April 2020 Hatch-A-Long! All are welcome!

[Phillyndilly]

This is what my last Silkie hatch looked like to give you an idea. I had a 100% hatch. These were my notes to myself. I'm more accustomed to watching air cell development myself but whatever each individual finds works best for them is what you should keep doing! Good luck!

Weighing and comparing Silkie bantam egg weight to air cell size

• Eggs should lose 11-13% during first 18 days of incubation
• Between 0.6-0.7% per day average
• Measured final weight loss as 8am on day 18

Egg 1 – Day (0) 37 grams – Day (7) 36 grams – Day (15) 34 grams – Day (18) 33 grams – LOST 10.81%

Egg 2 – Day 0 – 37 grams - INFERTILE

Egg 3 – Day (0) 37 grams – Day (7) 35 grams – Day (15) 34 grams – Day (18) 33 grams – LOST 10.81%

Egg 4 – Day (0) 39 grams – Day (7) 37 grams – Day (15) 35 grams – Day (18) 35 grams – LOST 10.25%

Egg 5 – Day (0) 37 grams – Day (7) 36 grams – Day (15) 34 grams – Day (18) 33 grams – LOST 10.81%

Egg 6 – Day (0) 39 grams – Day (7) 38 grams – Day (15) 36 grams – Day (18) 35 grams – LOST 10.25%

Egg 7 – Day (0) 39 grams – Day (7) 36 grams – Day (15) 34 grams – Day (18) 34 grams – LOST 12.82%

Egg 8 – Day (0) 38 grams – Day (7) 37 grams – Day (15) 34 grams – Day (18) 33 grams – LOST 13.15%

Egg 9 – Day (0) 39 grams – Day (7) 38 grams – Day (15) 36 grams – Day (18) 35 grams – LOST 10.25%

Egg 10 – Day (0) 38 grams – Day (7) 36 grams – Day (15) 35 grams – Day (18) 34 grams – LOST 10.52%

Egg 11 – Day (0) 34 grams – Day (7) 33 grams – Day (15) 30 grams – Day (18) 29 grams – LOST 11.76%

Egg 12 – Day (0) 39 grams – