Anyone setting eggs starting July 15 -July 22?

[Roxannemc]

McGill love it poopalots

Umama..
.
..perfect hatch....and 3 shipped too! Wow..What was your humidity?Tell me your secret!

 

[UrbanMamaHen]

McGill love it poopalots
Umama..
.
..perfect hatch....and 3 shipped too! Wow..What was your humidity?Tell me your secret!

Roxanne,

I think the secret is having an accurate thermometer and hygrometer. I got mine at incubator warehouse.com. I used a Brinsea octagon 20, and it is supposed to hold the temperature within .5 degree of the calibrated temparature, but I found that it can vary more than one degree depending in the room temperature. Anyways, I adjusted the temperature daily -sometimes twice a day- to keep it between 99.3 and 99.7 degrees. There were a couple of times the temperature dipped to 98.5 after I candled the eggs, and stayed at this temperature overnight (because I didn't know the bator couldn't get back to the target temp on it's own,) but that didn't seem to hurt the eggs. By the way, Brinsea is now putting cooling cycles in their bators now as that is believed to help the embryos develop, mimicking nature. I guess I had a couple cooling cycles on accident.
On the humidity, I started out dry incubating - room humidity was 50% but the bator's was running around 30%. After four days, I weighed several eggs, and checked the average weight loss. They were losing weight too fast - I was targeting 13% loss overall - so I added water and raised the humidity to be around 45%. I kept the humidity between 40-50% between day 4 and day 18.
On lock down, I put the eggs in lock down at day 18.5. Counting the day I set the eggs as day 0. The humidity was raised to 65%. The first chick hatched 30 hours after lock down. As the chicks hatch, the humidity naturally increased to 75%, and at 78% at the peak. After the first 8 chicks hatch, they were crowding the bator so I took them out. I added hot water after I open the bator to compensate for the drop in humidity when I open it. This temporarily raised the temp to 100% and humidity is quickly raised back up to the 70's before settling around 65% again. Although one egg took 30 hrs from pip to hatch, of those that hatched, they hatched within 20 hrs of the first hatch. I had eggs that varied in size, small to jumbo.

I thought mine hatched a day early, but I watched some videos of hatchery hatching process, and my timeline happened to match their timelines almost exactly. I started to give them food and water about 12 hours after I put them in the brooder. I dipped their beaks in the water to show them where water was, and within a few hours, all were eating and drinking. I waited 12 hours to give them food and water because they all were just sleeping, and were still unsteady on their feet in the first 12 hours. Now, nearly three days later, some are already trying to fly.

My daughter watched some videos on how to sex chicks, and she sexed them using the wing feather method. She thinks we have 8 girls and 9 boys.

This was a summer science project with my girls. We will be giving all the chicks away today to our friends. My daughters have been holding the chicks to socialize them. It's quite amazing to see the different reactions between chicks that had been held a lot to those that haven't been. Yes, my daughters have their favorites. The ones that had been held a lot do not run away when we put our hands in the brooder. They may even come toward our hands. Those that haven't been held much would scatter away.

And we got 4 out of the 7 shipped eggs to hatch. They were sent via UPS so it took four days to get to us. They were laid on Monday morning, shipped the same day, and were set on Friday evening, six hours after they were delivered. I only let them rest on the counter for a few hours instead of a full 24 hours like some threads had suggested. I figured it was better to set them as soon as possible since it took extra long for them to get to california from massachusetts. The weather was hot across the country, and I was worried that they would be damaged. When I got them, they smelled musty and some were slightly damp.

 

[calichickies]

Glad to see you documented your hatching journey so well. We all learn so much don't we!
Where are you in CA? I'm in Santa Cruz, CA

 

[Roxannemc]

URBAN MAMA

Thanks so much for the details of your sucessful hatch.Thats wonderful.I appreciate all the details That helps. to know what works for the majority
I did read that about the Brinsea.The cool down cycle.
.I am running mine about how you have this last hatch 45 humidity then 75 at the end.
It could be my hydrometer. i have a house one i put them together 2 months ago on my first hatch and they were the same.
Also i hit the set each time.Its in the Hovabator
Genesis has its own in the bator and temp and temp set regulator
.
I got mine in the Hovabator kit from Incubator warehouse too .Its Incubator Warehouse brand though.
So might try another.
I am fairly convienced most of my bad eggs are from shipping though . b/c i read someplace that they die in stages not all at once and not at the end mostly.Also the Hovabator trouble shooter states a few things that i didnt do wrong so whats left?..shipping? heat?.

