6th Annual BYC New Year's Day 2015 Hatch-A-Long

[MisfitMarie]

I love that analyzer...lots of useful information.

Sorry to hear about the infertile eggs and sad chick news.

I candled my darker Welsummer and Black Copper Maran eggs tonight but am having a hard time seeing anything, even by now. I'm hoping that there's development taking place.

I spent a little time with a few bantam chicks today and took some pictures that might cheer y'all up.

Happy Holidays, BYC!

 

[Amberjem]

So sorry!

It is really heartbreaking to have a chick make it that far and then die. I had a similar thing happen with my first hatch. They made it to hatch day, then, for some reason didn't hatch. I opened one, and it was so traumatizing I couldn't open the rest, but I had at least four. In the case of my egg, the chick attempted to pip the wrong side, and there was no air cell there.
Were yours shipped eggs? I think I read that shipped eggs have a greater chance of malposition. There are many reasons, though. It could have been any number or even a combination of things. Here is a copy and paste from an article on BYC https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/step-by-step-guide-to-assisted-hatching :

Common reasons of Malpositions are:
Eggs are set with small end up.
Advancing breeder hen age and shell quality problems.
Egg turning frequency and angle are not adequate.
Inadequate % humidity loss of eggs in the setter.
Inadequate air cell development, improper temperature and humidity regulation, and insufficient ventilation in the incubator or hatcher.
Imbalanced feeds, elevated levels of mycotoxins, and vitamin and mineral deficiencies.
Lower than recommended temperatures in the last stage of incubation.


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arg now I am worrying about if I am turning properly

 

[draye]

We had 8 chicks all a week old and I sold 7 of them. The single chick was so loud all of yesterday and helped keep me up last night! (Ok, pregnancy panic didn't help!) Finally the single duckling hatched and now it and the lonely chick are best friends and have been quiet all day long. I am so glad they have one another! I am so happy about the quiet tonight too! LOL 

Sometimes silence is golden.

 

[Roan]

The egg will become rotten and smell like sulfur. It all becomes very clear looking so I get rid of them as soon as I see that.

Dark shelled eggs will glow so you know they are either a clear or a dud so they get broken open and tossed on day 10 usually. I will often give dark shelled eggs more time though.

No! They generally stay looking pretty well the same, maybe more fuzzy w/ a thin dark ring below which moves if you tilt the egg. But mostly they look the same, which is why if I suspect a Blood Ring day 7 I pencil the egg "?BR" & re-check day 10 at which point like tonight it becomes pretty obvious that those look the same, whereas a good growing egg will have more development. (In a non-white egg "more development sometimes = impenetrable dark mass!")

Okay, thanks @ronott1 and @FeyRaine the odd thing is that I have a couple that have a very dark mass that my flashlight can't penetrate and others that are clear enough to see the growing embryo. In one with the dark mass, I saw movement, which made me think that it was growing normally but then I saw the embryos in the other and they too were moving so I though perhaps the ones with the dark mass may not have moved but just some of the dark cloud had been disturbed by my handling.

I thought I saw someone say that a bloodring might appear but sometimes they will still continue and be ok?

@ronott1 posted earlier when I first noticed that I did have a blood ring that it means the egg was fertile but the bacteria invaded the egg and killed the embryo, at least that's how I remember his post. So basically, I guess an egg with a bloodring can not have a living embryo and an egg with a living embryo can not have a bloodring. I am I correct?

 

[Roan]

use this analyzer:

Hatchability Problem analysis.pdf 1,708k .pdf file

I am sorry you lost them!

They look like they died at the same time so something like a temperature spike could have been the cause.

This a great resource to have for many reasons!!!

So the H.R.R. for lighter breeds should be between 1:12 and 1:15, for heavier breeds it should be between 1:10 and 1:12! That's so important! I have too many hens with Big Daddy Crow! My current H.R.R. is 1:20, I believe with our 7 sub-adults now being adults (though still under a year old).

Black Australorps are considered a heavy breed or medium?

If BA's are considered medium then I would be okay with an H.R.R. between 1:11 and 1:13? Or would it be better to just treat them as a heavy and go between 1:10 and 1:12.

The biggest problem is that I have Ameraucana roosters that are now full mature and mounting so they're considered lights (H.R.R. 1:12 to 1:15) so would that mean that they will out breed my BA since they can handle more ladies? Ugh! I need a bachelor pad...

