Washingtonians

[itsren]

Someone just posted in the "hatch along" thread that I'm in and said they are at day 16 and have wiggling eggs, too. What's up with that? That's what mine did. Yet, I read that they wiggle just before hatching. Do they wiggle earlier, as well, or does this person have to lock down right away like I did?

 

[UrbanEnthusiast]

Ren - I've never hatched eggs, so unfortunately can't offer any advice, but I hope it turns out OK and I hope you feel better soon! I agree, don't be too hard on yourself. You were doing what you thought was best. There are many many more eggs in the world for the hatching! And who knows, maybe things aren't as bad as they seem.

UE - I had a problem with one of my male canaries picking on a female. The avian vet told me to take both birds out of the aviary and house them in seperate cages side by side so they could see each other but to place the aggressor's cage lower so the aggressor always had to look up to the other bird. Two weeks, he said, and he was right. Never another problem.
I know that canaries are not chickens but who knows??? Maybe something similar would work. Good luck.

Interesting idea! If they standard isolation method doesn't work, maybe we'll try this.

 

[TerrorBird]

Quote:
I found that it took about a week for George (black star) to start laying since she started squatting. Muffet (BR) and Pudge (Australorp) took a bit longer, maybe two weeks. You shouldn't be waiting too much longer for your older girls since they're squatting, I should think!

 

[2hot2chicken]

Someone just posted in the "hatch along" thread that I'm in and said they are at day 16 and have wiggling eggs, too. What's up with that? That's what mine did. Yet, I read that they wiggle just before hatching. Do they wiggle earlier, as well, or does this person have to lock down right away like I did?

Not an expert at hatching but I think the wiggling u r seeing is probably just the chicks trying to get into a good position to start hatching. Personally I would never lockdown a hatch early. I have had a few chicks hatch early but no more than a day or so and I was already in lockdown. Ur temps can greatly affect ur hatch times. if u are keeping temps on the higher side, 101-102 u will tend to see more chicks hatching earlier and lower temps (98-100) u will probably get more late chicks as they will develop a little slower. I always try to shoot for 100-101 and I get a couple early, most right on time on day 21 and a couple maybe on day 22 as they taper off. I know if u put them into LD early the moisture can build up in their air cell and drown them especially if its to high. Also the egg whites which slowly dry up as the chick grows during incubation may not dry up all of the way drowning the chick when it tries to take its first breaths after internally piping. I had problems with an old one of my first hatches and the humidity spiked up over 90% while in LD. I only had a couple chicks hatch and 1 that piped but didn't start zipping. when I checked it the last time there was tiny bubbles coming out of the hole so I opened the egg. I found the chick was saturated in the whites and was litteraly choking and drowning on them. It was alive but barely and died the next day : ( Hope that advice helps u a little?

 

[Imp]

Quote:

Very interesting idea.
Hate to punish the innocent one but when it's going to benefit her then oh well.
I like his idea.
If my way doesn't work some day this gives me an option. I know it was to her but thanks.

Very intriguing.

 

[itsren]

Quote:
That helps a lot. Thank you. I think I may have locked down too soon. Too much moisture added on Day 17, combined with with too many paper towels may have been a bad combination. Gosh, I learned a lot on this one, that's for sure.

Unless my incubator thermometers are off, my temps have been 99.5 - 99.6 consistently. That's the temp that the incubator booklet recommends for these incubators.

I'm just going to keep them in lockdown the way it is - one incubator was opened in the steamy bathroom, and paper towels removed, the other one stayed in lockdown. We'll see what happens. Depending on what time I set them, today is either Day 20 or 21 - which is about the time they should hatch. The water level in the unopened incubator did not drop at all overnight - so at least there's still water in there.

I plan to keep the incubators going through mid-week next week, unless they start to stink.

 

[Sudsy Chick]

Quote:
Wish I could see this! =) I bet he's an awesome dancer!

George started laying today. The shell had a lot of dark brown specks, so it looks quite nice. The only young one not yet laying is Pengin. Her comb and wattles are still so tiny! Since she's a sweet girl, I don't mind her being a late bloomer.

Yay - congrats!

That helps a lot. Thank you. I think I may have locked down too soon. Too much moisture added on Day 17, combined with with too many paper towels may have been a bad combination. Gosh, I learned a lot on this one, that's for sure.

Unless my incubator thermometers are off, my temps have been 99.5 - 99.6 consistently. That's the temp that the incubator booklet recommends for these incubators.

I'm just going to keep them in lockdown the way it is - one incubator was opened in the steamy bathroom, and paper towels removed, the other one stayed in lockdown. We'll see what happens. Depending on what time I set them, today is either Day 20 or 21 - which is about the time they should hatch. The water level in the unopened incubator did not drop at all overnight - so at least there's still water in there.

I plan to keep the incubators going through mid-week next week, unless they start to stink.

If you had too much moisture - and lots of paper towels - wouldn't the paper towels have sucked up the excess?

My point being, don't give up yet! I believe you said they were put into the incubator on a Sunday. So this is day 20 and they won't pip until this afternoon or tonight at the earliest.

 

[FlyRobinFly]

I was going to go to Salem. Sunday I started not feeling well. Got worse on Monday and Tuesday. I got a little better on Wednesday, but no real improvement. I went to the Dr today. Diverticulitis - hopefully antibiotics will clear it up and I can avoid surgery.

He said if necessary the surgery is minor - I explained to him that my definition of minor surgery is .... Surgery on SOMEONE ELSE !

Here's hoping you can escape surgery, minor or otherwise!

Feel better soon.

 

[FlyRobinFly]

Thanks. I hope it's not over, but we did candle the white one, and the embryo wasn't moving. When we candled before lockdown, it was a little kicker. The second egg in that bator, I think quit a long time ago, so that one doesn't worry me at all. It never developed an air pocket. The sad thing is we became pretty attached to the white egg, because it was the one that we saw develop so well. The others we rarely looked at because we couldn't see through the shell.

Well, I wouldn't give up yet. None of my Silkie eggs showed any movement at all right before we went into lockdown, but all 11 hatched! I think at the end they are so big and ready to come out that there is little or no room to move around. So maybe they're okay yet.

 

[FirewifeJess]

Renee - I am praying you have at least one little baby hatch!