Eggs on Lockdown

[windwalkingwolf]

Congratulations! Sorry about the little guy Any pictures? :D

Picture of the dead little guy? No.
And I kept the last 4 unhatched eggs in the incubator, for now. Two are mine, and two are the purchased barred rocks. That means, if the little dead chick was from my hens, then so far, only 6/12 of the purchased barred rocks were successful hatches. Shoot-darn!!!
I'll take a photo of the chicks in the brooding box and post it.

Oops, I guess my post was a little vague I meant a picture of your new little (live) fluffy butts .

[Killerbunny]

[KimChick]

Here are the fuzzy butts! Some of you can possibly pick out the barred rock roosters with the white patch on their heads.

May 26, 2019 Hatch.

Of those that were hatched from my hens' eggs, these are the possible daddies.

Bert - possible daddy #1

Bert Jr. - possible daddy #2, hatched July 2018

[KimChick]

I'm trying not to be too disappointed with the 75% hatch (15 chicks / 20 eggs). Last year was 92%.
I candled the last 4 eggs last night; 1 air sac was visible, and the others weren't.
I broke open the last 4 eggs this morning; all the chicks were fully formed. It seemed like 3 of them were facing the wrong direction, and I don't know why the one with the air sac died. Humidity was never too high.
3 of them were rolled to the side wall of the incubator by the hatched chicks. Maybe they got disoriented?
Perhaps I should have taken out the dried ones right away and put them in a warmed little box? The first one was almost a full day ahead of the rest.

[Killerbunny]

They will be fine 24hrs in the hatcher. They can survive on yolk for >48hrs.

[KimChick]

They will be fine 24hrs in the hatcher. They can survive on yolk for >48hrs.

Yes, it was going on 48 hrs. after the first one hatched. That little guy hatched at the beginning of the 21st day. And I think it will be a Barred Rock rooster.

[Kbr42]

So @Ontario Chick post a while back a picture of an incubator with an egg carton in it. Since then, I have hatched a couple of batches with the eggs in a cut out egg carton. Not all hatched, but it was certainly less stressful on me. I hated watching the newly hatched chicks roll the other eggs all over the place. It might be a thought for next time you hatch.

With that said, you had less eggs in the incubator last year. I would say you had an excellent hatch!

[KimChick]

To summarize, 6/12 purchased eggs hatched; I have 15 chicks in the brooder; therefore, 9/12 hatched from my hens' eggs.
It would have been less expensive to order 6 unsexed barred rock chicks from Freys with our turkey and meat chicks.
But where is the fun in that? And that is the chance one takes when buying and hatching.
Incubating eggs, and more of them, earlier in the year was a different experience, too.
Thanks for all your help this year, everyone! You are

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