5th Annual BYC New Year's Day 2014 Hatch-A-Long

[Blarneyeggs]

Finally candled my eggs tonight and removed three duds. A few of the darker ones were questionable, but saw a lot of active little peanuts wiggling around in the others. Super excited to see how this hatch turns out! We lost power yesterday for a couple hours. I waited two hours for the power to come back, but broke down and took them to our house for sale. Only it was out of power too. I drove like 15 MPH both ways and every bump in the road felt like an earthquake! By the time I got back home, dug out a generator from the back of storage, figured out how to start it (what has a valve on the gas cap?!), and plugged the incy in the power was back. Go figure! 4 hrs elapsed, but supposedly it was still 90 degrees in there.

Wow! That's dedication! Good job.

 

[Blarneyeggs]

 


Try to stay above 25% though.

lowest it's been is mid 20's I think. It has jumped to 40's a few times when I add the water. I need to check it more often just been busy so over watering and letting it drop lower.

Oh humidity!!

Mine drops to 16 (which could actually mean much lower) every 3rd day or so... When I add water it spikes to 40s or 50s. I've got some with HUGE air cells, and some with tiny ones....I'm trying shifting them around some.

 

[Pozees]

I don't do it every day but sometimes I'll cut the heat for about 1/2 hour to simulate the fluctuation from the hen off the nest. It has only been about 50 degrees in my basement so it can cool down pretty fast.

I also read some interesting things about circadian incubation.
In nature, embryos are exposed to a daily rhythm of the hen getting on and off the nest, as opposed to artificial incubation, it helped the birds regulate daily metabolism and other physiological functions.

Experiments are still ongoing but some of the results:
short periods of increased temperature on days 4-7 encouraged embryonic movement and promoted muscle and leg development
short periods of cold exposure on days 18 and 19 resulted in improved performance of month old chicks
raising the shell temperature 1 to 2 hours on days 16, 17 and 18 benefited growth performance and feed conversion.

What I gather from this is that imitating nature with daily cycles is better than a steady temp throughout. That doesn't mean that an incubator with irregular temperature swings is a good thing either.
http://www.pasreform.com/academy/fr...a-new-feature-of-single-stage-incubation.html

Good to hear. I've never had a repaired egg finish but that could have been other issues as well. If the membrane isn't broken there's no reason to believe a quality embryo won't survive a good repair unless it was contaminated with bacteria.


I think you're ok. Lethal is continuous above 104.9. The older the embryo the more capable it is of surviving temperature spikes.

this will answer any questions about temperature swings.
http://www.brinsea.com/customerservice/poweroff.html

I still avoid high temps since a hen won't produce extremely high temps but the eggs will cool when she gets off the nest so I think high is worse than low.

It really helps to know what day an embryo died. So yours quit on day 9?

A university of Fla study indicated the causes of dead embryos between days 7 and 17 are:
1.Improper incubator temperature, humidity, turning, ventilation.
2.Contamination.
3.Nutritional deficiencies -- riboflavin, vitamin B12, biotin, niacin, pyridoxine, pantothenic acid, phosphorus, boron, or linoleic acid.
4.Lethal genes (>30 have been described).

that list is from http://www.natureform.com/kb/newArticles/12.html

breakout analysis
http://www.aviagen.com/assets/Tech_...os/05HowTo5-BreakOutandAnalyseHatchDebris.pdf

Really interesting article about candling! I am curious, do you have any idea what the market value of clears would be derived from? Are they used as animal feed?

 

[michaelf]

Good Sunday morning everyone!

 

[Penny Hen]

So sorry about your SFH. I think I read on here somewhere that they are hard to hatch. I did a couple of hatches this last summer of them, never had great hatches with them either. Got a few though. Good luck on your last little one.

Well if everyone keeps shipping them around and then breeding the ones that survive the breed will eventually get stronger eggs.

 

[Jucknath]

Good Sunday morning everyone!

Good Morning

 

[ChickenDoodleMI]

Candeled my eggs last night. I started with 53. After the peek this is what I'm down to:

12 set from my own flock of leghorn/polish cross. All 12 are happy, developing bouncing babies. No doubt my rooster is doing his duties.

8 blue Orpington shipped eggs purchases for. eBay. 6 are doing great. 2 were early quitters. Air cells look okay, but not perfect.

