Hatching at high altitude

[Turkeyraiser]

This is my first post, so here goes...

We raise Narragansett turkeys at 5,700 feet altitude. We started incubating several years ago, with some older Kuhl units I bought used. We recently purchased a Grumbach digital unit.

Our most recent attempt was with a small batch of 14 eggs from our breeder flock.

Day 1 thru 25 = 38.3c and 40% humidity. Weight loss was calculated at 13% by day 25. When the eggs went into hatch mode, we cut the temp to 37.0c and raised humidity to 75%.;

RESULTS:
5 good poults.
1 partially pipped, dead in shell, poult was too large for shell.
2 infertile
6 developed poults, dead in shell with excess liquid and yolk sacks not absorbed into belly.

Next batch goes in tomorrow. Looking to cut temperature to 37.5c and humidity down to 35%. and increasing weight loss to 15%

 

[Mtn Margie]

Hey there, I hope this next hatch goes well!

 

[bumpercarr]

This is my first post, so here goes...

We raise Narragansett turkeys at 5,700 feet altitude. We started incubating several years ago, with some older Kuhl units I bought used. We recently purchased a Grumbach digital unit.

Our most recent attempt was with a small batch of 14 eggs from our breeder flock.

Day 1 thru 25 = 38.3c and 40% humidity. Weight loss was calculated at 13% by day 25. When the eggs went into hatch mode, we cut the temp to 37.0c and raised humidity to 75%.;

RESULTS:
5 good poults.
1 partially pipped, dead in shell, poult was too large for shell.
2 infertile
6 developed poults, dead in shell with excess liquid and yolk sacks not absorbed into belly.

Next batch goes in tomorrow. Looking to cut temperature to 37.5c and humidity down to 35%. and increasing weight loss to 15%

I don't hatch turkeys, but I was wondering why did you cut the temperature at lock down? Is that a turkey thing or an altitude thing?

My hatches this year didn't go well with shipped eggs from sea level, but was spectacular with my own eggs. One set of shipped eggs I wonder if they were fertile at all, never saw any development on all but two, two died at day 18. The second set it looked like I was going to have a spectacular hatch and then the power went out for 18 hours during lock down. Four actually hatched, but died within a day of hatching. I am pretty sure that it was because the power went out....not necessarily the change in temp so much as the lack of circulation which caused the humidity to drop to about 35%. For both hatches (as well as my own eggs) I kept the temp at 99.5F and the humidity at 61% throughout the entire incubation.

Anyway, that was my experience this year. It is doubtful that I will be spending any time hatching shipped eggs next year unless I'm doing it for someone else. I have my breeding stock right now and will be using those eggs exclusively for a year or two.

 

[Jharvey]

Hi everyone
My first batch of shipped eggs are arriving this week. What are the best methods to get a a good hatch rate?? The eggs are coming from AZ at about 1200 ft and I'm at 5300 ft. Iam using a rcom king suro incubator. Thanks

 

[Mtn Margie]

Try this link...https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1037110/incubating-shipped-eggs

http://backyardchickens.yuku.com/topic/1604/t/hatching-egg-care-guide.html#.VossOlmLjiE
It will get you started.

too.
I do know that you need to let them rest and check for detached air sacs.

 

[WVMHP]

So happy to find this thread! I'm also in Colorado but up around 9,200 feet. I've had abysmal hatch rates the past 3 years no matter what I've tried. I recently found a couple of helpful studies/articles on the topic:

https://ucanr.edu/repositoryfiles/ca1311p8-64807.pdf
This is an old article, but I found it informative. In 1953 UC Davis performed a study of the adaptation of chickens at 10,000' altitude. The adult chickens adapted well. However, at 10,000' their hatch rate was a mere 3% for eggs from the parent stock and 9% for their 2nd generation stock compared to the control group at sea level which had a hatch rate of 60%. Thinking was if you bred the survivor hatchlings for several generations, you should get some adaptation to the high altitude.
A second study group at 12,500' experienced 84% chick mortality within the first year. A full 39% died during brooding. Study determined that high altitudes are detrimental because the decreased atmospheric pressure results in an oxygen deficiency, which affects all parts of the animals body. Chicks die of chronic heart insufficiency. Basically their hearts cannot pump enough oxygen to adequately supply the body.
I think I need to be working on breeding successive generations of survivor hatchlings to produce some altitude-adapted birds!

