The 7th Annual BYC Easter Hatch-A-Long!

[ToddQ]

Final count 18/20. Lots of noise makers in the house until tomorrow.

Question- I have 4 wk old chicks out in the coop hatched by my broody. She has been taking them out free ranging for the last 2 weeks and they are not touching the starter feed much. Should I keep putting out starter or switch to grower?

 

[Candy442]

final count lucky number 13.

We incubated at 100 the entire time. Most hatched on Saturday, but a few popped out on Sunday. We started at a high number, but many were infertile in our EE pen. NONE of those developed and we had at least 30. Our rooster is a chimera and maybe not fertile any longer. Oh well.
18 went into lock down. We will have to wait to do the HAL later in the spring since I am sure the boys like to wait til warmer weather. We never have hatched this early before.
Thank you!

 

[generaldsherman]

So cute!

THOSE ARE SO CUTE!!!! I luv little duckies

YES

You MUST hatch them, they are just too cute to not hatch!

Duckies!!!

You all talked me into it...I have 11 Runner Duck eggs in the incubator from TJChickens

 

[Happy Chooks]

No time to read everyone's updates, maybe later. I was very happy with my hatch. I set 16 eggs, all were fertile. I set all 16 into lockdown, even though I didn't see movement in all of them. 11 hatched unassisted, 2 were assisted, one of those is still in shell and I'm debating whether to keep helping. Last time I helped ducklings out all the way, they died anyway a day later. So for now 12/16 hatched. And now for some cute pictures:

Awwww, ducklings!

Pretty good hatch, for my first time! I set six lavender orpington eggs. Pulled one before lockdown. The rest hatched and are looking good! Here are the first two.

Nice job, congrats!

Final count 18/20. Lots of noise makers in the house until tomorrow. Question- I have 4 wk old chicks out in the coop hatched by my broody. She has been taking them out free ranging for the last 2 weeks and they are not touching the starter feed much. Should I keep putting out starter or switch to grower?

Either is fine.

 

[gotro17]

Not too bad!

Any thoughts as to what this cutie might be? I've narrowed it down to an Australorp or SLW
Thanks!

 

[generaldsherman]

Hey guys do the my pet chicken no crow collar work because I live in a suburban area and really really want to keep one of the roosters that I hatch and I can't have him waking everyone up

Here's how my homemade collar works (took 4 days before I caught him in the act; camera shy)

 

[Loc20chick]

Congrats to all the hatches going on and cute pics,, no time to read and see all those fuzzy cute butts, maybe later.

1 chick has hatched, one egg has external pip and the other is rocking, I wasn't expecting them to hatch after tossing 5 quitters. Hopefully they will be both out by evening.

 

[ronott1]

How long does it take for the eggs to complete the hatching process from pip to out of the egg and do they usually hatch at night or something

From pip to zip can be more than 12 hours. Once the first one hatches, the hatch is usually over in 24 hours.

I have one breed that hatches over 3 days though so you never know. It can be even longer if you are hatching different breeds. Some breeds will be on a different schedule even when incubated together.

Once I hatched blue egg layers, Delawares and SG dorkings at the same time. Chicks were hatching for days!

Can you tell from the above post that they do not hatch at once? They hatch all day and all night.....which can interrupt your sleep if they are hatching in the bedroom.....

 

[sunshinechick83]

I think my hatch is done. I have 1 egg left in the incubator but I think it's a late death. I candled and water candled yesterday and today. Nothing that I could see from either. Today is day 23. Leave it still or give up?

Out of the 23 I set 2 were clear and I have this one doing nothing so I think my final count is 20 hatched. Lots a cuties in this hatch! Yay.

 

[ronott1]

This hatch has been hard. Not sure what happened but the chicks were mostly late and some still aren't done. We have 5 eggs left in the bator now two haven't pipped. I hope they make it but I suspect one is dead already. I have three assisted chicks in the bator right now including one that I believe had fluid in his lungs based on his gasping for breath.

Out if 36 eggs that went into lockdown one slw/buff orp mix died while zipping, we lost 4/5 of the my pet chicken eggs that went into lockdown a couple may have been around day 18

So far we have 16 healthy chicks in the brooder with two healthy assists in the bator and the one little gasping chick, a SLW, it doesn't seem to be working as hard to breathe I hope that's a good sign but I wont be surprised if it passes away. I have been up all night so far waiting for the little ones to be ready to be assisted. Idk what's going one with this hatch @Sally Sunshine if you could help me figure out what happened I would love the help. Idk how to describe it. It's like sticky chick but worse even our own eggs were pipping in the wrong spots completely backwards. The eggs were water logged but it was more the consistency of slightly soft jello or jam. I have not encountered this before. Ugh please any ideas I don't want another hatch to go this way again. The egg even holds its shape when the membrane is removed.

Any advice on the hatch or the little gasping chick would be greatly appreciated. Thank you guys.

Strangely my 1st broody due yesterday/today is also late and has no peeling or anything at this time. Although in an oops we did discover that one of her eggs is pipped but at the wrong end too.
Have another broody due tomorrow for the hatch-a-long and then the first one and the last of the chicks. Will then give my final number.

From what you are describing, the temps were too low in the incubator.

Late and wet chicky chicks are almost always from that.

Get a brinsea spot check and adjust the temperature on the incubator. The accurite from Walmart are not reliable enough to use for incubation.