12th Annual BYC Easter Hatch-Along

[sekeyslaks]

I keep my humidity higher, around 75% for hatching as then I can open the incubator without the humidity dropping too much. As long as there's no condensation on the inside of your incubator it's fine.

I live in a naturally very humid place so your technique would not work very well for me.But whatever floats your boat!

 

[BesideStillWaters]

Mom is a splash Ameraucana (the one I sold) and dad is a white silkie.
She is one month old.View attachment 2592107

She's beautiful!

 

[BesideStillWaters]

Me thinks as long as you 'out breed' the next several go rounds, hatching eggs from sibblings is ok for one generation.. Do that for several generations and you run into problems like infertility, weakness. etc. It is the same with any animal.. With horses I always out bred to different lines to keep my horses strong and healthy.

Gotcha! I never planned to hatch any that were related, but now it's this or no Ellie eggs at all, haha. Good to know, thanks!

 

[BullChick]

If this was directed toward me... I will. Ellie had acted this way before. One of the boards on the ramp going up to the nest box fell about three months ago, and I noticed her acting odd around that time. I figured she must have been on the ramp or under it when it fell. But that was three months ago. She acted like something in her hip / breast area hurt (she was limping a bit) but got better, started laying again, and became best friends with my blind hen, Amber. She hasn't limed n months. Now I wonder if there was something wrong since then that was unrelated but it wasn't showing up. Maybe nothing to do with the board that came down...? I'm just glad it wasn't a long drawn-out thing and it was fast. Still miss her like crazy though.

...also I know chickens aren't people, but I saved her last egg. She laid the day she died. The father of her egg is her brother. Do you think I should I risk incubating it after the other eggs hatch? Ellie was the sweetest of them all and I hoped to hatch chicks from her someday with an unrelated rooster, but those dreams are now gone.

If we are the only two people on the planet that do it, so be it. I too would consider everything that could have led to her death. Even an accident three months ago. You might never know though.
Yes, hatch the egg.

Oh my, uh... I may need to go check mine then. I don't remember where, but I thought 75% was for hatching and 45 - 60 was for incubating. Oops!! Or is it different for duck eggs? (Mine are chicken.)

I can tell you for a fact that I used to always incubate and hatch that high. Some breeds actually require it. Humidity isn’t a set number though. If the air cells are okay, keep doing it your way.

 

[BesideStillWaters]

With chickens it’s 45 to 55 for incubating and 55 to 65 for hatching.

Arkansas is naturally humid; I may not even need to add water to the incubator until hatching then. Thank you!

 

[BesideStillWaters]

@BesideStillWaters you are no crazier than the rest of us. Sounds like you need that second incubator…

Yeah... and everyone is telling me I probably should stop hatching eggs because we already have more eggs than we can use.

 

[Josip]

Last year i had few chikcs with this problem, i fix most od them but I asking myself why that happend and is it conected with humidity or?

 

[BesideStillWaters]

If we are the only two people on the planet that do it, so be it. I too would consider everything that could have led to her death. Even an accident three months ago. You might never know though.
Yes, hatch the egg.

I can tell you for a fact that I used to always incubate and hatch that high. Some breeds actually require it. Humidity isn’t a set number though. If the air cells are okay, keep doing it your way.

Thanks, I'll go for it.

Oh yes, I am. I thought maybe they got into something while free ranging, but Layla and Ellie didn't free range the same area. Also Layla didn't free range any the day she died. I'm still going to go over the rest of the area Ellie free ranged in to make sure there is nothing I'm missing that she may have gotten into.

Thanks for the encouragement. At this point I don't know if I need it high or low because I have eggs due to hatch Saturday, but I also have several eggs due to hatch a week and a half later... I've created quite a problem. The air cells for the first to hatch look about right, but they are slightly different sizes. Hopefully it won't be a big deal.

 

[BullChick]

I live in a naturally very humid place so your technique would not work very well for me.But whatever floats your boat!

 

[JaeG]

Last year i had few chikcs with this problem, i fix most od them but I asking myself why that happend and is it conected with humidity or?

It can be a deficiency in the diet of the hen that laid the egg (riboflavin/B2 deficiency specifically).