Setting 41 on 6-15, 7-8, 7-31, and 8-23 feel free to join in at any time

[RubyNala97]

Here we are on the morning of Day 23. I redid the float test and found one egg that had distinct movement. I took the shell off over the air cell for the others and put my finger on the chick's body, none moved. So, culled 12 that probably died on or near lockdown.

Turned my attention to the other one, and re-read Sally Sunshine's Guide to Assisting hatches...so I removed the shell slowly, leaving the external membrane intact...and found I could not see a beak...so I removed the external membrane and could quickly see the body of the chick moving with its heartbeat...   I wet the inner membrane but cannot see a beak, eye, wing, yolk sac, or anything distinguishable...

So for now I am sticking with Sally's advice, leave it be for 2 hours and check again.

So, assuming this last one survives, that gives me a 77% fertility rate and 54% hatch rate...

I know I didn't lockdown on Day 18, so the humidity was only at 45% on Day 19 (when I got 3 hatches and 4 other pips). I don't see how that could have killed so many eggs (arguably, 15 eggs were killed around that time). I did raise the humidity part way through Day 19, to 65%, and I also candled all the eggs that day...I have nearly 80 eggs ready to go into the two Brinseas...better luck next time.

Can you see the veining on the inner membrane? Be careful of the veins. If you can't see the beak and you cause any bleeding when try to open the inner membrane, it could easily drown on the blood. Doing an assist on a chick that hasn't at least internal pipped is tricky! Good luck! Fingers crossed for you!!

I don't think that delaying lockdown by a day would cause so many deaths...?

And did you get another Brinsea??

 

[NTBugtraq]

Just got back from my Certified Organic farmer friend with amazing hatches all over her house...she gave me 3 broiler guinea fowl chicks, and 2 broiler turkey chicks, all 2 days old. Put them in my brooder, dipped their beaks in the water, and all 3 guinea fowls immediately took a drink on their own...

Everybody who is in the brooder right now are doing great!!

The guy who is still in the bator has managed to get his beak up to the inner membrane, I can see it clearly now when I wet that membrane. I can still see blood in some veining, so I am just following orders and wetting it every couple of hours and waiting. Humidity is up ~80%. I hope I am doing this right...I am now waiting for him to pip the inner membrane, or, for it to be obvious there is no blood left in the membrane??

Meanwhile, I have been doing some reading. In a publication from the University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, titled "Common Incubation Problems: Causes and Remedies" , made me come up with a theory. Firstly, they recommend 99.5F during lockdown...and say that for every 1F above that you will advance the hatch by 24 hours...not in a good way. Given how many of mine hatched fully 2 days early, I clearly have that problem. I ran mine at 100.5F throughout the entire hatch. Also, having low humidity on Day 19 probably stressed the chicks also, especially with the higher temperature.

The paper mentions "poor nutrition of breeder flock", and while my girls don't free range, they do get lots of weeds regularly (every few days). However, I just read a lot more about "scratch" and have discovered it is not nutritionally complete. While I do give fermented whole oats and black oil sunflower seed, the bulk of the food has been scratch. I have gathered some 80 eggs for my next sets, so they are likely going to fail similarly (unless the problem is solely the temperature issue), but as of today I am mixing Layer in with the Scratch for my main flock.

Just shows to go that no matter how much research you think you've done, there's still more to do.

 

[WalnutHill]

Just got back from my Certified Organic farmer friend with amazing hatches all over her house...she gave me 3 broiler guinea fowl chicks, and 2 broiler turkey chicks, all 2 days old. Put them in my brooder, dipped their beaks in the water, and all 3 guinea fowls immediately took a drink on their own...

Everybody who is in the brooder right now are doing great!!

The guy who is still in the bator has managed to get his beak up to the inner membrane, I can see it clearly now when I wet that membrane. I can still see blood in some veining, so I am just following orders and wetting it every couple of hours and waiting. Humidity is up ~80%. I hope I am doing this right...I am now waiting for him to pip the inner membrane, or, for it to be obvious there is no blood left in the membrane??

Meanwhile, I have been doing some reading. In a publication from the University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, titled "Common Incubation Problems: Causes and Remedies" , made me come up with a theory. Firstly, they recommend 99.5F during lockdown...and say that for every 1F above that you will advance the hatch by 24 hours...not in a good way. Given how many of mine hatched fully 2 days early, I clearly have that problem. I ran mine at 100.5F throughout the entire hatch. Also, having low humidity on Day 19 probably stressed the chicks also, especially with the higher temperature.

