- May 20, 2008
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and I mean everything.
I posted the below in bold on Tuesday. Since then we have had 11 hatch out of 32! Post mortem on the other 21 showed 2 pipped and unable to complete (darn it, I should have watched better) and all but 3 or 4 had mature chicks in them that for some reason died without hatching. I had to help the last one out, the gray in my hand. He hatched this afternoon, 3 days late, and had problems but he's jumping around and peeping like crazy. He's such a toughie we're calling him Brutus. The yellow chick has to be kept separate. Its a runt and the others were picking on it but when I try to put it in with the one I had to help it attacks the little guy. Sigh....
22 days ago I put 32 eggs in the hatcher. All different breeds, all crossbreeds. Eggs were dark brown, tan, white and green. I just wanted some extra laying chickens.
My plan was to keep my hands completely off it so I put it in the basement this time.
7 days later I went down to find that my turner wasn't working. Hadn't worked at all.
I had also failed to put any water in the well, so I quickly put about 3/4 of a cup of water in.
I had 2 thermometers and each one showed a different temp, 4 degrees apart.
I figured they were all dead but when I started candling every single one of them was alive!
My big idea was to turn them by hand 3x a day for the next 10 days. In actuality I did that 7, maybe 8 times over the next 10 days. I really had no hope for these things but Sunday I laid them all out to hatch, just in case.
Tuesday morning DS ran down to check and there was 1 out and 1 zipped! What a shock. I figured that was it and I was thrilled.
Last night there were 3 out and 1 zipped. I about fainted.
This morning DS came bounding up the stairs shouting MOM! MOM! EIGHT out and another zipping!
I may die of shock! **This place needs a fainting smilie**
SO, I'm going to keep the bater shut at least 1 more day (they can go 2 days without anything, right?) and see what happens and then I'll come back with pics.
I think I'll develop a whole new way to hatch...the ignoreitanddoitallwrong method.
I posted the below in bold on Tuesday. Since then we have had 11 hatch out of 32! Post mortem on the other 21 showed 2 pipped and unable to complete (darn it, I should have watched better) and all but 3 or 4 had mature chicks in them that for some reason died without hatching. I had to help the last one out, the gray in my hand. He hatched this afternoon, 3 days late, and had problems but he's jumping around and peeping like crazy. He's such a toughie we're calling him Brutus. The yellow chick has to be kept separate. Its a runt and the others were picking on it but when I try to put it in with the one I had to help it attacks the little guy. Sigh....
22 days ago I put 32 eggs in the hatcher. All different breeds, all crossbreeds. Eggs were dark brown, tan, white and green. I just wanted some extra laying chickens.
My plan was to keep my hands completely off it so I put it in the basement this time.
7 days later I went down to find that my turner wasn't working. Hadn't worked at all.
I had also failed to put any water in the well, so I quickly put about 3/4 of a cup of water in.
I had 2 thermometers and each one showed a different temp, 4 degrees apart.
I figured they were all dead but when I started candling every single one of them was alive!
My big idea was to turn them by hand 3x a day for the next 10 days. In actuality I did that 7, maybe 8 times over the next 10 days. I really had no hope for these things but Sunday I laid them all out to hatch, just in case.
Tuesday morning DS ran down to check and there was 1 out and 1 zipped! What a shock. I figured that was it and I was thrilled.
Last night there were 3 out and 1 zipped. I about fainted.
This morning DS came bounding up the stairs shouting MOM! MOM! EIGHT out and another zipping!
I may die of shock! **This place needs a fainting smilie**
SO, I'm going to keep the bater shut at least 1 more day (they can go 2 days without anything, right?) and see what happens and then I'll come back with pics.
I think I'll develop a whole new way to hatch...the ignoreitanddoitallwrong method.
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