4th Annual BYC NYD Hatch-a-long

[SilkieSensation]

I go out of town for the weekend & come back to 130 new posts. No time to read them all

 

[mstricer]

Quote: If you don't know what it is, why would you say it is coryza? I would test the sick birds or at least one of them, if I were you.

Quote: Than no worries for you. It is much more expensive to have a whole flock destroyed than a $20 test..don't ya think?
No I don't, if you have say 50 birds that can get expensive. Don't get me wrong, but I would have no problem with it, even a sick bird that could be fixed with antibodies, won't stay alive at my house. Sick birds (which I don't have) would be culled. I know it sounds insensitive, but that is how you keep your flock healthy, I've heard of numerous folks that are constantly using antibodies and don't know why their birds keep getting sick, well they have compromised their birds natural immune systems. So yes, a 20$ a swap, I wouldn't be doing it just for s**** and giggles to see if my chicks have some sorta of disease. 20$ can buy my household meat for 5 days, you way it out, buy a chick for say 3.50$ then test it for 20$ makes no sense to me. You still have to cull your chicks if it is positive.

Usually you get 4 swabs from the vet. You swab 4 different birds. They usually charge under $20 for those swabs. If you hatch out 30 chicks and have 10 different breeders you purchased from you would need 10 swabs I am sure you would want them to know they are selling infected eggs. I have no idea what they would charge for so many. If you bought all your eggs from one person you would only need one test done.

Seriously that's 200$ for 2$ chick. Worth it no. To many people are struggling to survive. I would suggest you know where your birds are from and always quarantine.

 

[Lesalynn]

Well, I finally got around to reading the entire article written by Bill Worrell on Dry Incubation. Sure wish I had done it sooner, I think I now know why my chicks are making it to lockdown and then drowning before hatching. I have been paying close attention to the humidity INSIDE the incubator, but not OUTSIDE the incubator. I put up a hygrometer in the room I keep my incubator in, and guess what? For the last week the room humidity has run between 60-65. Hmmm.....and I have been keeping humidity in the incubator around 40, then bumping way up at lockdown. Well, now that I have figured out why my chicks keep drowning, I am going to run my NYD batch dry. Hopefully this time I get it right, especially seeing as how I have at least two dozen quality Silkie eggs coming in for that hatch. I strongly urge everyone new to incubating to read this article. Well worth the time.

 

[crazypetlady]

FYI there is a strain of fowl pox that makes that stuff in the mouth that looks like coyurza. But it is my understanding coyurza smells sooo bad you would know you had it. I have never smelled it. But you should have seen me stuffing my nose down the poor fowl pox chicken trying to smell anything. Poor chicken.

 

[mstricer]

Well, I finally got around to reading the entire article written by Bill Worrell on Dry Incubation. Sure wish I had done it sooner, I think I now know why my chicks are making it to lockdown and then drowning before hatching. I have been paying close attention to the humidity INSIDE the incubator, but not OUTSIDE the incubator. I put up a hygrometer in the room I keep my incubator in, and guess what? For the last week the room humidity has run between 60-65. Hmmm.....and I have been keeping humidity in the incubator around 40, then bumping way up at lockdown. Well, now that I have figured out why my chicks keep drowning, I am going to run my NYD batch dry. Hopefully this time I get it right, especially seeing as how I have at least two dozen quality Silkie eggs coming in for that hatch. I strongly urge everyone new to incubating to read this article. Well worth the time.

I'm confused, you have it outside the incubator?

 

[Lesalynn]

I'm confused, you have it outside the incubator?

Yes, I found a clock that also has a has a thermometer and hygrometer installed in it and hung on a wall in my living room above the incubators. I still have my small hygrometer inside the incubator I am running now. This way I will be aware not only of the humdity level inside my incubator, but the level outside it also. Living in Louisiana like I do, our humidity stays really high year-round. I should have taken that into consideration before now. I feel kinda stupid, lol. Hopefully this will increase my hatch rate. It sure can't hurt it that's for sure.

ETA: By the way, I put only 1 tsp of water in my incubator Friday, and this morning it is reading 22%. Not bad

 

[BHep]

Well, I finally got around to reading the entire article written by Bill Worrell on Dry Incubation. Sure wish I had done it sooner, I think I now know why my chicks are making it to lockdown and then drowning before hatching. I have been paying close attention to the humidity INSIDE the incubator, but not OUTSIDE the incubator. I put up a hygrometer in the room I keep my incubator in, and guess what? For the last week the room humidity has run between 60-65. Hmmm.....and I have been keeping humidity in the incubator around 40, then bumping way up at lockdown. Well, now that I have figured out why my chicks keep drowning, I am going to run my NYD batch dry. Hopefully this time I get it right, especially seeing as how I have at least two dozen quality Silkie eggs coming in for that hatch. I strongly urge everyone new to incubating to read this article. Well worth the time.

