Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[chloey]

I just got my first chick.hatched it myself from school.lovin it

 

[LauraNJ]

My latest SFH eggs are hatching, a day late but that is ok.

I am having issues with chicks fully developed but not pipping. They seem to be in the right position but are big without a lot of room to manuever. The air cells are the correct size.

I am experienced with rare parrots and have had 100% hatch rate with them so not sure if it is just that shipped eggs are weaker , xrayed, or what is going on. Open to advice if I am doing something wrong with the chicken eggs.

Circulated, forced air incubator, temp at 99.5F (have 3 calibrated thermometers), humidy is 50-54% until lockdown then I increase it to about 72% humidy. I check temps and humidy many times a day and I really try to keep it consistent as parrot eggs are sensitive to temp and humidy fluctuations.

Last hatch I started with 31 chicken eggs, had 6 hatch and 4 were assisted. 2 (faverolles) of these were not doing well and we ended up culling them. These were in an autoturner which I did not use with parrot eggs as I found the slight vibration decreased my hatch.

This hatch is better this time as far as pipped eggs but I have broken into the eggs not pipped, just into the aircell in hopes that they don't die in the shell and that perhaps they can be saved. I hand turned these eggs at least 5x a day, usually more times per day.

Total of 20 sfh eggs, 1 has hatched, 2 are working on it and are active.

Another 6 I broke into the aircell. They are alive, but 4 still have red veins so I am waiting. 2 look like they are ready so I broke more egg shell away, membrane still intact and am hoping they break through the membrane soon, otherwise I will help them.

2 more that I broke into were fully formed, ready to hatch but dead. I never have had that with parrots. That is when I started breaking into egg cells of the other eggs.

The 2 SFH chicks that hatched a couple weeks ago are doing awesome, they are my favorite breed at this point. Friendly, confident, just love them so I really want as many of these eggs to hatch. If anyone has ideas for a better hatch I open to advice.

All my eggs have come from the South to the North east. Is it the xrays, the shipping, rough handling by usps, weather? Or am I making some fatal error I am unaware of?

 

[kimberly35042]

Could you try a "dry" test run just to see? I have waterfowl and run my incubators dry at about 20-30% humidity, and it really sounds like your eggs are not drying down enough.

 

[KYTinpusher]

My latest SFH eggs are hatching, a day late but that is ok.

I am having issues with chicks fully developed but not pipping. They seem to be in the right position but are big without a lot of room to manuever. The air cells are the correct size.

I am experienced with rare parrots and have had 100% hatch rate with them so not sure if it is just that shipped eggs are weaker , xrayed, or what is going on. Open to advice if I am doing something wrong with the chicken eggs.

Circulated, forced air incubator, temp at 99.5F (have 3 calibrated thermometers), humidy is 50-54% until lockdown then I increase it to about 72% humidy. I check temps and humidy many times a day and I really try to keep it consistent as parrot eggs are sensitive to temp and humidy fluctuations.

Last hatch I started with 31 chicken eggs, had 6 hatch and 4 were assisted. 2 (faverolles) of these were not doing well and we ended up culling them. These were in an autoturner which I did not use with parrot eggs as I found the slight vibration decreased my hatch.

This hatch is better this time as far as pipped eggs but I have broken into the eggs not pipped, just into the aircell in hopes that they don't die in the shell and that perhaps they can be saved. I hand turned these eggs at least 5x a day, usually more times per day.

Total of 20 sfh eggs, 1 has hatched, 2 are working on it and are active.

Another 6 I broke into the aircell. They are alive, but 4 still have red veins so I am waiting. 2 look like they are ready so I broke more egg shell away, membrane still intact and am hoping they break through the membrane soon, otherwise I will help them.

2 more that I broke into were fully formed, ready to hatch but dead. I never have had that with parrots. That is when I started breaking into egg cells of the other eggs.

The 2 SFH chicks that hatched a couple weeks ago are doing awesome, they are my favorite breed at this point. Friendly, confident, just love them so I really want as many of these eggs to hatch. If anyone has ideas for a better hatch I open to advice.

All my eggs have come from the South to the North east. Is it the xrays, the shipping, rough handling by usps, weather? Or am I making some fatal error I am unaware of?

and the SFH thread!