The paper mentions "poor nutrition of breeder flock", and while my girls don't free range, they do get lots of weeds regularly (every few days). However, I just read a lot more about "scratch" and have discovered it is not nutritionally complete. While I do give fermented whole oats and black oil sunflower seed, the bulk of the food has been scratch. I have gathered some 80 eggs for my next sets, so they are likely going to fail similarly (unless the problem is solely the temperature issue), but as of today I am mixing Layer in with the Scratch for my main flock.

Just shows to go that no matter how much research you think you've done, there's still more to do.

Scratch is junk food. I am constantly on my husband to quit feeding them chicken crack. He thinks it is a money saver, but in reality, cheap food with low nutritional value costs far more in the long run.

Many producers also make a "gamebird breeder" which can be used as a supplement to the layer and scratch to add trace minerals, amino acids, and vitamins necessary for good viability. If the hen lacks nutrition, the yolks will as well.

 

[NTBugtraq]

Scratch is junk food. I am constantly on my husband to quit feeding them chicken crack. He thinks it is a money saver, but in reality, cheap food with low nutritional value costs far more in the long run.

Many producers also make a "gamebird breeder" which can be used as a supplement to the layer and scratch to add trace minerals, amino acids, and vitamins necessary for good viability. If the hen lacks nutrition, the yolks will as well.

Here, scratch is only $2/25Kg cheaper than layer mash, so its not about the cost in my mind. I got 12 3 yr-old hens given to me, and when I introduced them to my less than 1 yr-old hens, I noticed right away...mine were nearly twice the size of hers. I put that down to the fact I fed them grower to 16 weeks, then layer after that...and I was free feeding. Their lack of things to do seemed to lead them to just eat...and so they got huge.

So it looks like I need to come up with a new combination of feeds, possibly even reverting to almost entirely Layer.

 

[NTBugtraq]

Can you see the veining on the inner membrane? Be careful of the veins. If you can't see the beak and you cause any bleeding when try to open the inner membrane, it could easily drown on the blood. Doing an assist on a chick that hasn't at least internal pipped is tricky! Good luck! Fingers crossed for you!!

I don't think that delaying lockdown by a day would cause so many deaths...?

And did you get another Brinsea??

My friend is still hatching her queen bee in her brinsea...;-] So I will get it later this weekend or early next week.

 

[NTBugtraq]

Well, she's an air breather now, beak moving like all get out. BTW, the blood is from an earlier attempt to find the beak.

 

[RubyNala97]

How's the assisting going with the chick??

 

[NTBugtraq]

How's the assisting going with the chick??

I have removed all of the membrane from above the chick. About 2 hours ago I removed a small piece of membrane from the edge and there was a little bleeding, so the chick has definitely not absorbed its sac. It is still breathing, and moving its beak. I fed it a bit of water via a syringe, and it drank, and actually opened its beak again when it was done swallowing...so I have no idea why this one is so late. The egg was 6 days old when it went into the bator, younger than some that have hatched, older than some who failed...go figure.

I get my 2nd bator tomorrow, and plan to run them both for 2 days with a solution which kills all bacteria (friend is bring it with the bator). I'll get a name for it then. You put it in the wells in the bator with some water and it creates a "mist" that gets into everything that can come in contact with moist air, fans, motors, etc...she says run the bator for 2 days and it will sterilize everything.

My oldest eggs for my next sets are 15 days today, so I want to get them in there soon.

 

[NTBugtraq]

I read, somewhere which I cannot find atm, that for each day an egg is older, there's an effect in the hatch time. The gist was; "if you are setting eggs that are of different ages, stagger putting them into the incubator with the youngest eggs going in last". Can anyone remember where I might have seen that?

 

[WVduckchick]

I read, somewhere which I cannot find atm, that for each day an egg is older, there's an effect in the hatch time. The gist was; "if you are setting eggs that are of different ages, stagger putting them into the incubator with the youngest eggs going in last". Can anyone remember where I might have seen that?

I believe I saw Walnut post a theory on that, but I don't remember seeing it otherwise. I'm sure she will let you know.