87% hatch rate* in a styrofoam bator!

[davemonkey]

I'm very excited!

This is my 4th hatch, and only second using an incubator. My first incubator hatch rate was 60%, so I am super thrilled right now. The 87% does not count 3 infertile eggs that I tossed on Day 7...I am only counting the 15 that were fertile. Of those 15, 1 died around Day 8 or so, and the other died at 'internal pip' yesterday AM. The other 13 have all hatched now and are taking rest in the brooder.

But I have a problem. HALF of them were malpositioned and ended up needing assistance. 3 were pointed completely the wrong direction, pipping the narrow end of the shell. The other 4 pipped right smack in the middle of the egg, still pipping into both membranes at once, instead of into the air cell. I was extra cautious this time around with humidity and temp regulation, opening ONLY to turn the eggs 2-3 times per day. But I think these still-air incubators are always going to be either too cool at the bottom, or too warm at the top. I kept it at 102 for the most part, and dropped it 2 degrees for the last 3 days as recommended by someone who has hatched more eggs than I will ever eat in my life. Humidity was stable at 25-30% during incubation with excellent air cell development, marked at Days 7, 14, and 18, and then boosted to 50-60% at lockdown. I did not open the incubator once at hatch-time until it was apparent that 1 chick was in trouble...and only after all eggs had pipped.

Any thoughts?

Oh, and I'll try to get some pics up of my new babies later on. They are too cool. All barnyard mutts, but I leg-banded each one according to the egg it came out of, and I am amazed at the similarities between different-mother-breed chicks, and teh differences between chicks from the same mother. It is true...you neve know what you will get with these guys!

 

[davemonkey]

Something else I forgot to mention, one site said that malpositions can be more common in horizontally incubated eggs as opposed to eggs incubated fat-side-up (as in an egg tray). I did this one horizontally...so maybe that is an explanation. Anyone do horizontal and verticle at different times and notice any difference in amount of malpositions?

 

[davemonkey]

Pictures of the chicks. We watched each hatching and they've got legbands to distinguish which eggs they came from (blue/green egg, brown egg (either Australorp or RIR), and Wyandotte egg). The male parent of ALL of them is the Fayoumis x EE that I hatched last October. So they are divided by the mother's breed.

First, the Wyandottes. I have only 1 Wynadotte hen, so these have the same exact parents:

 

[davemonkey]

These are the ones that hatched from other brown eggs. I only collected from Australorp and RIR...and I'm wondering if these weren't all Aust. There are 5 of them...and one turned out yellow with black stripes. It's 4 days old now, and the wing feathers that are coming in have some charcoal and yellow in them. Only time will tell...

 

[davemonkey]

The Easter Eggers (6 of them). 2 of these babies look just like one of the Wyandotte chicks, except the Wyandottes are notably smaller in size, and are feathering in much more slowly.









The one at the top/left of this last picture was the very first chick to hatch...nearly a full day ahead of the others (on Day 20). He's (she) also got the puffiest cheeks of the whole lot of them.

 

[LilRedRoo]

That's interesting that within the same cross there are such striking differences, and from different crosses there are such similarities. I;d have guessed all the darker ones coming from one hen et cetera...that's cool that you were able to keep tabs and leg band them. It makes me wonder about my little chicks. Cats got them the other day, so we've only got 2 left (chickens were penned for the winter and the chicks can get out beyond mama's protection), but looking at them I now wonder if I was totally wrong about the crosses they hatched from. I was just going based on looks compared to who's eggs I had hatched out. Congratulations on the excellent hatch rate by the way.

That's interesting on the horizontal hatching. I've not had to chance to actually hatch out in the incubator before because we seem to always have a hen to set the eggs under at Day 17-18, so I have no idea what she does with them. Some hatch and some don't...I'd like to hear about how future hatches go with a better incubator. Keep me posted...of course with this many little chicks you're going to have to put up meat eventually...

 

[davemonkey]

LOL! Yep these will probably all get eaten this time around, unless I can sell some of them. Once the older girls are starting to slow down on egg laying, I'll hatch out some replacers. Mainly, I wanted to see what these mixes would look like and see what type personality they have. I have a feeling all the boys will make for good eye-candy. Too bad I don't need another Rooster.