- Oct 5, 2013
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This was my first try at incubating (I have 7 eggs in a brinsea mini advanced, 4 under a broody silkie and 5 in a brinsea Octo Eco).
I read all the articles out there and researched everything.
I decided to weigh my eggs as I didn't have a good candler. I have no idea what the humidity was but all eggs were on target for wt loss.
I decided I was not going to intervene as I didn't want to experience any horror stories of assisting too early.
Well, pips started on day 19 and the first chicks started hatching on day 20. They all seemed to be following the same pattern. So when I noticed one that had an external pip all day yesterday w it's beak in the same position I got concerned. All others made the external pip, quoted down and then zipped within a few hrs. I did nothing as I knew it could breath but something just told me it wasn't right.
I left her for the day and at 2 am I made a small start to the zip to see if the extra room would help. I left her for another 5 hrs. At 7 she still had made no movement and was in the exact same position so I decided to help. I zipped her totally noticing as I went that there were no blood vessels in my way. I removed the cap but then put her back. She was gonna half to do the rest. After about 10 min she pushed her way out of the shell!
Success!!
In hindsight, I might have waited longer because she was in no danger of suffocating as she could breath.
So far out of these shipped eggs I have 6 out of 7 hatched. The last has an external pip so I'm hopeful it too will hatch!
Broody is keeping her eggs under wrap so no idea what's going on there. My last 5 are due to hatch Monday.
I read all the articles out there and researched everything.
I decided to weigh my eggs as I didn't have a good candler. I have no idea what the humidity was but all eggs were on target for wt loss.
I decided I was not going to intervene as I didn't want to experience any horror stories of assisting too early.
Well, pips started on day 19 and the first chicks started hatching on day 20. They all seemed to be following the same pattern. So when I noticed one that had an external pip all day yesterday w it's beak in the same position I got concerned. All others made the external pip, quoted down and then zipped within a few hrs. I did nothing as I knew it could breath but something just told me it wasn't right.
I left her for the day and at 2 am I made a small start to the zip to see if the extra room would help. I left her for another 5 hrs. At 7 she still had made no movement and was in the exact same position so I decided to help. I zipped her totally noticing as I went that there were no blood vessels in my way. I removed the cap but then put her back. She was gonna half to do the rest. After about 10 min she pushed her way out of the shell!
Success!!
In hindsight, I might have waited longer because she was in no danger of suffocating as she could breath.
So far out of these shipped eggs I have 6 out of 7 hatched. The last has an external pip so I'm hopeful it too will hatch!
Broody is keeping her eggs under wrap so no idea what's going on there. My last 5 are due to hatch Monday.
