Early February 2016 Hatch - Who's In?

[CoopDeDoo]

Hello,

I will be setting LF Cochin and LF Sal Favs next week for a 2/5/16 hatch date (give or take). Eggs arrive mid-week (hopefully) and I hope to set them on Friday 1/15/16.

Who wants to join the fun??

Lori

 

[TurkenMomma]

Am I sensing someone is getting more eggs???

Perhaps.... I am sensing a need for a "chicken" checking account so my DH doesn't know what I'm spending on poultry!!!

 

[LilChickens2]

I set them 14 days ago today. Humidity stays between 45-50 usually

The air cells do look a little small so I would drop humidity a bit and check in a day or two to see if that helped.

 

[NTBugtraq]

I have a few questions about candling. First of all i wasn't planning on candling till day ten, then I decided day seven, then I bought a (really crappy) candler today and it's instructions said start on day four and since that's what I'm at and I'm such a meddler, I took it as a sign that I should do it today! (I set them Sunday morning so that's day four right? Or five?)
With that said, these are buff Orpington eggs so, brown but pretty light. This candler isn't even as bright as my phones flashlight though so I can barely see anything.
Eight looked either totally clear or I could see a small dark spot about the size of a nickel which appeared to be a yolk but only if I really looked for it. I turned the eggs fat side down tryin to see if I could see any better and still couldn't and then I realized I had no idea if that is a no-no, to turn them upside down or not?!
The other 16 eggs had an obvious dark shadow all the way around the top 1/3 to 1/2 and then were light or see through on the bottom half. The very lightest egg I have I could actually see veins but all the others I could only see the dark shadow.
I don't know what to make of the fact that most of them were dark all the way around the top, I couldn't see an air cell, are those ones still viable, are they dead? There wasn't a darker ring like a blood ring, it was just shadowy on top and not shadowy on the bottom. Are the ones that were clear save for a small dark spot dead, or developing properly, or ??? if they were alive, did I kill them by turning them upside down?

IMO, there are two things you are looking for when candling.

1. Is the egg completely clear? My eggs are darker, not full Black Copper Maran dark brown, but still dark. This makes it hard to candle, but when they are infertile the light makes the entire egg glow and there is no sign of any darker area. Those I know are infertile because I have checked every one that I thought were infertile.
2. Is there a line around the air sac? When an egg dies while developing (say before day 12 or so), the blood from the developing embryo floats to the top (air sac end, fat end) of the egg making the line. These are the eggs that might explode, so you definitely want them out of your bator.

As for turning eggs, as long as you aren't doing it violently, turning will not harm them. Whether you turn end over end or just turn them around, its all good. Fact is, if you put an egg down with space around it, it will naturally roll to its right position as the air sac area has no weight to it. If you are setting eggs on an angle (as you would in an egg turner or carton), always set the fat end up.

As far as porosity goes, the problem with porous eggs is that they loose too much moisture compared to non-porous eggs. If you were to weigh a porous and non-porous daily, you'd see the weight gap increasing. That makes it hard to control humidity. Humidity makes moisture come out of the egg, which causes the air sac to increase with the air that is displacing the lost moisture. The sac needs to have enough air to allow the chick to breath after its done its internal pip (breaking a hole into the air sac before it breaks a hole in the shell). When you lower the humidity, more moisture leaves the egg, higher humidity, less moisture. When you have porous and non-porous together, the humidity will affect each differently. But FWIW, both could hatch perfectly fine, if hatched separately.

If most of your eggs are porous, don't set non-porous eggs with them.

There are lots of "egg incubation charts" on the web, just google that term. The first thing to develop is the eye, around day 5, which will appear as a small dark spot. So candling too early doesn't show you anything really.

Patience is the hardest part of incubating, so have fun watching...;-]

 

[CoopDeDoo]

FYI, they can't jump or otherwise get up 12" in the first 3 weeks. Now if they have things 3" tall they can get to they will go higher...but do think about how boring it is to see nothing but Rubbermaid walls...so I'd suggest you cut some holes in the side nearer the bottom so they can look out on the world around them. I would say that chickens are amongst the most curious mammals in the world. They need stimuli, they will do things to create stimuli, and they are way happier when they are being stimulated. The more they have seen beyond their boundaries, the more interested they will be in being picked up and brought out of their boundaries.

It's a clear rubbermaid and I have cats so the top is more for cat proofing in the event that the cats get past us and into the room. I've used it before so I know the chicks can see through the container - maybe not really well like glass but they can see us and we can see them

we call it chick television.

 

[CoopDeDoo]

Yes, it looks like that! Yahoo! I saw lots of pics of other people eggs in bators with a real hole in the shell, so I was worried.

Thank you so much for replying to me ambe0487!! I'm relieved. (For now at least

)

Yay! Our first pip of this HAL

 

[NTBugtraq]

I cannot wait for babies! I've been lurking on the late January hatch page just so I can see some... I candled my eggs this morning and I have no clue anymore. I've got some wonky air cells but I don't feel they (the eggs themselves) are dark enough for being this late in the game. Mine should start on Wednesday if either one of them survive.

Well, let me try and give you a fix.

My now up to 4 day olds, outside in my unheated greenhouse in freezing weather, happy as, well, chicks...





They pop out from under the brooder plates and run around, eat, drink, and just have fun. Some mornings their mostly under the left one, then the right one, but never all under just one. There's 45 in all in there now, all doing great.

 

[CoopDeDoo]

Quote:
I do use medicated feed - I have had fecals done and we have cocci pretty extreme here in our wet winters/spring - have had to treat grown birds for it as well. I do not vaccinate though. Pros/Cons to each strategy - I do let anyone who is buying my birds know they are not vaccinated.

 

[LilChickens2]

Day 21 starts around 3:00 for my tonight. No more wiggling. No pips. No chirps. I filled both water pots up (Brinsea mini) and yesterday my humidity was sitting at about 65%. This morning its 60%.... should I add a small medicine cup with a small amount of water? A wet paper towel?

I am in no way an expert, but I've read that 60-65% is ok (and I've also read elsewhere that 65-70% is ok too)...I would leave it for now, if you can. If it starts dropping more, then I would consider adding a little, such as a small amount of water, as you suggested, in a small medicine cup. Mine was initially reading too high, so I took ALL the water out. A day later, too low (40%!) so I added a cut square cube of a wet sponge and added it in a small dish I had hanging about. Now it stays at 64% in my incubator.

 

[NTBugtraq]

Question do you start counting day 1 24 hours after you set or the day you put them in?

That's what I do, I have Day 0 which is the first 24 hours.