Mahonri's 3rd Annual, BYC Easter Hatch-a-long! - Page 1042

I have hatched thousands of chicks, and I learned alot by opening up the unhatched eggs after the hatch. I also learned alot by reading this: Hatchability Problem Analysis.   I am also still learning.

Originally Posted by ChooksChick 

I need to sell pretty much everybody else late this summer.  Unfortunately, despite MONTHS of adjustments to try and quelch this, someone in my coop - or several someones - is feather-picking.  They have a huge amount of space, free range 4+ hours a day, and eat a ton of high-protein and fiber stuff, but the habit remains.  So, 4 girls are missing beards and my rooster is missing neck feathers.  They look terrible and it is very embarrassing.  I trimmed the very tip of one guilty hen's beak, tried separations, and so on.  I don't want to use pinless peepers.  Has anyone made a foul-tasting goo to smear on the picked parts?  Any other ideas?

It's fairly common for these birds- it's different from feather-picking, and is some form of grooming ritual. I didn't get it fixed until I made 10" individual roosts all over my coop. They do it at bedtime. I didn't make those roost for that reason, but it was what clued me in. I ignore the de-bearding now.

It's reassuring that it is not just me, but they look so pathetic, I think people will think they are unhealthy.  My birds are spoiled rotten (cabbage, mealworms, UltraKibble, organic soy-free feed, scratch, range.... They are shiny, robust, lay well - but I am sure people would think they have parasites or are overcroweded or something.  This picture is even a bit old - the Silver Am girls are now picked down clear to their chest.
 

ETA: But these two make cute babies!

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spangled 

I tried everything as you have.  They just ate any goo I put on like it was frosting.  What finally worked was feeder of free choice oats with the hulls still on plus one or two other grains all together in an additional feeder.  They will self regulate how much they eat and egg production went back to normal after a week or two.  PLUS I put aprons on them.  For us aprons are a must at first sign of trouble.

I'll try the oats!  It's worth a shot.
 

That was the first thing I looked for, but, nope, they don't have anything I can see in their feathers, under the roosts, or in the nest boxes.

In other news, my German New Hampshire eggs arrived!
 

So, the eggs in my hovabator is chirping and rocking like crazy.  The 4 or 5 heatspikes to 107-110 and the dips to 91-96 didn't kill them after all!  Waiting on a pip though because they were chirping and rocking like crazy last night and nothing so far.  Soooo...any advice for my serama singleton?  Brood with polish or try to raise it hands on by itself?

good day!  The chicks were a big hit yesterday with my sil.  She almost took some home with her!  Wouldn't be surprised if they claim a few soon, after they set up an in town chicken pen.  It is almost legal there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spangled 

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChestnutRidge Unfortunately, despite MONTHS of adjustments to try and quelch this, someone in my coop - or several someones - is feather-picking.  They have a huge amount of space, free range 4+ hours a day, and eat a ton of high-protein and fiber stuff, but the habit remains.  So, 4 girls are missing beards and my rooster is missing neck feathers.  They look terrible and it is very embarrassing.  I trimmed the very tip of one guilty hen's beak, tried separations, and so on.  I don't want to use pinless peepers.  Has anyone made a foul-tasting goo to smear on the picked parts?  Any other ideas?

 

 

 

I tried everything as you have.  They just ate any goo I put on like it was frosting.  What finally worked was feeder of free choice oats with the hulls still on plus one or two other grains all together in an additional feeder.  They will self regulate how much they eat and egg production went back to normal after a week or two.  PLUS I put aprons on them.  For us aprons are a must at first sign of trouble.

 

Have you looked them over for external parasites, like mites and lice?? 
 

 Soooo...any advice for my serama singleton?  Brood with polish or try to raise it hands on by itself?

Final count.  25 hatched out of 31 total set. All doing well. The last chick dried like it was smeared with school glue, gave it a bath in warm water and it's managing among the older siblings.

I will wait another day for the last two. 

I had good results in the Genesis at 35% humidity for the first 18 days. The new Genesis runs low for Humidity readings. If you have the digital type and the display says 50%, It might be as high as 70%. It read 65% at lockdown but may have been too low. It actually went down to 59% on the display before the last two hatched at 24 hours after the first one hatched. They were not too wet

So I need to find out what the humidity really is in mine.  I really don't have room in there for the thing to read it.  It is big and the turner is an old LG turner.  My sister in laws.  I will try to see what I can do with that. 

With all that said, the best way to tell if things are going well is to watch the air cell. If it is not getting to the correct size for the day of incubation you need to adjust humidity up or down. Another way is to weigh the eggs and match the percent of weight loss  again at the days of hatch. My Brinsea high intensity candler came with a picture of an egg with the size and days. The first day was day 7, then 14 and then 18.

I have a cheapo candler that doesn't go through a lot of the eggs.  Although I can usually see the air sacks. I will check them too. 

With the uneven hatch from one side to the other I would suspect temperature un evenness in the incubator. You won't have problems with this with the Genesis.

I am sure glad of that.  That is one of the reasons I got it.  My son was a little bummed because he help build it and though it was soo neat that we could build one.   And in all fairness it could be because of the roo not liking the hens we gave him.  He is very selective.  He has over 30 to pick from when he is with them all.  I got two roos from him in my hatch before this one and I think I will keep them too.  Too many hens for one roo.

Tip: remove the plug and leave it out. Let the temperature go down at lock down. It can go as low as 97.5 then. I am keeping mine at 98.5. Important: I am not talking about the digital display. I am getting the temp from a Brinsea spot check at egg level. The new style Genesis is set at 101.8 to maintain that temp at egg level.

It dawned on me two days ago that the plug was still in and took it out of the genesis.  My Genesis says it is set at 100.0 and internally runs 100.3.  I just checked a lot of the air sacks And they look pretty much on for day 9.  I put the thermometer and humidity checker in there for a while to see what it says.

I hope this helps,

Ron
It does help a lot Thanks so much. Micki in Idaho

Kim can you see the two that came out at all?  If they look normal and not sticky, I would leave your humidity alone.  As more hatch the humidity is going to go up anyway.  Good Luck!!!!!!   So glad to hear that you are getting some chicks out of this hatch.