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

[Cynthia12]

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.

 

[Cynthia12]

Tonight I removed 2 clears, and 1 that had died yesterday, I think. My husband thinks I'm gross but I like to eggtopsy. The developmental stages are so cool to evaluate, once you get over the gross factor. I'm pretty immune to it by now. It was bright red, had huge eyes, a fleshy beak(it's mouth was open so obviously it could open and close it),& tiny flippers for feet and wings. So, there ya go folks, that's what's in your eggs right now, for anyone who may have been wondering.

Now, off to bed..Kids Christmas play/musical to help out with first thing in the morning...I'm beat!

​

See ya in the morning.

 

[JLaw]

Well I candled again pulled the 8 that are bad. I noticed the air cells are small on most of my eggs like the size of a quarter I think. I've only been keeping it at like 30's. Guess no more water the rest of this hatch till lock down.

 

[ronott1]

Well I candled again pulled the 8 that are bad. I noticed the air cells are small on most of my eggs like the size of a quarter I think. I've only been keeping it at like 30's. Guess no more water the rest of this hatch till lock down.

Try to stay above 25% though.

 

[alisar]

I set about 12 on the 11th, 4 are developing - Spitzhauben over Bresse mix. Should be cute babies

 

[JLaw]

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.

 

[SilkieSensation]

Day 10 candle results are 28 out of 34 (set 38 originally, tossed 4 clears day 7) are moving around like crazy. 5 getting darker, but couldn't see movement. 1 is questionable for a quitter. I'll check it again tomorrow.

My big question is this: what are lethal temperatures? Mine keep spiking to close to 102 for various reasons (humidity got very low, accidentally left the heater on in the bathroom where the incubator lives, etc.). This has happened a few times today and I'm very worried. Also, my water wiggler temperature changes very quickly - I thought the interior temp of the eggs is supposed to be more stable than the air temp?

Temps in my house last winter were extremely unstable due to construction we were doing. My temps would swing from 80-110 within hours. The highest spike I had survivors from was 116. The spike to 120 killed everything.

 

[Nuclear Chickens]

I candled today and pulled 19 for obvious reasons like being clear or no development. Went from 74 to 55 eggs.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I candle every night

After all, they aren't shipped eggs and new studies show it is good for them to get a cool down once a day. This mimics the hen getting off the nest once a day to eat and drink.

My 8 eggs are going strong

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

Oh, BTW....the egg that I accidentally cracked and then glazed with super glue is one of the ones that is growing strong....who knew.....curious to see she makes it all the way thru to hatch.....if she does I'll have to name her lucky....

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.

...

My big question is this: what are lethal temperatures? Mine keep spiking to close to 102 for various reasons (humidity got very low, accidentally left the heater on in the bathroom where the incubator lives, etc.). This has happened a few times today and I'm very worried. Also, my water wiggler temperature changes very quickly - I thought the interior temp of the eggs is supposed to be more stable than the air temp?

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.

Tonight I removed 2 clears, and 1 that had died yesterday, I think. My husband thinks I'm gross but I like to eggtopsy. The developmental stages are so cool to evaluate, once you get over the gross factor. I'm pretty immune to it by now. It was bright red, had huge eyes, a fleshy beak(it's mouth was open so obviously it could open and close it),& tiny flippers for feet and wings. So, there ya go folks, that's what's in your eggs right now, for anyone who may have been wondering.

Now, off to bed..Kids Christmas play/musical to help out with first thing in the morning...I'm beat!

​

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

 

[ChickenCanoe]

double post