Hatch day- Batch 2
5July 6, 2014 by Buffy
Once again most of our chicks hatched on day 20. We had 7 successful hatches yesterday and one before church this morning. That’s a total of 8 chicks from 17 eggs. Eight bundles of complete fluffy cuteness!
We are still not feeling very successful at this egg hatching yet. We obviously don’t have something right yet. We had two chicks die while trying to break out of their eggs yesterday. They were completely formed pecking and chirping, but died before they got out of the egg. So we will read more and research more before we start another batch. Any advise? I need a broody hen, right?
Mucking Moms 
So cute. I am impressed that you have hatched them in an incubator – I haven’t been successful with this yet – I have to rely on broody hens and turkeys. I am hoping the rhea eggs in the incubator hatch though.
I’d love to help you get more successful! Were all the eggs fertile and just didn’t hatch? It’s always disappointing to see a chick die before making it out, but I’m always told they would have not been any good anyway. (Maybe as a pet but not for breeding). Keep trying, you’ll figure it out 🙂 try getting on backyardchickens.com and researching your incubator to see what others have to say about it. That’s where I learn everything!
We checked the 7 unhatched eggs- 6 were not fertile, 1 had a fully developed chick put had not pecked a hole. That makes me feel a little better. 11 fertile eggs- 8 healthy chicks.
Yes. 8 out of 11 is a great success! Good job!!
We hatch with hens and it happens to us too. Our last two hatches were clutches of 12 eggs and only 5 chicks survived in each. It’s so frustrating to see a chick die after getting all the way to the hatching stage, but it happens to us nearly every time. Maybe that’s just the way it is. We’ve had them hatch healthy chicks from all the eggs but that’s not the norm.
We have two more clutches set to hatch on the 20th, so we’ll keep our fingers crossed.
Love the pictures. There are few things cuter than newly hatched chicks. 🙂