Day 21....worry, worry *Pics added* What breed?

[donnap1967]

I have a Pip!!!!!!

My husband just woke me up to tell me something was happening in there. Sure enough one of them has made a tiny hole and I can see a little beak in there and I can hear cheeping! I am more excited than my kids...

The hole is more to the side of the egg than the top where you would think the air cell would be. I wonder if that means something.

I know we arent out of the woods yet. We're keeping a close eye on him. At least I know we still have a chance!

 

[Barnyard]

Woohooo.......come on babies

 

[donnap1967]

He's out!!!!! We have a baby!!

I wish I had lined the chicken wire floor with something...poor baby is floundering around in there. I was afraid that if I put paper towels or a hand towel in there it would absorb too much of the humidity, so I left it. Now that I see most of your pics I see that you have something soft lining the floor.

Yay!!!!!!!! A new baby!

 

[ebonykawai]

YAYYYYY!!!!

 

[donnap1967]

I am wondering something....The baby is floundering around in there on the chicken wire floor and making all the other eggs roll around so much. In a couple hours when he is dry and I take him out should I lay a hand towel or paper towel in there under the other eggs so they roll less and have a softer surface? Or is it better to just quickly remove the dry baby and leave the rest of the eggs alone?

 

[hart31]

Most people recommend leaving the first chicks in, even after they dry rather than opening the bator and having a temp and humidity drop. How is your humidity? If you are going to lay a thin towel or something in I would wet it and then wring it out if your humidity is ok. If it's a bit on the low side, I would leave it a little wetter.

I use a rubbery shelf liner over the hardware cloth screen in the bator for hatching. It is porous for airflow, excessive liquid from a hatched egg can drip through and it can be easily washed to use again. It gives the chicks a great surface for their feet to grip.

 

[donnap1967]

I am not sure what the current humidity is because I don't have a hygrometer. This is the first time we have tried this and I have learned a lot from these forums I wish I had learned earlier.


The liner is a great idea I am going to have to get one.

The chick in there is really rolling the other eggs around though...so I was wondering if it's best to take him out as soon as he's dry.

 

[greenacreshens]

I would take him out as soon as he is dry so he doesn't knock the other eggs over. The other chicks could possibly drown if he knocks them upside down.
I just read a great idea on another thread on this site. They are now recommending when you take them out of the auto turner, put them air sac up into a egg carton with the top torn off so that when they hatch they can't knock the others all over the place. Others on this site are having great success with that and I am planning on doing it with my next batch.
Cindy

 

[donnap1967]

Yeh the egg carton thing is a great idea. If we get to do this again I will definitely try it.

So here is where we are at now: Several hours after the first chick hatched out, and then dried I took him out of the incubator and moved him to his next little home so he could get cozy and the other eggs could stop being rolled around.

While we had the incubator open I quickly layed a liner down and carefully placed the rolled around eggs back in the center of the incubator and onto the liner. Just then my daughter noticed that two of the eggs had tiny pip holes. One of them looked like it's little beak was jammed in the hole real tight. I thought maybe it got rolled and got it's beak stuck. I carefully peeled back just the shell to free his little beak and he started opening and closing his beak and made a little cheep. The other one shows movement too.

The two have just been pipped for at least 7 hours now, maybe more. At what point do I say it's time to assist them in getting out? Is it normal that they havent made any progress at all in all this time?

 

[Kanchii]

Good luck! Sounds like your doing everything right to me.