Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

On March 9th we put a dozen Partridge Chantecler eggs in the incubator. 10 days later we candled and 7 were fertile, 5 weren't. Was suppose to lockdown on the 27th, but due to it being Easter Sunday and having a big family dinner, locked down on the 19th day (Monday). 1st one piped and hatched on the 30th, 3 more piped and hatched in the early morning hours of the 31st. One more piped, but was unable to complete zipping. It had piped at the wrong end. That night I spend a lot of time researching mainly on Backyard Chickens and decided to leave it until April 1st Friday morning. The chick was just chirping out for help. "Get me out of here". With the assistance of my daughter over the speaker phone she supported me to start the zipping process. This went on for two hours. I was so scared that I would hurt it. My daughter kept encouraging me and she could also hear the cries of the baby. I ended up peeling that whole egg along with pulling back the membrane, slowly, but surely. I kept hoping that it would be able to continue on it's own, but it required all of my assistance. I saved the baby. It was quite an emotional, stressful situation, but success. I was so proud of myself. Wow, what a first time experience hatching eggs. Just a newbie and I sure wasn't expecting this to happen.

Now, I still have two eggs in the incubator that haven't hatched. Today is day 25. Candled them yesterday and did the water test to see if the eggs are still viable, as I sure don't want to kill any live babies in them, if there is. When I put the eggs in the 100 degree water the air sac part came above the water. I don't hear anything in the eggs. Do I attempt to pip for them or just leave them or throw them out. I am waiting to start my next batch. Boy, this sure takes a lot of patience and waiting.

Any opinions would be appreciated. What do I do?

I think with the water test the eggs should wobble if there is a live chick in there? A big congrats on your first hatch!!! THATS AWESOME!

hey wheres the pics?

Thanks Al! I feel bad about these two eggs, but out of 7 eggs 5 hatched, so I am very happy about that. It would have been nice for all of them to have hatched, but maybe each hatch I do will improve with the experience. Hard to believe that I actually hatched one of them. I will attempt to post some pics, but I haven't done that before either, so we'll see how that goes. Thanks again.

Congrats - it never gets old!

Thanks Killerbunny! Very exciting indeed. They are so cute. The grandkids love them and they are naming them. I think I have 4 roos and 1 hen, as 4 have strips on their backs.

Congratulations!!! It really is an experience isn't it? You did a great job helping the last one out :smiley-char026:
Mine are due on Tuesday.

Thanks Colleen! It sure was quite the experience. Kinda freaky with the last one, but what a feeling to save a life.

I think you did excellent for your first time! my first hatch ended in heartbreak. I had 4 quail hatch out of about 50 or so. the rest were fully formed and well.... live n learn. I always give them a few more days to hatch but I dont think they willl. and thats okay it happens to all of us.

so to post pics there are a couple different ways. there is a link below called add files or attachments which then has the add files link depending on how you are posting. if your pics are on a phone and If thats what you use to browse PTO then click that link below, find the pics and then upload them.

if your using a computer the process is very similar but you would have to upload the pics to your computer first from the device you took them with.
on my phone I go to gallery and find the pic but I can also click camera and take a new pic instead.
once you click on your pic it will upload to the site.

if you want to insert it into the post like I just did and then keep writing click on place inline next to the file name.
And there you go... have a great night!

Thanks Al. I will try that tomorrow.

Congratulations! Well done.