Silkie breeding, genetics & showing

[delisha]

I currently have chicks starting to hatch. My temp is 99 and the humidity is 60-62 I had a chick hatch out that was sticky which makes me wonder if there is a problem with the humidity. I really need these eggs to hatch. I hope someone here can advise me. I can remember reading once someone saying that silkies have to have a really high humidity. It just makes sense to me it the wet contents in the egg is sticky and not a nice liquid that there is not enough H or temp is too high?? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

not opening the lid at all. Almost impossible to do. Eager hands and excitement make it hard. The air exchange from opening the lid on a porous egg is not good. You rapidly change your humidity level. I had my best silkie hatch when I was gone for the weekend. They all hatched before I got home a day early.

I did an experiment since I can't hatch silkies for over years of trying.
I purchased two dozen silkie eggs from two different breeders. I placed 6 from each batch together. One batch I did not touch. No candling, nothing. I had an auto turner, put them in and did not open the lid. I did not take them out of the turner until first interior pip visable on the eggs i was candling. I placed 16 (8 were tossed from the candled eggs during the 5 day, 7 day, 10 day and 19 day candling) eggs in lock down together. (I dry hatch too)30- 40% till first interior pip than 55% humidity in a different incubator for hatch.

I hatched 9 out of the eggs i did not touch, and one out of the ones I candled. Out of the eggs that i candled, they died close to hatching by drowning. I do not know why it happened that way. I thought it was an interesting experiment. I documented the experiment and even took pictures of the eggtopsys. The eggs I purchased were pet quality. I has already invested hundreds of dollars in quality eggs with one live bird. The 10 chicks I placed in pet homes. I still have one good quality silkie. I am still afraid to try it with big dollar eggs yet.

 

[TNBarnQueen]

not opening the lid at all. Almost impossible to do. Eager hands and excitement make it hard. The air exchange from opening the lid on a porous egg is not good. You rapidly change your humidity level. I had my best silkie hatch when I was gone for the weekend. They all hatched before I got home a day early.

I did an experiment since I can't hatch silkies for over years of trying.
I purchased two dozen silkie eggs from two different breeders. I placed 6 from each batch together. One batch I did not touch. No candling, nothing. I had an auto turner, put them in and did not open the lid. I did not take them out of the turner until first interior pip visable on the eggs i was candling. I placed 16 (8 were tossed from the candled eggs during the 5 day, 7 day, 10 day and 19 day candling) eggs in lock down together. (I dry hatch too)30- 40% till first interior pip than 55% humidity in a different incubator for hatch.

I hatched 9 out of the eggs i did not touch, and one out of the ones I candled. Out of the eggs that i candled, they died close to hatching by drowning. I do not know why it happened that way. I thought it was an interesting experiment. I documented the experiment and even took pictures of the eggtopsys. The eggs I purchased were pet quality. I has already invested hundreds of dollars in quality eggs with one live bird. The 10 chicks I placed in pet homes. I still have one good quality silkie. I am still afraid to try it with big dollar eggs yet.

I seldom open the incubator unless it is a very extreme case. I can tell the chick was sticky by the look. It had happened before. I have dry hatched before and to be honest that was the best hatches I ever had. I just had another hatch and it does not look as sticky as the other one. What concerns me is when this happened before they died in the shell. What I think happened from the eggtopsy was when the fluid became sticky they could not turn and they just smothered from the thickness of the liquid. My polish and Ameraucana...no problem. Confusing. That was why I wondered if there should be a different setting for silkies.
You did not mention the temp that you hatch at. I have hatched hundred of eggs for 3 years and never had a problem til this spring. We have had a seriously wet spring and summer. In fact we just reached our average rain fall this past week.
So....should I lower the humidity from 55? I had read where one woman lowers her temp to 97 because the chicks can create their own heat in the egg at that time and it keeps them from over heating.
Thank you so much for your input delisha. I appreciate your help.

 

[delisha]

This works for me..

I found that not bringing up the humidity until internal pip helps them. I incubate at 100 and hatch at 97. I live in a humid environment. You need to find the perfect humid and temp environment for your home for good hatching. My numbers might not work for you. If you live in a humid climate you need less humidity, if you live in a dry climate you need more. My hatches work best for the chicks on lower temps. They have more vigor and are less likely to die early from complications. Some have very good successes on high temps. This is just my person experiences. It also depends on what type of incubator you have. I have table top incubators. The best one I have found so far is the Genesis. I have $400 dollar ones that are not as reliable or as successful. I usually have 100% hatch with my own eggs. I do not remember when I lost a chick from my own eggs.

I do not add any water at all in my Genesis. My humidity is around 30% with out water. If it does drop below 20% I have added a damp sponge. I do add water when the incubator starts cheeping, and raise it up to 50%. When chicks start hatching the humidity goes up on it own. I have also gone into the chick room and found chicks hatched out of eggs still in the turner with out any added water.

Sometimes those lil ones hatch early.

 

[Jharper]

Ok so here are some better pictures of my non bearded rooster.

 

[peepblessed]

Ok so here are some better pictures of my non bearded rooster.

I like him! He could use some more fanny fluff and chest. How old is he?

 

[Jharper]

I like him! He could use some more fanny fluff and chest. How old is he?

About a year or older I reckon. Mrs. Susan didn't tell me but he's really beautiful and he hasn't crowed! He has been mating with my oldest silkie. He has lost a good bit of feathers from my other rooster because he got to close.

 

[alamb1]

This is a catdance egg that was marked pa, which I assumed was paint. What do you all think?

 

[Jharper]

Partridge.

 

[alamb1]

This one was marked lav.

 

[Fur N Feathers]

This is a catdance egg that was marked pa, which I assumed was paint. What do you all think?

This one was marked lav.

Partridge and possibly Porcelain. You can get lots of colors from a project paint pen and I think I remember reading that CatDance has some porcelain hens in the lavender pen.

Here is the quote from her website: Pens are color separated in buff, blue/splash together, black, two white pens, partridge, porcelain, paint with recessive white (for the moment), and lavender cockerels over porcelain & lavender split hens.

After reading that again - that sounds like the porcelain pen though!

PA is paint though. Out of the 3 eggs I hatched from her eggs that were marked paint, two were partridge and one was paint.