The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: roddycm on November 07, 2015, 11:33:02 pm
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I had some eggs in the incubator, 26 chicks hatched as expected on day 21 but I'd had a power cut and so I left the remaining 10 eggs in the incubator as they had all been candled fertile. Anyway on day 25 3 chicks hatched! They all need help to fully get out if the shell. One now appears normal having been slow to get up. One has a wonky stiff leg and the other was born with a swollen head and twisted toes.
I'd never left the eggs so long before and to be honest won't leave beyond 22/23 days ever again but just wondered if anyone else has had chicks born so late!?
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We've had them hatch at day 23 Roddycm, but that was due to the poor insulation of a Suro20. They were all healthy though. When we are incubating we have a power failure alarm and a large leasure battery to feed an inverter in such an emergency. In the Dordogne power failures were so common and for so long that at one stage we had to run a generator to keep the hatch going- we did get a refund on our standing charge from EDF though!
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We had a little Cuckoo Maran hatch at 24/25 days. The rest of the batch were on time. I called her John after my fella who is also always late. Other than being late, she was perfectly fine. She's still called John and is our only hen with a name :)
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well the one born with the swollen head was ok for 24 hours and then died, wonky leg is still wonky and the other one is with all the others 100% fine.
Love that you have a hen named John haha hilarious!
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Could they have been in a colder area of the incubator Roddy?
the lower the temperature the slower the hatch
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Yes potentially that could be the problem :/ it's the best incubator I could get here but it's nothing like the ones in the uk! It's a wooden box, very 70's TV style haha