Beaudyne

@Cat tails Chicks are doing great! Just over a week old and growing soo fast!! Started to get their Elvis hair do’s now 😍

Guys! My one little baby chick has died. He/she was the weakest of the lot and I did everything I could over the last few days to help them but it wasn’t enough. I feel ridiculous being so upset over a chick when there are 7 others but I just love all animals and even though he/she had only been alive a few days I cared deeply for that little chick. But I’m unsure what to do now. Do I bury him/her or what? Don’t want to put it in the bin as some other people I’ve seen have suggested! I hadn’t really named them but kept calling it Squidly Diddly ❤️

@Beantree yep counted it at zero. I haven’t helped the egg and amazingly it pipped at 11pm last night and by 2am it was out 🥰👍 hatched end of day 23! We have 8 all together now! Last one wasn’t moving when I last candled. When I move the two newbies into the brooder I’ll candle the last egg again and see what’s happening. Amazingly after all this with buyer an incubator etc my one hybrid hen has just done broody for the first time 😅🙈 can’t make it up Just some pictures of my lovely little fluffy chicks for you all to gush over 🥰

So number 7 just hatched 🥰🐣! Took the opportunity while I moved all the other 6 out into the brooder to candle the other 2 eggs. One doesn’t look very big in the egg and I can’t see any movement. However the other is moving but hasn’t pipped. Is this normal considering it’s now almost end of day 22? Could this chick still hatch? Will I need to help it pip?

WE HAVE 6 CHICKS! So far anyway. 3 eggs left to hatch. However the last 3 haven’t even pipped....is it likely they won’t hatch at all? 8:30pm tonight will be the full 21 days.

3 have hatched so far! However one that’s just hatched has its umbilical cord still attached! Will it just dry up and drop off? This one is the smallest chick and seems to be struggling a little. I’m not sure what to do. Should I be co concerned? Any help would be greatly appreciated @Luvachicken @Beantree

It’s currently 4:22am and I’ve had one of the worst nights! We currently have 1 egg half unzipped, 2 just starting and 1 that I didn’t even see the pip and it’s out! Came out so quickly too!! However this night started off bumpy. Last checked the eggs at 11pm then went to bed. Woke up at 12:30 to find we’d had a power cut at 11:30 so for the last hour the incubator hadn’t been receiving any heat! Amazing how I woke up at all really!! Quickly got it all back on, temp had dropped to 27 and humidity had gone from 75% to 86%. I was in a major panic put I think everything’s okay. Somehow

@Luvachicken We’re almost there!! 😬 the 29th will be the 21st day and we have 1 that’s pipped and halfway cracked the egg and has done all that in just 4 hours! Then we have a second that’s just pipped! No signs of pipping on the 7 just yet but it’s still early. I’ll keep you all posted ❤️

Managed to get the humidity to 70% last night. However this morning it had dropped to 67% and I was concerned it was going to drop even more. I figured as long as the humidity doesn’t drop loads there shouldn’t be a problem opening the lid really quickly and pouring water in. So that’s what I did. Humidity dropped to 65% while open but I poured water really quick and shut the lid. Now it’s sitting at 74% and steady. I heard some of the eggs chirping last night 😍 I’m soooo excited 🙈

Day 19!! 😬 So the first week seemed to go sooo slow but these last 2 have flown by! Eggs have now gone into lockdown 😃 7 are definitely kicking around however 2 I’m unsure about. Don’t seem to be moving. But we’ll see! Was going to do a dry hatch but was concerned as I didn’t know as much about dry hatching. So went with adding water all the way through. My concern now is how do I add water during lockdown if I need too? I can usually go 24hrs without needing to add water but usually have to after that point. I’ve read I can’t open it up once in lockdown s

Managed to get some video of the embryos moving inside. I originally didn’t think 1 or 2 were moving at all which worried me. But the did! 😅 Can’t upload videos for some reason so here are some pictures of them instead

Removed the 2 eggs that I thought were bad. Put them in a little box and left them on the front door step outside until I next went to the bin. 2 hours later I went to pick them up and they exploded!! So glad I took them out the incubator now! Picture before they exploded. I was surprised as I couldn’t see any cracks or oozing. Maybe the temperature difference and leaving them outside did it? Unless I actually just knocked them. Seems more unlikely when I think about it that they exploded just like that?

Here are the 2 that I think are bad/not developing. First 2 pics I’m pretty sure is a blood ring and second 2 pics I don’t think ever developed. Question is do I need to discards these ones? Are they ‘bad’ or will they explode if left in?

So my husband helped me candle the eggs today. He’s way more excited about them hatching than I thought he would be! 😍 although he is loving winding me up pretending they are dinosaur eggs 😂 9 out of 11 are looking promising. I’m going to leave it a couple more days to see how they go but as far as I can tell one has a blood ring and one doesn’t have anything happening in it. Here’s a picture of one of the good ones.

@Beantree thanks for this advice! When I’ve taken all the water out the humidity drops down to around 40% is that too low? If I can keep it at 50% is that better than dry hatching? I found a video on YT and a lady had the same problem. She ended up using a bottle cap full of water and that was the perfect amount.