Hatch-a-Long - Shipped Eggs, Badly Detached and Wonky Air Cells: Lockdown!

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4 babies so far. 3 more pipped eggs that will likely make it. And Big Wiggly is still struggling. I'm really thinking about assisting. I was able to sort of candle, and that egg is so full of chick I'm not sure it can budge. There are literally no air cells left, but I did finally see the beak hit the pip hole.

 

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I said I'd be happy with 2 chicks, so they wouldn't be lonely. I never expected to get 4+. I'm going to have some hard decisions, because I have LOTS of eggs coming over the next 3 months and plan to only keep the best specimens to supplement my current 7. (Looking for a total flock of 16 or so.)

 

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I opted to help Big Wiggly. I opened up the hole a tiny bit, and verified the beak had free access to air. I moistened it's membrane with triple antibiotic ointment (with no pain relief) and put it back in the incubator at 78% humidity. It will live through the night, and if it's still stuck tomorrow, I will assist more. No blood.

 

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After watching for 30 minutes and observing no chewing motions, I assisted a bit more. Big Wiggly was legitimately shrink wrapped. The inner membrane was stuck to it, and shriveled everywhere. After excavating about 1/3rd of the baby, I found a not fully absorbed vein and stopped. Covered everything up in ointment and moistened the shrunken membrane I could see and popped it back in the incubator. It's HUGE. It's also not trying to hatch itself yet, so I'm content to leave it be and wake up every hour or two to check on things tonight.

I'm more concerned about the 3 other eggs hatching and kicking BW than anything else. I almost want to sleep on the floor in my chicken nursery. Which is crazy, but here we are.

 

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Well, I've been checking on Big Wiggly every 60 minutes all night and then going back to sleep for an hour. No change. Just got up for my check and not only had BW decided it was time, it had 2 friends! Good heavens!

Edit: BW seems very, very weak and still has a bit of yolk. It's all skin colored, but it has a quite bulbous bum. It's wings appear abnormally small as well. I wish it would just lie still, but that is not to be. I am not sure BW is going to make it after all that, but at least it made it to the world.

One egg left, and it's pipped and thinking.

 

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I was wrong, it was not thinking. It had passed. The thing managed to make 3 great pips, big ones, and not one broke the interior membrane. I think it suffocated or the 237 rounds of egg soccer gave it traumatic brain injury. It was perfect, and totally ready to hatch. It just...didn't.

I got 1 legbar baby, and 6 Swedish Flowers. Thank heavens I ordered more legbars! BW is still a bit struggly, but looking fairly promising. And I had one baby that was VERY small due to a huge air cell and an extra pointy egg. I wouldn't be surprised if that one becomes a failure to thrive, I'm not sure how it could possibly have developed right inside.

Pics coming when everyone's fluffy. Stream is down until the next batch, due in about 19 days.

All in all, I ended up with a 50% hatch rate on the Flowers and a ~8% hatch rate on the Legbars. Those eggs were FILTHY and I will never incubate dirty eggs again. The Flowers had far worse air cell problems than the legbars, so I'm blaming filth.

 

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Scramble is in the back left, Big Wiggly is the huge brown blob on the right. The one in the front is my lone surviving legbar, and I think it's a pullet.

 

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I bought this phone because the camera was supposed to be good, but it's been all potato, all the way down, since day 1. I hate it.

 

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All of these babies are shooting out straight, green, water/poop. My last batch didn't do this. They also aren't really eating or drinking. I've given a couple a few drops of honey water. The last batch didn't really start eating/drinking until day 2 after hatch tho and before that I had mail order chicks which didn't do this either. I know green poo is normal yolk processing, but this seems copious and watery.

Are they too hot? Too cold? OK? They seem to spread out happily under their heat plate, which is tilted for zoning to chick's preference. They're peeping contentedly and occasionally venturing out to peck at the food, but not really eat a lot.

 

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I think I'll worry tomorrow. They're interested in food, just not super hungry yet. The not drinking part is worrying me more, but Scramble figured it out.