 

[SallyinIndiana]

We had 8 chicks all a week old and I sold 7 of them. The single chick was so loud all of yesterday and helped keep me up last night! (Ok, pregnancy panic didn't help!) Finally the single duckling hatched and now it and the lonely chick are best friends and have been quiet all day long. I am so glad they have one another! I am so happy about the quiet tonight too! LOL

Sometime putting a small mirror in will help quite a single chick. In case it happens again.

Increasing calcium about 30 minutes prior to bedtime can help you get to sleep faster. But a tall glass of milk right before bed might mean several trips to the bathroom too.

 

[Peep_Show]

Could anyone please tell me why these three baby chicks died? I opened them today ( day 23). I waited for what seemed like an eternity and this is my first hatch ever. I'm heart broken.

Just out of curiousity, at what altitude are you? It does appear that the chicks died at about the same time, but they look pretty normal. Any chance not enough oxygen in the incubator? Were the vents full open? High altitude or lack of oxygen can cause late-stage smothering.

 

[FeyRaine]

Okay, thanks @ronott1 and @FeyRaine the odd thing is that I have a couple that have a very dark mass that my flashlight can't penetrate and others that are clear enough to see the growing embryo. In one with the dark mass, I saw movement, which made me think that it was growing normally but then I saw the embryos in the other and they too were moving so I though perhaps the ones with the dark mass may not have moved but just some of the dark cloud had been disturbed by my handling.

@ronott1 posted earlier when I first noticed that I did have a blood ring that it means the egg was fertile but the bacteria invaded the egg and killed the embryo, at least that's how I remember his post. So basically, I guess an egg with a bloodring can not have a living embryo and an egg with a living embryo can not have a bloodring. I am I correct?

You are correct.

However, at the very first few days, sometimes a vein will just happen to grow in a way that looks a lot like a boodring esp. if your candling light is week, or the shell is dark or thick. So your sitting there trying to guess if it is a vein or a bloodring. You don't want to toss a good egg, but you don't want to risk a bad egg spoiling the others, it is a puzzle & a judgement call. That is when if its early enough that it might be a good egg w/ a confusing vein you just mark the egg, leave it another day or 2 & re-check. I often put the mark on the egg right beside where I'm trying to figure our vein vs blood ring, so it calls my attention to that area when I recandle. (The blood ring is actually the rotting veins/blood, so it will become more brown (less red) & more fuzzy as it gets more nasty inside there). So again sometimes the only way to be _certain_ is to compare the same egg to itself a day or 2 later. If it dose not smell or weep then its fairly safe to allow it another day or 2 before you decide, and that extra day or 2 generally makes it pretty obvious if you have a live embryo in there (or not). Finally, it is just a matter of experience, the more eggs you candle the more you learn to get a read on what is going on. Opening the bad ones helps too so you can confirm what you were seeing. It is scientific, but learning what to look for is kinda an artform too.

 

[FeyRaine]

Just out of curiousity, at what altitude are you? It does appear that the chicks died at about the same time, but they look pretty normal. Any chance not enough oxygen in the incubator? Were the vents full open? High altitude or lack of oxygen can cause late-stage smothering.

@ robgray

That is what I wondered when I saw the pictures.

I had a large # like that my first several hatches. I found out later that the (3) thermometers I was using were all reading low, so that caused several things, like the air cells didn't get big enough (half of the ones I opened died w/o turning) & the humidity was too high & I think the ones at the end didn't have enough oxygen in the bator due to all the other factors adding up to an overall tragic mix.
I figured all this out when the DH bought me 12 thermometers, I lined them up inside the hot bator & side by side got a 5 (FIVE) degree step difference, none agreed w/ each other, even touching so it wasn't about hot/cold spots in the still air. When I uped the heat, I got 90-100% hatch rates. I ALSO went to dry hatching b/c so many ppl on BYC w/ good hatch rates were doing that too.

For example right now, in both bators I have added ZERO water, BUT its been raining/sleeting here almost daily, & even w/ the heat running in the house the indoor humidity is running 65percent!
I'm actually concerned b/c I'm marking the size of the aircells when I candle & they are not growing as fast as they should, close but the ones due Dec 24 look a little small to me, For this reason I have NOT yet added water for lockdown/hatch, & have decided to wait another day, or until I hear an internal pip ie the last possible moment to add water. I'll admit that I've gotten busy in the past & 3 times had chicks hatch in a totally DRY bator, just fine! (but I live in a very humid climate). So very very local conditions can make all the difference too.

 

[bantambury]

Finished up my brooder! Took 3 hours last night and a few minutes this morning.

Lockdown is tomorrow for me!