1st time hatch question

[Storybook Farm]

Here's my thoughts:

I hatch all my hatches now laying on their sides and hand turning. I started off using a turner and switched and have better hatch rates hand turning. I also stop turning my eggs at the end of day 13 so that when at day 14/15 they start turning toward the big end of the egg, the egg is at rest. I didn't have a single pointy end malpositioned pipper in the last hatch. I was talking to someone who was having high occurances of malepositioned chicks and I explained that I stop turning at the end of day 13 and my theories behind it and he tried it. He said there was a significant decrease in the amount of malepositioned chicks that he was seeing.

I am SO intrigued by this idea. I had read to not candle eggs between days 11-14, because you can disrupt blood vessels, etc., by unintentional rough handling, but this that you do (stopping turning on day13) also makes total sense to me, if that's the window in which they turn.

Why do you think that hand-turning is better? (My incubator does have horizontal placement in turning trays...) How many times/day do you turn? Do you turn at nights?

On what days do you candle, considering the desire for the egg to be at rest on 14/15. Also... can you clarify how you count days? If I set eggs on a Sunday afternoon, for instance, is Monday afternoon the mark of Day 1? And if so, that would mean that you'd look for eggs to start hatching on the Sunday (21 days) at around 2 PM? (I know it's not that precise, but for numbering... is hatch day Sunday or Monday in this scenario?)

 

[Storybook Farm]

While I have you, I have another question. I'm purchasing 14 eggs, shipped. My 'bator holds a max of 27; in the last hatch, I set 25 and 22 went into lockdown. When the chicks started coming, it really did seem crowded in there, and the eggs that weren't hatching got bashed around like bowling balls. But, I've also read that 'bators with more eggs are more stable. I can easily fill in eggs from my hens with the purchased ones... should I?

Here's a picture of my last hatch full loaded:


And below are 11 peepers bashing around with 11 eggs yet to hatch. While there is white space there, I had several eggshells slipping over the ends of unhatched eggs, and it got very dirty and humid in there...


I dunno. My desire is to just set the 14 eggs, but not if it would be better/easier with more... Thoughts, anyone?

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I wish I knew you were looking for humidity guides! I use this method: http://letsraisechickens.weebly.com...anuals-understanding-and-controlling-humidity I swear by this method. Usually with local or my own eggs, I run at 30% for the first 17 days. If my bator will stay above 25% dry-with no water, I don't add water. I just candle to make sure the air cells are growing at the right speed. If my bator doesn't (which is usually only during fall and winter when the humdity is low and we are running the pellet stove, then it's about 16% dry,) I add a wet sponge to the bator and it usually holds it right around the 30% that I am most comfortable with. When the humidity starts going down, I just rewet my sponge.

At day 18 I go high for hatch because I am a obssesive meddler...lol I use 75% because I open my bator repeatedly during hatch. I remover my chicks, shells and roll over my pippers that have been kicked around.

For the shipped eggs my plan is keeping it at 40-45% for the first 2-4 days depending on the air cells. They are only coming from 6 hours away so I am hoping they aren't too jostled. Once I know the air cells are stable it'll depend on the size of the air cells and what my bator is going to hold dry. Being we'll be into spring I am anticipating that running dry will get me right around the 30% so I'll probably just drop down to that and not add water unless I see too rapid air cell growth.

I don't turn at all after day 13. I do candle, cause on top of everything else, I am a candling addict...lol So once a night I will spot check 4-5 eggs by candling, but no turning.

I don't think it makes much of a difference as to whether you hatch out upright or laying down. I prefer laying down, to me it's more natural, but many people hatch upright with the same success.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

While I have you, I have another question. I'm purchasing 14 eggs, shipped. My 'bator holds a max of 27; in the last hatch, I set 25 and 22 went into lockdown. When the chicks started coming, it really did seem crowded in there, and the eggs that weren't hatching got bashed around like bowling balls. But, I've also read that 'bators with more eggs are more stable. I can easily fill in eggs from my hens with the purchased ones... should I?

Here's a picture of my last hatch full loaded:


And below are 11 peepers bashing around with 11 eggs yet to hatch. While there is white space there, I had several eggshells slipping over the ends of unhatched eggs, and it got very dirty and humid in there...


I dunno. My desire is to just set the 14 eggs, but not if it would be better/easier with more... Thoughts, anyone?

I think the reason it's "more stable" is the mass is more evenly distributed. I found out through accident how important this is. I have the LG9200 and the heating element runs along the top in a rounded squarish shape. During one of my hatches I noticed (because I use 3 thermometers in my bator) that one side was running hotter than the other. I thought there was a problem with my element. So I moved all my eggs to the cooler side to be safe....then the other side went up even more. I realized that with nothing there to absorb the heat it was getting hotter. So I reorganized and tried to equal out the mass between the sides. Once I had an equal amount on each side it stabilized and ran steady for the remainder of the hatch. So I think as long as you balance the proportions of eggs you'll get decent stability whether you do a full bator or less.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I love the fact you can see all the action in that bator.

 

[rbailey]

Congrats on the hatchers. Sorry about the others. Never trust the bator readouts, unless they have been checked against a known accurate thermometer. Never trust a thermometer that hasn't been checked either...even brand new. If they were early, yes that points to slightly higher temps. Most likely your individual thermometer was closer to accurate.
Good luck on the shipped eggs.