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/2908/incubating-eggs-at-high-altitudes/
Incubating Eggs at High Altitudes - great article explaining the challenges of hatching chicken eggs at higher altitudes and how to overcome them. Up to 4,921 feet altitude, only slight losses in hatchability should be experienced, especially if egg weight losses are carefully controlled during incubation. Above 4,921 feet, losses in hatchability have to be expected. Figure 1 in the article shows a very steep decrease in hatch rate beginning above 7,000ft. "The main problems facing chicken embryos when incubated at high altitudes are a reduced oxygen supply and dehydration." At 9,842' the incubator humidity needs to be set at 65% while still providing adequate ventilation. That's incredibly difficult to do at this altitude when our relative humidity is only around 7%. The article maintains that obtaining your hatching eggs from the same (or higher) altitude than you will be incubating is helpful due to the lower porosity of the egg shells. Eggs laid at a higher altitude have less porous shells which allows for lower humidity and more ventilation during incubation.

If anyone out there has lots of experience or success at this altitude, please share your secrets.

 

[Mtn Margie]

I probably have a 30 to 50 % hatch rate with eggs laid here, not doing anything special. I now have about three generations of adapting to this altitude.

 

[R2elk]

So happy to find this thread! I'm also in Colorado but up around 9,200 feet. I've had abysmal hatch rates the past 3 years no matter what I've tried. I recently found a couple of helpful studies/articles on the topic:

https://ucanr.edu/repositoryfiles/ca1311p8-64807.pdf
This is an old article, but I found it informative. In 1953 UC Davis performed a study of the adaptation of chickens at 10,000' altitude. The adult chickens adapted well. However, at 10,000' their hatch rate was a mere 3% for eggs from the parent stock and 9% for their 2nd generation stock compared to the control group at sea level which had a hatch rate of 60%. Thinking was if you bred the survivor hatchlings for several generations, you should get some adaptation to the high altitude.
A second study group at 12,500' experienced 84% chick mortality within the first year. A full 39% died during brooding. Study determined that high altitudes are detrimental because the decreased atmospheric pressure results in an oxygen deficiency, which affects all parts of the animals body. Chicks die of chronic heart insufficiency. Basically their hearts cannot pump enough oxygen to adequately supply the body.
I think I need to be working on breeding successive generations of survivor hatchlings to produce some altitude-adapted birds!

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/2908/incubating-eggs-at-high-altitudes/
Incubating Eggs at High Altitudes - great article explaining the challenges of hatching chicken eggs at higher altitudes and how to overcome them. Up to 4,921 feet altitude, only slight losses in hatchability should be experienced, especially if egg weight losses are carefully controlled during incubation. Above 4,921 feet, losses in hatchability have to be expected. Figure 1 in the article shows a very steep decrease in hatch rate beginning above 7,000ft. "The main problems facing chicken embryos when incubated at high altitudes are a reduced oxygen supply and dehydration." At 9,842' the incubator humidity needs to be set at 65% while still providing adequate ventilation. That's incredibly difficult to do at this altitude when our relative humidity is only around 7%. The article maintains that obtaining your hatching eggs from the same (or higher) altitude than you will be incubating is helpful due to the lower porosity of the egg shells. Eggs laid at a higher altitude have less porous shells which allows for lower humidity and more ventilation during incubation.

If anyone out there has lots of experience or success at this altitude, please share your secrets.

I have had up to 100% hatch from eggs produced by my own poultry at a mile high altitude.

 

[BDRanch]

Conversely, eggs laid at high altitude and shipped to lower altitude. Should "low landers" adjust incubator RH or temp? I live at 8600' and have started shipping eggs to sea level folks.

 

[bumpercarr]

Quote:
In my experience, no. Only adjust from low going to high.