Who's setting with me Sept 1st-4th?

[Kanga77510]

Here's a picture of the new happy family. I love how that one baby is practically inside the feeder. LOL That little rust colored one on the left is my current favorite.

 

[cochins1088]

Put them in the brooder when they are dry and fluffy, sometimes it can take a while with the high humidity.

 

[Atlantanna]

Well, it looks like only one hatched He/she is going to be a lonely little chick until the babies I ordered arrive on Friday. I learned a lot on this first hatch though. One, BYC is a great resource and I should have read more...Two, the eggs go in the turner FAT end up...Next hatch should go much better. It will be interesting to see what this little guy is going to look like, its a mix between my BO rooster (John Wayne) and either one of my BO hens, or a red star hen.

 

[Lesalynn]

Great pics everyone

Unfortunately, I only have one chick out of that whole batch to make it....Quite expensive lil thing, but it is beautiful.

I should have gone with my gut and pipped the other egggs myself. I thought I was doing the right thing in leaving the eggs alone, tho. Didn't want to be opening the bator up and shrink-wrap any of them. Well, fooey on that. They were all perfectly formed, and beautiful. I didn't candle them on day 18, so I didn't know the aircells were a bit on the large size....the poor things couldn't get turned right, and ended up with the beaks near the bottom of the egg. Couldn't get into the air sac because they couldn't turn...all my fault. I only have this problem with Silkies....don't know why. So....back to the drawing board, gonna do more research, and hopefully do better with the ones coming tomorrow.

I have more eggs in my other incubator now...on the 21st I put in duck, mutt large fowl (just mixed brown egg layers), and a few different type bantams (OEGB, frizzles, and sizzles). On the 23rd I put in some EE/OE I got in one of the swaps here. Looks like I will have 3 incubators going....Oh, and I claimed a swap for 4 Royal Palm turkey eggs yesterday, they'll be here in a few days.

 

[cochins1088]

Mine are all in lockdown! I swear I heard a peep, but I'm probably hearing things. I made a little basket out of chicken wire and lined it with paper towels to put in for the hatchers so that the cleanup should be easy and they won't be able to bother my other developing eggs. I just set the others yesterday, I pray these develop otherwise I'm out $52. I was hoping they would arrive this week so that I could set them after the others hatch, but of course not, they arrived friday last week so I had to set them. I also am suddenly having trouble with the tempatures in my incubator. They were so perfect but when I added the basket and the other eggs, things got all screwy and I still don't have it perfect, I try to check it as often as posible. It keeps ranging from like 97 to 104, I'm working with it because I know that isn't a safe range. Also, a while back I said I was going to try a little experiment by removing the shell around the air sac leaving the clear membrane exposed and painting that membrane with clear nail polish in an attempt to watch them develop, well it's only day 3 but so far it's working and they are developing!

 

[cochins1088]

YAY!! I have my first external pip, and 2 others have internally pipped. I hear peeping!! The one silver laced that made it has internally pipped, though the replacement eggs aren't looking so good even though it's technically too early to tell. That will be one expensive chick, $52, I pray the other develop because I really want to breed them, and I was hoping for more than one female and male so I can choose the better of the 2.

 

[Atlantanna]

My one little chick has to be the most pitiful thing I've ever seen! It's all crusty, and had a terrible case of pasty butt. I got it all cleaned up except for a big crust blob on the top of its head which seems to be stuck like glue. However, it has a great voice and is very active and curious, so I think it will be ok. He/She will have other chicks in the brooder in a few days, so it won't be quite so lonely. I know I'm full of "newbie" questions, but I want to be sure I don't repeat the same mistakes next time I hatch...what causes the crustiness and pasty butt? Are the two issues related? I may have left it in the incubator too long (about 20 hours) because I thought it was still drying out, when in fact I think it just looked wet. I didn't want to disturb the environment because there was a chance my other eggs would hatch. When I finally decided they weren't doing anything, that's when I took the pitiful little thing out and put it in the brooder.

 

[cochins1088]

Pasty butt just happens once in a while, their isn't too much you can do to prevent it, just keep the little guy in clean conditions and check for it every so often. And the crustiness is another thing that just sometimes happens, it's egg junk. I know what you mean, they look wet even though they are actually dry when they have that "crustiness". You can't leave them in too long, they may knock around other eggs and stuff but it won't cause them any harm to be in the incubator longer. You can gently take a warm wash cloth and moisten up the crustiness, but you would have to be very careful and gently blow dry him because he needs to stay warm, you have to avoid getting him too wet as that could chill him. Many recommend just leaving it, it will go away eventually, it just looks akward.

 

[cochins1088]

You should post a picture of the little guy, I hear more and more peeping, I can't wait until tomorrow morning, not sure how I'll sleep.

 

[Atlantanna]

It actually looks better today since I got some of the crust off when I fixed the pasty butt, but it's not going to win any beauty contests. Cute as the dickens though and surprisingly calm in the brooder alone.