SFH seem to be more susceptible to shipping induced hatching issues than many other breeds of chickens. Some of us have tried shipping with different packaging methods to try to pinpoint the problem. I think the rough handling is probably the most to blame. I have had people get 100% hatch from my eggs, but others have few to none hatch.

One thing that stood out to me as I read your post was the incubation humidity. I have had the best results with 35-40% humidity during incubation and 65% during lockdown. I have also noticed that my SFH, even from my own eggs but even more so with shipped eggs, can run 1-3 days late on their hatch, so be patient and resist the urge to help. Opening the incubator to help causes the rest of the unhatched eggs to have problems too.

your current eggs hatch!

 

[KYTinpusher]

Could you try a "dry" test run just to see? I have waterfowl and run my incubators dry at about 20-30% humidity, and it really sounds like your eggs are not drying down enough.

Kimberly! Did you see the pics I posted a while ago of your grandchicks? They are in my SFH album (link in sig.). The pullets are starting to redden up and I hope they start laying soon.

 

[ChickNmamma]

My latest SFH eggs are hatching, a day late but that is ok.

I am having issues with chicks fully developed but not pipping. They seem to be in the right position but are big without a lot of room to manuever. The air cells are the correct size.

I am experienced with rare parrots and have had 100% hatch rate with them so not sure if it is just that shipped eggs are weaker , xrayed, or what is going on. Open to advice if I am doing something wrong with the chicken eggs.

Circulated, forced air incubator, temp at 99.5F (have 3 calibrated thermometers), humidy is 50-54% until lockdown then I increase it to about 72% humidy. I check temps and humidy many times a day and I really try to keep it consistent as parrot eggs are sensitive to temp and humidy fluctuations.

Last hatch I started with 31 chicken eggs, had 6 hatch and 4 were assisted. 2 (faverolles) of these were not doing well and we ended up culling them. These were in an autoturner which I did not use with parrot eggs as I found the slight vibration decreased my hatch.

This hatch is better this time as far as pipped eggs but I have broken into the eggs not pipped, just into the aircell in hopes that they don't die in the shell and that perhaps they can be saved. I hand turned these eggs at least 5x a day, usually more times per day.

Total of 20 sfh eggs, 1 has hatched, 2 are working on it and are active.

Another 6 I broke into the aircell. They are alive, but 4 still have red veins so I am waiting. 2 look like they are ready so I broke more egg shell away, membrane still intact and am hoping they break through the membrane soon, otherwise I will help them.

2 more that I broke into were fully formed, ready to hatch but dead. I never have had that with parrots. That is when I started breaking into egg cells of the other eggs.

The 2 SFH chicks that hatched a couple weeks ago are doing awesome, they are my favorite breed at this point. Friendly, confident, just love them so I really want as many of these eggs to hatch. If anyone has ideas for a better hatch I open to advice.

All my eggs have come from the South to the North east. Is it the xrays, the shipping, rough handling by usps, weather? Or am I making some fatal error I am unaware of?

Your humidity sounds really high to me. Did you weigh the eggs and determine that they were loosing the proper amount of water?

It does sound like you know a lot about helping chicks hatch, a lot more than most people. The humidity was the only thing that struck me as off. The humidity does depend a lot on your altitude and your exterior humidity as well. The only thing that would give you an accurate indication of correct humidity is if the egg is loosing weight at the correct speed. The air cells sound good.. the only thing left to check would be the weight. Different thicknesses of eggs will loose humidity at different rates - its why they don't suggest setting thin shelled and thick shelled eggs together.

I hadn't heard of the vibration causing problems with hatches in chickens - but it is another thing to consider... thanks.

When you break the shell away - do you put a warm damp paper towel around the egg to keep the humidity higher so the membrane doesn't dry off?

 

[LauraNJ]

Thanks for the suggestions! I will try some of them next hatch.

I haven't tried a dry hatch yet. I'll try it next time.

So far the weight loss has been good. I try to weigh and keep track of it along with air cell. I am very paranoid about trying to control things as much as possible. The first hatch with the chicken eggs the weight loss was too much so I increased humidity and the 50-54% seemed to be the sweet spot for correct percentage of weight loss. I do wonder how it would go if it was a dry hatch. I went by the bresse and SFH eggs. The faverolles were slightly off in their weight loss but they had thinner, weaker shells. They weren't great quality, you could see it when you candled.