15 lemon cuckoo orpingtons purchased and shipped from a BYC member. I only have two of these left and both I'm not sure if still developing. About 7 of these were non-fertile and the rest had broken yoked and air cells.

18 mix of EE, OE, and Marans purchased and shipped by another member. I have 12 of these doing okay. Lots of funky looking air cells and very watery/moving air cells. Only two were infertile.

I have learned from this, not to waste money on shipped eggs! I think I'll stick to day old chick purchases and hatch out my own farm eggs

 

[Pozees]

Candeled my eggs last night. I started with 53. After the peek this is what I'm down to:

12 set from my own flock of leghorn/polish cross. All 12 are happy, developing bouncing babies. No doubt my rooster is doing his duties.

8 blue Orpington shipped eggs purchases for. eBay. 6 are doing great. 2 were early quitters. Air cells look okay, but not perfect.

15 lemon cuckoo orpingtons purchased and shipped from a BYC member. I only have two of these left and both I'm not sure if still developing. About 7 of these were non-fertile and the rest had broken yoked and air cells.

18 mix of EE, OE, and Marans purchased and shipped by another member. I have 12 of these doing okay. Lots of funky looking air cells and very watery/moving air cells. Only two were infertile.

I have learned from this, not to waste money on shipped eggs! I think I'll stick to day old chick purchases and hatch out my own farm eggs

I have made this resolution many times myself ... broken it every time Previous poster (PennyHen?) who said ultimately we will have strains of chickens who lay eggs that can withstand the shipping better, may be correct - time will tell, I suppose. In theory it makes sense.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Really interesting article about candling! I am curious, do you have any idea what the market value of clears would be derived from? Are they used as animal feed?

I assume so.
They could be setting hundreds of thousands of eggs at a time. That much of anything can have a value if only for conversion to fertilizer.

Well if everyone keeps shipping them around and then breeding the ones that survive the breed will eventually get stronger eggs.

That would stand to reason.
A friend that is a long time breeder suggested that birds from a line, moved to a new location with different climate, foods, management etc.. could become genetically unique from the original flock in a few generations, at least enough to become a genetic boost. Different environmental conditions (primarily temperature) in incubation will cause differential gene expression in various embryo from the same flock.

Candeled my eggs last night. I started with 53. After the peek this is what I'm down to:

12 set from my own flock of leghorn/polish cross. All 12 are happy, developing bouncing babies. No doubt my rooster is doing his duties.

8 blue Orpington shipped eggs purchases for. eBay. 6 are doing great. 2 were early quitters. Air cells look okay, but not perfect.

15 lemon cuckoo orpingtons purchased and shipped from a BYC member. I only have two of these left and both I'm not sure if still developing. About 7 of these were non-fertile and the rest had broken yoked and air cells.

18 mix of EE, OE, and Marans purchased and shipped by another member. I have 12 of these doing okay. Lots of funky looking air cells and very watery/moving air cells. Only two were infertile.

I have learned from this, not to waste money on shipped eggs! I think I'll stick to day old chick purchases and hatch out my own farm eggs

I guess one of the only advantages to shipped hatching eggs is the reduced risk of disease.
I agree, it can be a huge waste of money.
Last NYD hatch, I had 36 eggs from a breeder shipped. Quite a variety. SLW, CCL, Sussex and 3 varieties of Marans. One SLW pullet hatched from all those and she had a joint issue and had to be put down.

Besides the shipping hazards, there are so many other things you can't control like breeder nutrition.

 

[Gardeningmama]

I just read something interesting I thought I would pass along to all you avid candlers.
http://www.pasreform.com/academy/fr...ndle-or-not-to-candle-thats-the-question.html

It says "Do not candle between 11 and 14 days of incubation, as it interrupts the movement of the embryo to the length axis of the egg"
This would be starting today for those that set on the 11th.

It also says not to bother removing clears if less than 10% of the batch. If more than 10% remove and move eggs to make complete rows, this helps with air flow and consistent heat distribution. The embryos will be generating some heat now.
Since I never have many eggs I can see much in, I don't remove clears till transfer to hatcher unless they stink or leak. I've only had one stinker and one leaker before.

Thanks Chicken Canoe, I'll take that advice, lol...I'll be too busy over the next 4 days to think about my eggs anyway!







Quote: I can't narrow it down. This go round though, the temps/humidity/my turning have been so stable it almost surprises me. I did have to lower the temps a notch, going from 20* days to the 60's did spike the bator to 102, but everyone seems fine.