The eggs we eggtopsied 3 breeders,... about 20 out of about 32 that went in lock.. mostly infertile or died VERY early
Sorry now didnt have my grand daughter pull the yolk apart to see if they had started to grow or not at all fertile
3 died at different stages of growth about 7-12 days
. 2 full term
They looked like they shrink wrapped as the membranes were white and dry. but it was on day 23 we did the topsy would they have shrunk down if dead 2 or 3 days or 4 by then?
.
These were from the 2 incubators too.14 in the Hovabator with aq turner, the rest the geneisis no turner by hand
Wish i had marked which had been in which the first 18 days when they all went in lockdown but majority were in the Genesis.
Lock was in the Hovabator but i think majority didnt make it far enough for that to matter.
2 maybe could have hatched at the end that didnt.
My head count;
1 chick out of 8 -got 10 (no cool pack) 1/8
5 chicks out of 10 - got 14 (cool pack) 1/3
3 out of 11 - got 12 (cool pack) 1/4
so less than 25% ALL shipped. in the heat.

.My 2 earlier dud hatches had the same thing ;.dead chicks early on before day 10 or so in different stages of growth.
Both in Hovabator all 21 days
.


.

 

[UrbanMamaHen]

Glad to see you documented your hatching journey so well.   We all learn so much don't we! 
Where are you in CA?  I'm in Santa Cruz, CA

It was a great learning experience. My kids had their friends come over to watch the hatch, and had a chick holding party. They had a lot of fun. With my four pullets, I didn't hold them much the first week because I read that we can stress them out. Well, that could be true for chicks from feed stores, but not for the ones we hatched. They didn't mind being picked up, and seemed to enjoy being held. They fell fast asleep when held. These chicks didn't scatter when we put our hands into the brooder. They either continued to do what they were doing, or came to our hands.

I live in sunny San Diego. The city passed an ordinance to allow residents to keep hens this past February. No roosters within city limits though. I got my four pullets when they were several days old back in April.

 

[UrbanMamaHen]

Roxanne,

It's hard to know why some eggs hatch and some don't. I had a 50+% hatch rate for shipped eggs and about 80% for local eggs so shipping could be a factor in the lower hatch rate. At the same time, I think the health of the hens and roosters is important. The flock my local eggs came from is very healthy and relatively young. The hens and roosters are between 1.5 to 2 years old. Perhaps eggs from young pullets or older hens don't hatch as well? I haven't seen any studies on the effect of the hens' age on the hatch rate so don't really know. Maybe you could research this and ask future egg sellers the age of their hens and roosters. I hope you have better luck with your next hatches of shipped eggs.

 

[Roxannemc]

Urbanmama
Great idea.I have a lot of questions besides that.One is about bubble wrap since zigot is alive and eggs breath how can bubble wrap during shipping be a good idea.?
Would love to poll the ppl who get shipped eggs and find out details of those shipped that was a smashing success and yes the breeders on their hens too.Everyone seems to pretty much do about the same humidity and temp so there has to be other factors.My next 2 hatches the ppl didnt clean the eggs and at least one didnt bubble wrap.Interested in how these hatches will differ if they do.

 

[Roxannemc]

OK a littlle paniced deep breath.....went to turn my eggs.. day 17 for some, humidity about 42 just added water t o 44Wnet to turn some..... Saw one is pipping as iturn him.. in there! . Transferred him to locked down bator His membrane is paper white!!Looks dry ..He was peeping through the hole though so ALIVE... NOW.
HUmidiy is 77 in that lockdown incubator .What do i do? Should i spray his pip hole or let things go?
Also saw 2 others have star cracks that are in the lockdown too now so what to do about him?and how with them pipping.?What about the eggs that are on day 17.?.should they go in lock now too?
GEEZ

 

[silkiemelon]

Well, I was in seattle but now I'm back

I just wanted to announce THAT THE WINNER OF THE WORST HATCHING RATE GOES TO...SILKIEMELON!! With a whopping 1 out 0f 12 egg hatch!
Wowzers!
Well, that's pretty bad for my 7th time hatching. But that's ok, perfection takes time. I'm only 17 after all!

 

[UrbanMamaHen]

OK a littlle paniced deep breath.....went to turn my eggs.. day 17 for some, humidity about 42 just added water t o 44Wnet to turn some.....  Saw one is pipping as  iturn him.. in there!   . Transferred him to locked down bator His  membrane is paper white!!Looks dry ..He was peeping through  the hole though so ALIVE... NOW. 
HUmidiy is 77 in that lockdown incubator .What  do i do? Should i spray his pip hole or let things go?
Also saw 2 others have star cracks that are in the lockdown  too now   so what  to do about him?and how with them pipping.?What about the eggs that are on day 17.?.should they go in lock now too?
GEEZ

Were the eggs set on different days? If you have others eggs that were set on the same day as those that piped today, I would move them all to your hatching incubator, and not do anything else. The humidity is at 77 which is good. If you try to help, you may do more harm than good. I had one that hatched after 30 hours. The exposed membrane was drying out, but he hatched out perfectly in the end. Don't open the incubator while they are hatching.