When I open an egg, the membrane is dry in there, really dry, like stuck dry so the chick can't move which I don't understand. I double checked my humidy with another to make sure it is accurate and it seems good.

Once I open them, I first use a damp qtip to gently moisten the membrane then lay a moistened papertowel on them, but if the beak is right there then I tent it near their beak so they don't drown through papertowel. That would be my luck at this point with the eggs.

Had 2 SFH's hatch, yay! 1 Dark, 1 light. Have another that seems really big and is breathing but not making much effort, no chirping. I am leaving him for a little while longer. Have a couple more becoming more active now so hopefully they hatch out without anymore help.

I don't mind breaking a little of the shell but I do want them to hatch themself if at all possible. Once I see that they can breath fresh air, I will let them go for a good 24 hours or more unless they go from super active to lethargic where it seems they've given up or are just too weak.

The other thing about shipping is I am the 5th to the last house on my mailman's route. He is very anti-animals so even when a couple of the sellers put to call me, do not deliver on the box. He still took it on the whole route. They were delivered, well put in my mailbox, at 4:30 pm. So, alot of bouncing around. I even went into the PO and asked about a box due to arrive and asked them to hold it and call me. No dice. My mailman still took it. I was told it is an extra fee or they don't have to hold it and call.

 

[KYTinpusher]

I was told it is an extra fee or they don't have to hold it and call.

Hold-for-Pick-up is an option when the label is printed and paid online. The delivery address becomes the PO itself, although your address is printed on the label. There is NO extra cost for this, but they don't have to call you. If they disregard it, call Consumer Affairs for the PO and complain. 1-800-ASK-USPS® (800-275-8777)

Or, if you plan to get a lot of shipped eggs, invest in a PO box.

 

[LauraNJ]

Hold-for-Pick-up is an option when the label is printed and paid online. The delivery address becomes the PO itself, although your address is printed on the label. There is NO extra cost for this, but they don't have to call you. If they disregard it, call Consumer Affairs for the PO and complain. 1-800-ASK-USPS® (800-275-8777)

Or, if you plan to get a lot of shipped eggs, invest in a PO box.

Well, that is excellent info, thank you so much!

When I went in and explained about eggs coming they looked at me like I was nutso and then it seemed like I was asking for brain surgery with how they reacted to please holding the box and calling. I wouldn't have even cared if they didn't call, just hold it and I would pick up.

I should look at the box, if I still have it, may have been recycled already. The seller wrote in huge letters to hold at post office. I bet she did the label correctly and they just disregarded it.

 

[ChickNmamma]

Quote:

I was told it is an extra fee or they don't have to hold it and call.

Hold-for-Pick-up is an option when the label is printed and paid online. The delivery address becomes the PO itself, although your address is printed on the label. There is NO extra cost for this, but they don't have to call you. If they disregard it, call Consumer Affairs for the PO and complain. 1-800-ASK-USPS® (800-275-8777)

Or, if you plan to get a lot of shipped eggs, invest in a PO box.

At my post office.. they would send it out to deliver it to me even though it was correctly marked with the "HOLD FOR PICKUP AND CALL" right in the middle of the label, the POST OFFICE's address (mine ONLY for verification of ID which I was never asked to show) and my phone number..

So, I got in the habit of tracking the package by the tracking number - as soon as I saw it come into the post office I would call. I would bug them until they found the package (I knew it was there - the computer told me it was because I was tracking it) - explain that it contained live embryos and that jouncing it around in the mail delivery truck would kill them. Twice I had nice people who said it was there - once I had one lady who said "we can't give any information over the phone about our customer's mail".. but after trying a bit more.. she said "I can't tell you anything, but come on down to the post office".. so I knew they were held for me there. That was the only one that was NOT correctly checked and labeled - even though the shipper had written a note on the package that said "HOLD AT POST OFFICE AND CALL FOR PICKUP". I was told the employees don't have time to read every package.. yadda, yadda, yadda....

I hope you get it straightened out with your post office. Investing in a PO box if you intend to get a lot of eggs is also a really good idea.