I wish more people would read this article...could you post the link ? I have been running my incubator dry for almost 2 years. I have seen it get as low as 10% and as high as 40%..depending on weather/time of year etc. I have fantastic hatches. IMO a hen does not run 50-60% or more humidity, she goes with nature, so why drown chicks. I don't even read my hatcher, I just fill the chambers and leave it be. I have added water when I saw the channel get dry and then had sticky chicks and killed the rest.

Now I just ignore.
I have hatched chicks right in my dry incubator right in the turners MANY times and they are fit and happy !

FYI there is a strain of fowl pox that makes that stuff in the mouth that looks like coyurza. But it is my understanding coyurza smells sooo bad you would know you had it. I have never smelled it. But you should have seen me stuffing my nose down the poor fowl pox chicken trying to smell anything. Poor chicken.

SO I am not the only one that sniffs her chickens !

BUT Seriously.... I have found wounds on birds that I did not know had them but smelling the chickens. And if I want to buy birds, I always smell them, the seller may think I am nuts but if it does not smell like a chicken, I won't buy.

 

[cochins1088]

Well, I finally got around to reading the entire article written by Bill Worrell on Dry Incubation. Sure wish I had done it sooner, I think I now know why my chicks are making it to lockdown and then drowning before hatching. I have been paying close attention to the humidity INSIDE the incubator, but not OUTSIDE the incubator. I put up a hygrometer in the room I keep my incubator in, and guess what? For the last week the room humidity has run between 60-65. Hmmm.....and I have been keeping humidity in the incubator around 40, then bumping way up at lockdown. Well, now that I have figured out why my chicks keep drowning, I am going to run my NYD batch dry. Hopefully this time I get it right, especially seeing as how I have at least two dozen quality Silkie eggs coming in for that hatch. I strongly urge everyone new to incubating to read this article. Well worth the time.

I read that article and tried the dry incubation last spring. The hatch before I tried this, I had many chicks that had drowned in their shells so I figured why not try it. My hatch rate ended up being 40%, air cells ended up overly developed so the chicks couldn't get into hatching postition, causing them to suffocate. Before and after these 2 hatches I had lots of sucess with rates of 90%+. The truth is, you can't find someone with a good hatch rate and simply follow their humidity. The correct humidity levels depend on where someone lives, the season, and many other factors. The more accurate way to to compare air cell development to a chart on days 7, 14, and 18. If air cells are too large, your humidity is too low and you need to increase it. Is air cells are too small, you humidity is to high and you need to decrease it. This is what I found to work best, good luck with your hatch! Oh, and another way is to weigh the eggs because they need to lose a certain pertage of their mass before hatching.

 

[Lesalynn]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...ellent-info-here-everyone-should-read-this/20

 

[Lesalynn]

I read that article and tried the dry incubation last spring. The hatch before I tried this, I had many chicks that had drowned in their shells so I figured why not try it. My hatch rate ended up being 40%, air cells ended up overly developed so the chicks couldn't get into hatching postition, causing them to suffocate. Before and after these 2 hatches I had lots of sucess with rates of 90%+. The truth is, you can't find someone with a good hatch rate and simply follow their humidity. The correct humidity levels depend on where someone lives, the season, and many other factors. The more accurate way to to compare air cell development to a chart on days 7, 14, and 18. If air cells are too large, your humidity is too low and you need to increase it. Is air cells are too small, you humidity is to high and you need to decrease it. This is what I found to work best, good luck with your hatch! Oh, and another way is to weigh the eggs because they need to lose a certain pertage of their mass before hatching.

I think most of my problem is living in a state with extremely high humidity, and I was not paying close enough attention to that fact itself. Common sense should have told me that if the humidity surrounding my incubator was so high it really didn't need to be so high inside it. I had tried what I thought was dry incubation once, but I freaked when the wells went dry, and instead of adding just a tsp or so, I filled them back up. I had over 30 perfect-looking eggs go into lockdown but only about a third hatched. I opened the remaining eggs, just to see what the problem was. All were fully formed. Several had pipped internally, but were sticky, they never made it out. The rest drowned. They were VERY wet, never turned upwards. Just drowned in all that liquid. By keeping the humidity so high, I never allowed them to lose the moisture they should have lost by that time, I think.