Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Who's that knocking at my door? (Please see UPDATE below)

Well, it's show time.  Time to find out whether the eggs we started incubating on Sept 6 will hatch or not.

Since we didn't want a repeat of the sad circumstances of little Pop, Younger Daughter took the precautions of taping the dome of the incubator so a chick couldn't push it open.


Last night I put my ear to the dome and listened for signs of life.  Nothing.  This morning, however, I can hear faint tapping from at least one of the eggs.  Looks like we'll have a chick (or two) by tomorrow!
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UPDATE:  The little chick died.  Darn darn darn.

It started to hatch...


...and managed to push open a good-sized chunk of shell...


...when all activity ceased.  For hours, nothing happened.  Finally my husband gently peeled back the shell to find the baby had died.  Crud.

The one remaining egg is well past its due date and I don't detect any signs of activity in it, so it looks like that one's a dud.

We obviously haven't had the best luck with chicks this year.  I think it's time to invest in a proper incubator and try again next spring.

6 comments:

  1. Snap, Crackle,.....PIP???

    Anonymous Patriot
    USA

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  2. Patrice--I've been following and reading your blog for over a year now, and really enjoyed your perspective. I've been learning a lot! I thought you might enjoy reading my most recent post, since a lot of what you said has been what got me thinking on this topic in the first place! As a city-dweller myself, I know and experience every day the ignorance we have about where our food comes from, as well as the stereotypes about "country folk": http://truefemininity.blogspot.com/2010/09/missing-out-on-the-real-world.html

    ~Tiffany

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  3. Are they chicks yet?

    Anonymous Patriot
    USA

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  4. Have you put a thermometer inside the incubator and checked the temperature? I have a HovaBator incubator which works great.

    The best incubator, however, is a bantam or bantam x hen. *sigh* My standard chickens show no inclination whatsoever toward motherhood; ALL the bantam crosses are trying to hatch something.

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  5. Sad, very sad. Either a better incubator or perhaps better laying hens? I don't know much about laying hens, but seems they are not doing their jobs. Someone needs to tell those hens that they either take their mothering duties seriously or they will become Sunday dinner.

    Thank you for the update. At least now we know.

    Anonymous Patriot
    USA

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  6. The incubator has a thermometer in it and we checked the temperature frequently, so that wasn't the problem. We also kept water inside to insure high humidity (necessary for proper hatching). Who knows why we've had such issues?

    Annoyingly, we had two hens diligently set all during the summer, to no effect. We suspect our rooster's virility isn't what it should be. Any eggs we've had hatch this year (even if the chicks died) came from our neighbor's rooster. We have a half-grown rooster who should be coming "on line" within a few months, so hopefully our ratio of fertile eggs will increase by next summer.

    But we're still going to get a better incubator.

    - Patrice

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