What are you currently incubating/brooding?

[jessmorris]

Piccy please!!!!!

Right!
Fourth time lucky, maybe.

Phew! It looks like its worked, we'll see when I 'submit reply'....and you can clearly see her eggtooth too!

This little lovely has hatched but her sister is well behind, still cheeping in an unpippped shell 24 hours later...oh, what to do?? (don't worry, I know the answer - nothing). It would be so sad if she died though.

JM

[Glutton4...]

Sweeeeeeet!


(I would get a bit of shell, and use it to flick a bit of the struggler's shell free - but I didn't say that! )

[RichmondHens]

JM if the chick hasn't even pipped then leave it be. Chances are there is something (unabsorbed yolk sac or deformity) that is preventing it from hatching. Maybe it will surprise you and there will be a chick in the morning.

[Suechooks]

If its under the broody she'll help it out won't she?

[Munch]

I have come to the conclusion not to 'help out'

I have had a successful help out but it was almost out anyway..... but...... the last help out was just a little bit more than pipped, it had been cheeping for over 24 hours and was getting quieter and quieter. He is alive (big lavender Orpington) but he stil at 5 weeks old has a couple of bald patched on his lower neck..... he may grow feathers there in time bit still looks disheveled where as the rest are all fluffily feathered.

Having to keep close eye on him as the bantam chicks pick on him

He may just need a coat in the winter

When the next batch hatch I am going to go out!

[Munch]

In all the cuffufful of yesterdays trauma I forgot to report that we candled the elongated dodgey ebay eggs and 4 out of 6 seem to be happily developing normally!

In actual fact, the only egg that was shaped normally was not fertile!

Fingers crossed!

[jessmorris]

JM if the chick hasn't even pipped then leave it be. Chances are there is something (unabsorbed yolk sac or deformity) that is preventing it from hatching. Maybe it will surprise you and there will be a chick in the morning.

Yes, that was my conclusion too. I figured that if its too weak to be able to pip then its not really going to survive September in Lancashire. It tapped the egg for a day, and cheeped for a day, then died before pipping. I unwrapped it from the intact shell and it was huge (from my middle finger to an inch short of the end of my palm, beak tip to toe) but had quite a big yolk sac not absorbed. This was day 23. Her sister hatched fine, big, perky and on time.
One to chalk up to experience, though I'm not sure what I could do differently next time.

How would the broody help out by the way Sue? Just wondered!
JM

[Suechooks]

How would the broody help out by the way Sue? Just wondered!
JM

Well my Orpington appeared to be tapping at the shells as well as clucking and "talking" to them so I just assume she was helping them out. Its the only one I've actually watched but she's so steady she really wasn't bothered when I lifted the coop oof for a look! And all 6 hatched and survived.
Out of interest Jess did you notice the shape of the egg which didn't hatch? Did it have a properly pointed end?

[Munch]

In all the cuffufful of yesterdays trauma I forgot to report that we candled the elongated dodgey ebay eggs and 4 out of 6 seem to be happily developing normally!

In actual fact, the only egg that was shaped normally was not fertile!

Fingers crossed!

Well today is day 21. The last batch of Wyandotte Banties were all hatched by now. One out of the 4 eggs left in the inccy pipped about an hour ago but cant hear any cheeping. Not holding out much hope for any of them to be honest.

[Suechooks]

All 9 fertile Hubbards have hatched plus 3 out of 5 fertile Ixworths and 1 out of 2 Light Sussex. So Phoebe the buff Orp bantam has 4 chicks while the poor little Silkie has 9 Hubbards! Better complete the new run and get building the coop to go to the allotment before they outgrow their current accommodation!

[Nicos]

Bit of a chance- but I have a Light Sussex which has been laying for a couple of months which has been playing piggybacks with a young banty cockerel.
3 of her eggs went under a broody banty about a week after being laid.
No idea if they will be fertile- but fingers crossed I get at least one gal- and it'll be interesting to see what the chicks look like!

[jessmorris]

Well my Orpington appeared to be tapping at the shells as well as clucking and "talking" to them so I just assume she was helping them out. Its the only one I've actually watched but she's so steady she really wasn't bothered when I lifted the coop oof for a look! And all 6 hatched and survived.
Out of interest Jess did you notice the shape of the egg which didn't hatch? Did it have a properly pointed end?

Yes, a perfectly 'normal' egg.
I'm not having much luck with the Amrocks....I've just had another not hatch. This one cheeped like mad on day 22, but was chipping away at the shell from under its wing, releasing a big clot of blood from the shell. It was an enormous chick - the length of my hand, and still had a yolk sac attached to its navel. They seem too big for the shell, have nowhere to move to, try to break out way before they are developed enough to do so.
Boo.
I've had far less trouble under broodies (hence incubator recommendations request!)
JM

[Hilary B]

Chicks that try to hatch before they've fully absorbed the yolk sac, I'm sure I've been told that it is a temperature problem (maybe a bit too warm?) so the development doesn't all go at the same speed.
Broodies tend to get the temperature perfect....

[jessmorris]

Yes, I must say that eggs under my broodies tend to do better...I'm disappointed with results from this small incubator though, only 2 silkies have hatched more or less ok (and one of them was spraddle legged). I wondered if it was the humidity. Unfortunately I can't set it, its either put water in, or not. Maybe its time for a more sophisticated model. The lady who gave it to me raised parrots in it fine.

[Hilary B]

Is there a water container, or do you use your own? You can make some (not readily measured) adjustments by changing the surface area available for evaporation (add an egg-cup with water in for more, cover part of the dish for less), but I suspect temperature is the problem, the smaller the incubator the more vulnerable to changes in room temp.....