[mdueal]

I have learned to wait till i had photos for posting so here they are....

Our first incubator hatched chick - a welsummer bantam hatched about an hour ago. You can also see several eggs pipped as well (one has a little beak sticking out which is so cute!)







The pale eggs are silkie eggs of various colours and we also have three of our own sebright eggs in as well. How exciting! Will update as we get some more and they dry off.

[ness]

How fab!  
Looks like its going very well!

[mdueal]

Ok - so there are now three welsummers and one silkie hatched.

The first welsummer looks good - nearly dried off and active

Second is practically dry but floppy with closed eyes - not looking very good

Third has only just hatched and is all wet and looks ok for now

Little silkie looks really bad - suddenly gone floppy and panting. Really looks at deaths door - cant keep head up

We had serious issue with humidity dropping majorly after two welsummer and one silkie had hatched (like down to 29%!!) we acted quickly and moved the whole incubator into the bathroom with the shower running hot to steam up the room and it is back up to 60% which took about 20 mins. Could this be causing them to go floppy and have difficulty breathing? Is there anything that i can do or should i just accept that these may die and remove them from incubator if that happens. It is so hard not being able to open it up and intervene.

[Vember]

sorry i've no incubater experience

Hope they all make it though

[Jellyhead]

Sorry I cant help either but everything crossed for you over here

[babe]

i was totally useless with an incubator (hence sticking to broodys) so cant help either.

but the pictures are totally fabulous...... is it time for an update??

[mdueal]

They have perked up a bit since managing to control humidity with shower. Even the little black silkie is holding its head up so fingers crossed

We now have 4 welsummers, black silkie and a gold sebright hatched and several more with good pips showing. One of the pip holes looks like it has bled a bit though - don't know if that is normal?

Here is update photo - they all ran away and piled up in the corner when i opened incubator a crack to take it!

[snozzer]

Nice chicks, but CLOSE THE LID.  Sorry but keep the lid closed, resist the urge to interfere and your hatch rate will be a lot higher.

[Jellyhead]

Aaaaaah LUVERLY piccies

[babe]

aww, lovely mdueal.

any more today?? its so exciting  

[mdueal]

11 chicks out now.

5 Welsummer bantams (out of six fertile eggs - last one dead in shell after really blooming pip)
4 miniature silkies (out of 7 fertile eggs) - the black one has pulled through!! There is another dead in shell too
2 gold sebrights (out of 2 fertile eggs) - our own babies so very pleased with fertility.
 
The remaining eggs are all ones that i had put question marks on as they looked fertile but 'not quite right' like odd air bubbles / fixed dark shadows on one side. As I wasn't sure what i was looking at, I left them in but seems there must have been something wrong after all.

Very pleased with hatch rate - and very glad the little black silke has pulled through (it is smaller than the sebrights!). Have moved all the chicks into a cardboard box brooder now they are all fluffy so here they are:

The pale one bottom left with stripey back is some form of silkie but I can't tell what colour it is supposed to be - there are two of them the same with mainly blue/silver fluff but partridge stripes??



Little sebright... was a bit worried about spraddle leg but seems to be walking about normally now.