2014 breeding season begins, post your results

[zazouse]

I'm starting to feel like I'm still in Calif 3 earthquakes in 30 min!!

Well at least ya don't have to worry about a tsunami

 

[DylansMom]

Hatch #3,

we got 5 out of 8. 1 IB from my eggs, 2 Bronze, 1 Bronze w/ white flights, and 1 BS that might be IBBS or Bronze BS. My 2 eggs from Kathy in CA didn't hatch.

One was a late quitter and the other was malpositioned and never made the int. pip, one of mine also didn't pip internally due to malpositioning.

 

[Yoda]

Have you been monitoring weight loss on the pea eggs? Note that I am a complete novice when it come to incubating anything, but I did learn a lot about hatchability in *my* very dry environment by weighing eggs when they were laid, set, day 7, day 14, day 21 and day 24.

-Kathy

Kathy I tried that last year and the ones I weighed each week didn't hatch at the end

so I need to know how you do this LOL? This interests me very much cause I had to weigh my Emu eggs each week and was wondering about the pea eggs so I weighed one incubator full of eggs. There was movement until the end

I am thinking they were out too long.

 

[KsKingBee]

I am so frustrated with hatching peas!!!
I have 95-100% hatch rate on my turkey but terrible on the peas. The eggs are gathered, stored, incubated all the same. I sold the first three weeks of pea eggs because we had a trip planned and were going to be gone for 2 weeks. Then I saved the next 2 weeks of eggs and started incubating. Then saved and set weekly. The first group I expected a lower hatch rate due to the age of eggs but I had 0 hatch from 18 eggs. The next set had 10 eggs, one infertile, one early quitter and the other 8 all looked like developing well. Candled again at lock down, could only see movement in 5, then only 2 hatched. I had 22 turkey eggs set at the same time. 1 infertile, one early quitter, and had 18 hatch. Can't figure out what is going on.
My incubator is a gqf sportsman cabinet only 1 year old, set at 99.5 and humidity running in lower 20s with no water in it and an auto turner. The hatcher is an older gqf hatcher that I run at 98.5-99 degrees and 70 humidity. These setting are off of the porter turkey website and have done great on my turkey eggs and was hoping to do well with the pea eggs but this is worse than last year.
I also incubate cortunix quail at the same time and they do well.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!'

I feel your pain.

My hatches have been horrible too. I don't think I have had better than 10% hatch rate so far this year, maybe lower.

Right now I am on day 29, I candled 20 eggs going into the hatcher, all alive, and I haven't seen a pip yet. I have the same new Sportsman you do, the eggs lay on their sides in the turner, I keep the humidity at 60%, I use a hatcher kept at 75% @ 99.5 degrees. This time I set the eggs in egg cartons in the hatcher just to try something different than what I have been doing. Everything else hatches out fine, I am at a loss too, sorry to hear that this is so prevalent this year for most of us.

On this hatch I even weighed the eggs going in and coming out of the incubator and had the normal 15% weight loss average.

However there may be a reason for most of my woes. I have been battling a bacterial infection in my peas this spring, it may very well be that the hens are stressed and that is affecting the hatch rate.

 

[KsKingBee]

Kathy I tried that last year and the ones I weighed each week didn't hatch at the end

so I need to know how you do this LOL? This interests me very much cause I had to weigh my Emu eggs each week and was wondering about the pea eggs so I weighed one incubator full of eggs. There was movement until the end

I am thinking they were out too long.

Good to see you back Yoda! I have been seeing movement in my eggs up to 31 days and not hatch. This is very concerning to me, it is as if the chicks just do not wake up.

 

[Yoda]

Good to see you back Yoda! I have been seeing movement in my eggs up to 31 days and not hatch. This is very concerning to me, it is as if the chicks just do not wake up.

I really never left LOL I just had other issues that needed me LOL. It only takes me about 2 seconds to candle the eggs and put them back but takes longer to weigh them so I want to know what I am doing wrong if Kathy's eggs do hatch for her. I have no eggs in my incubator yet cause I had goose eggs in them, but again I did the weight thing and no hatch but had life until the do date????? Gonna put eggs in tonight - boy there's a lot backed up LOL I am writing an article about how I incubate and hatch with a styrofoam incubator for the UPA so others who do not have a lot of money can get some hatches

 

[casportpony]

Hatch #3, we got 5 out of 8. 1 IB from my eggs, 2 Bronze, 1 Bronze w/ white flights, and 1 BS that might be IBBS or Bronze BS. My 2 eggs from Kathy in CA didn't hatch. One was a late quitter and the other was malpositioned and never made the int. pip, one of mine also didn't pip internally due to malpositioning.

Congrats on the healthy ones and condolences on the ones that didn't make it. -Kathy

 

[KsKingBee]

I really never left LOL I just had other issues that needed me LOL. It only takes me about 2 seconds to candle the eggs and put them back but takes longer to weigh them so I want to know what I am doing wrong if Kathy's eggs do hatch for her. I have no eggs in my incubator yet cause I had goose eggs in them, but again I did the weight thing and no hatch but had life until the do date????? Gonna put eggs in tonight - boy there's a lot backed up LOL I am writing an article about how I incubate and hatch with a styrofoam incubator for the UPA so others who do not have a lot of money can get some hatches

Yoda, I have a digital kitchen scale just like the one in Kathys pictures, it takes less time to weigh them than to candle.

 

[casportpony]

The eggs I weighed were under hens, so I'd just wait for them to go eat, then carefully pick up the eggs, weigh them, candle them and return them to the nest. Best hatches for me came from the eggs that lost no less than 16% of their weight from the date they were laid.

-Kathy

Note that I am a novice incubator and I am not suggesting that anyone do like I do, just sharing my 2014 incubation journey.

 

[DylansMom]

Congrats on the healthy ones and condolences on the ones that didn't make it.

-Kathy

Thanks. I'm really bummed, your late quitter was IB and the malpos. one was IB with a lot of white flights.

Scary part is, if I hadn't peeled out 4 of them, I would have ended up with 1 out of 8.