Valentine's day hatch -a-long

Just received a fresh batch of hatchright. Hope it kicks in the progress with the necessary vitamins & amino acids. I had a chick hatch with wry neck once, don't want a chick to experience that. Candled, some of the ones that were progressing earlier and half are slow or stopped. Some of the suspect ones are showing fertility & progressing. Giving them a few more days before cleaning some out. Had one explode once, it was infertile and started leaking at the bottom. Couldn't get it out of tray, stuck to the bottom and KABOOM-what a mess! Do not ever want to experience that again, either.
I never tried "Hatchright" and had to look up what it was. Please let us know how it works for you.

Before I had kids, I hatched in the classroom every spring. I once learned a valuable lesson on why clear eggs should be removed. :sick (I was too optimistic and left all the eggs incubating until the hatch was completed..) BOOM! I had to quickly hose off the bottom tray of the borrowed Hovabator on day 19 while a few eggs were beginning to pip. Only 4 chicks out of 15 eggs hatched. (had 8 fully developed dead embryos) :hit


My Valentine Hatch eggs were all duds. Several eggs were frozen, my old roo was hardly mating... and he needed some trims, and the turner wasn't properly working. I witnessed our young roo mating a few times last week, so I'll be starting a new batch of eggs on Sunday. Along with our flock's eggs, I'll be incubating a few silkie eggs for the kids. They are coming from another flock, so I'm thinking about washing them. (I read that things like Merecks can be transmitted via dander on the eggshell.) I've never washed my hatching eggs before and simply left the bloom intact. So my question is: Can anyone share how they clean/ disinfect eggs prior to incubation?
 
Found out about it, after hatching a chick that was low on selenium and vitamin E. It couldn't straighten it's head and could hardly walk. Checked with the learning center here on the website and it was wry neck. Had to run out to the 24hr drug store, it was miraculous. It was bouncing around the next day when I got home from work. So if the hen doesn't eat a nutritious diet (or has parasites) while she is developing the egg, it affects the chick. The theory of Hatchright is - you spray it on the egg and it is absorbed through the shell into the embryo and nourishes the baby chick in case it is lacking in some thing like vitamin E and selenium.

In response to one of the other messages as to how I clean my eggs before hatching. I get a vaccine report sent with the shipped eggs - so I don't wash or clean my eggs and I'm using hatch right from now on. And I'm hoping for a broody silky hen out of this hatch - and she can do the future incubating! This should be just about it for my flock. I should get @6 eggs a day to help feed us. Giving my Giant Brahmas to the neighbor girl - she just got her own farm!
 
Since I just added a new batch of eggs to the incubator, I cracked open a few of the extras for lunch.

Do you think they're both fertile? (or will I be sad again next week when there's no development?)
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To all my flock friends:
Happy Valentine's Day!
and
I wish you an exciting hatch day!


DS & I made many, many of these for all his classmates & teachers.
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:flNothing yet....my incubator may have been running on the cool side due to the extreme cold the first week. I have three eggs that seem to be quite a bit behind the others-maybe a few days? I'll hand turn those - in between work & sleep.
 

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