Feather sexing can not be done on all chicks. You must have a fast feathering parent crossed with a slow feathering parent in order to determine sex from feather sexing.  As for head spots that is particular to certain pure breed chicks.

Thanks....mom is barred rock and dad is black copper maran....I looked to see if I could tell by looking for the "bump" but didn't see one or didn't do it right....guess I'll see in 3 or 4 months lol.

 

[Storybook Farm]

At day 18 I go high for hatch because I am a obssesive meddler...lol I use 75% because I open my bator repeatedly during hatch. I remover my chicks, shells and roll over my pippers that have been kicked around.


Okay, so, when you advised me to take my chicks out in this last hatch, I did so, but my bator did NOT recover its humidity. I never could get it back up past 55%. So, I'm probably going to keep as hands-off as I can. Hoping that the hatch will happen in a 24-hour period, as it did with this last hatch. You use styrofoam 'bators, I see, so got any tricks for me to keep my humidity up? (I already had to use all the channels in the 'bator and add soaked felt to get it up over 70% at lockdown.)


I don't turn at all after day 13. I do candle, cause on top of everything else, I am a candling addict...lol So once a night I will spot check 4-5 eggs by candling, but no turning.

You candle EVERY NIGHT? Or did you mean to say, ONE night in that time frame?

I don't think it makes much of a difference as to whether you hatch out upright or laying down. I prefer laying down, to me it's more natural, but many people hatch upright with the same success.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I use wet sponges in my bator. Works great for me. Some people also use a spray bottle and mist the inside of the bator if they open. My bator recovers very well.

Yes, I candle every night. LOL generally I don't candle all the eggs every night. I spot check 4-5 different eggs on a nightly basis. One reason because I just can't stand not knowing what's going on. The other reason, I keep track of growth and air cells. Even with the fan I have hot and cold areas in my incubator. So if I get an egg that looks like it's not developing as fast as the others I'll move that to one of the warmer areas. If I have one that looks more excelerated, I'll move it out to a cooler area.

My last hatch last year I decided I was sick of seeing people scold people for candling and making people afraid to see something as awesome as development. I have awesome hatches and I candle. So I decided to do a test group of eggs. It was my first pullet hatch with my own eggs. I collected 21 and marked 6 eggs as my every night candlers. The others were to be candled on days 7/14/18. (I added a extra day in there somewhere so they ended up getting 4 candling days.)

About 4-5 days in I noticed one of the not candled eggs had an oily sheen to it so I candled and found that it was an early quitter and tossed that one. It left me with an equal 20. I candled those 6 eggs every single night. (They were probably cursing at me too.) I quit turning at the end of day 13, but continued to candle those 6 eggs every night up to the night of day 18. I did my "last" candle and marked air cells on all the eggs. I had 20 eggs going into lockdown that all looked great. Had my first hatcher day 19 and most of them hatched between day 19/20 (my bator runs warm, hard to control temps to the exact degree.) I had three that just had to wait until day 21 to pop out. All 20 of them hatched healthy, not a single problem, not a single post hatch death.

So I managed to show that yes, you can use pullet eggs. (The hens had only been laying between 4-6 weeks.) And that candling is not going to kill your eggs, (unless your hands are filthy dirty when you touch them or you drop them.) Yes, it's only one trial run, but I find it significant ammo against those who are certain you can't do these things. Of course I buck the system with not being hands off so a lot of hatchers don't like me...lmao My motto is "If it's working for you and your eggs, don't worry about what other's say or do. Find what works for you and use it." There are soooo many different philosophies and it doesn't make anyone right or wrong to do it the way that works for them. Obviously if you aren't getting the results you want you try something else, but I have a hard time with the "never do s" and the "no matter whats".

 

[Storybook Farm]

I wish I knew you were looking for humidity guides! I use this method: http://letsraisechickens.weebly.com...anuals-understanding-and-controlling-humidity I swear by this method.

Yeah, I gleaned all the info there about air cells from Sally Sunshine's Hatching 101 article (what a Godsend!) and practiced it. That's how I knew that I was off on the wrong foot, but by Day 6 when I first checked those cells, they had lost a significant amount from too-low humidity (as I explained earlier). Adding a couple of tbs. of water to my 'bator sends it up into the high 20s in my environment, but running dry it's at 12%. So, in this next hatch, I think I'll check the eggs more often, like on Day 4, after starting out between 35-40% and see how it goes.

Do you weigh as well as candle? It was the weights that let me know that, for sure, I needed more humidity in my first hatching experience.

 

[Storybook Farm]

I use wet sponges in my bator. Works great for me. Some people also use a spray bottle and mist the inside of the bator if they open. My bator recovers very well.

Do they mist the unhatched eggs themselves? I was wondering if that might close the pores and cut off oxygen from the hatching chicks...?

I could maybe mist the lid some...

Also, do you believe that the hatched chicks' peeping becomes a cheering section for unhatched eggs? If so, how does that square with removing chicks as they hatch?

(THANK YOU for all the great advice. I'm sure you've answered all this a ton of times. I am truly grateful!)