Needless to say, not 1 egg made it.
The seller gave me a discount for my next dozen, but even at a discount $120 [shipping not included] I ended up with 3 babies, who thankfully, are all looking like hens.
Lucky for me, my 3rd batch only came from SOMD [Southern Maryland, where my parents live] I think that the shorter travel time really helped me out.
I've managed to hatch 7 out of 12. One pipped on the wrong end and needed a little help and the next 5 popped right out, ready to meet the world.
Chick #7, who I've already named Sweetie [<--- I can't help but be original!] was a mess, she didn't even pip and airhole in the egg until almost 18 hours after her sisters and brothers were born. I went to bed last night thinking that she'd be hatched and fluffy by morning.
I get really nervous anytime I have to assist a hatch. My second batch of EOs, I assisted egg #4 and it turned out that the reason he couldn't get out of the egg was because both feet were badly deformed. He couldn't walk, and thankfully, my saint of a husband was able to cull him while I was out of the house. I hate having to cull a chick. It seems incredibly unfair and unjust for someone or something to create such a helpless form of life and then let it be born with no means to survive outside of the egg.
I thought that I had learned a hard lesson with that hatch, and vowed that I would never hatch another egg, that if it didn't hatch on it's own, there was a reason for it.
But I digress.
Chick #7 I couldn't wait any longer to decide on, it had been over 72 hours and if she didn't get out soon, she was not going to have the strength to get out later. I worked on her egg for 10 minutes every hour, wrapping her in a warm damp papertowel to keep the inner membrane from drying out and "shrink wrapping" her into the egg [this is a common problem for incubators with humidity issues...the inner membrane dries out and shrinks to entomb the chick so that they can't move to get out of the egg. Without intervention, the chick won't make it on their own]
Shrink wrapping didn't seem to be the problem with this egg, she was just tired from all the struggling to get out.
I removed sections on the shell and outer membrane small sections at a time, she was so tired she barely chirped at me...I don't care if she chirps, as long as she keeps breathing. I had to take my time and the inner membrane is full of blood vessels and veins that the chick absorbs shortly before hatching, and if you knick one, the chick can very well bleed to death. For a while there it didn't seem like she was absorbing the blood and it had me worried that I was going to lose her, so I kept working on the outer membrane and shell, talking to her and telling her that she had to hatch, that she was a pretty little splash and that if she helped me out, I'd let her in the garden for grubs (when she's older)
I had 40% of the outer shell and membrane removed by noon today, she had absorbed most of the blood so I peeled the inner membrane off of her face, hoping that if she could get her eyes opened, she'd be more willing to do some work.
I put her [pretty much completely hatched] back in the incubator and took a break to go clip my friend's chicken's wings [I'm not a huge fan of wing trimming as it does take away a large portion of their natural defense from predators...but when you live close enough to neighbors that you'd rather not piss off by having your chickens fly in and out of their yard on an hourly basis, you're not left many other choices]
When I came home, she was out and moving around the incubator. I'm just waiting for her to fluff up and dry so she can meet her other sisters [and hopefully a brother or two]
In the meantime, here are some pictures of the other 6 fluffy babies...pretty much the sweetest little balls of fluff imaginable.
