Valentine's Day Hatch

[Dingo]

ooh, i'm really sorry to hear that. what happens to the chick if they pip the wrong end? is there a way to help or just hope for the best?
i freaked out a bit and tried to make a divider out of a piece of screen, that did not work out so well. i decided to just keep one egg carton divider in there, but it probably wont help, its not too tall and spunky little chicks will just climb all over it. next time i need to prepare better, or not have so many eggs... but thats probably not going to happen!

Sometimes they can hatch on their own, but this one doesn't seem to have any way to move inside the egg, so I'll be slowly helping the chick.

One chick is out, the first ameraucana that pipped earlier this morning, zipped and hatched in maybe 30 mins. The quail are dancing around but no one is zipping yet.

 

[Illia]

As promised, candling pics. . .



Here's a very nicely developed white Polish egg. This is the ideal view of a good egg on day 14, at least, with an easy white egg.



Photo is a bit blurry though, but the notable characteristics are a bright, widely shaped aircell on the top/blunt end and a very large black mass just behind it, fading at the tip. With darker eggs this isn't visible though.

Vein detailing. Parts will move.



And here's what a brown, blue, or green egg will look like on day 14 and fertile. If you can't see ANYTHING that's good news. But try and aim to the blunt end and you should see an aircell. . . .



Now, my camera didn't capture it but if the egg is light enough or if your bulb is good enough, you can point the tip of the egg to the light too and also see veining and the black mass will move around, but not very much.

This is what a dud looks like.



Blurry image, but, the egg will glow depending on how well coated in pigment it is. There will be a black or slightly darkened mass in there, but only on one side. If you rotate the egg, it won't be on the other side and may move around a lot.

Another form of dud that I don't have a shot of is if less than half the egg is black. On day 14 and beyond, if 1/3 or less of the egg is black, very compacted to the blunt end, and won't move or sloshes just too much - It's a goner.



Just some helpful pics and tips for anyone new to this.

 

[Dingo]

Zipping like crazy, 17 quail out, 3 chickens so far, at least 4 more quail just need to push.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

As promised, candling pics. . .



Here's a very nicely developed white Polish egg. This is the ideal view of a good egg on day 14, at least, with an easy white egg.



Photo is a bit blurry though, but the notable characteristics are a bright, widely shaped aircell on the top/blunt end and a very large black mass just behind it, fading at the tip. With darker eggs this isn't visible though.

Vein detailing. Parts will move.



And here's what a brown, blue, or green egg will look like on day 14 and fertile. If you can't see ANYTHING that's good news. But try and aim to the blunt end and you should see an aircell. . . .



Now, my camera didn't capture it but if the egg is light enough or if your bulb is good enough, you can point the tip of the egg to the light too and also see veining and the black mass will move around, but not very much.

This is what a dud looks like.



Blurry image, but, the egg will glow depending on how well coated in pigment it is. There will be a black or slightly darkened mass in there, but only on one side. If you rotate the egg, it won't be on the other side and may move around a lot.

Another form of dud that I don't have a shot of is if less than half the egg is black. On day 14 and beyond, if 1/3 or less of the egg is black, very compacted to the blunt end, and won't move or sloshes just too much - It's a goner.



Just some helpful pics and tips for anyone new to this.

Thank you - great for the newbies trying to figure out what's what.

 

[NotAFarm]

Quote:

Yes, thanks Illia!! These are great helps!!

 

[notinoz2007]

Zipping like crazy, 17 quail out, 3 chickens so far, at least 4 more quail just need to push.

yay, hows the wrong end pipper doing? i came home from work and have 4 pips, but none of them belong to the talker from last night.

 

[Dingo]

Seems to be doing good. It was weak when it came out so it's a wait and see, we've been pumping the nutracal and save-a-chick into it.
I lost count of the quail, I think there's 24 out, a couple that have pipped and one that died after zipping, never got out of the egg. I had helped one that couldn't get through the membrane, it was wet and leathery, it hadn't absorbed it's yolk but it zipped completely. The yolk has basically shriveled up now I'm going to tie it off and snip it off once Im sure the bloood supply is mostly gone from it. I'll try to get some pics.
Also the web cam is still going , not much action now but two chicken eggs are pipped and should start zipping in a little while.

 

[Dingo]

Teaser pics!
Tibetan chick

OEG banty

Ameraucana chick

 

[9Catsz]

Bad news here. I went to turn my eggs yesterday and the temp was 106 degrees! I had turned those eggs 8 hours before and the temp was okay, so they were at 106 for 8 hours or less. Don't know if any survived. Then today the incubator with my emu eggs was at 101.5 degrees when I went to turn them....DANG IT! I don't know what's going on.

 

[Dingo]

I wouldn't worry too much about the emu eggs, I recall mine spiking to 102 a few times.
Are they start to rock?