I have to crack them to be sure that it wasn’t growing or that it wasn’t viable. But I will make sure to do it far away from my house if it’s past the one week mark.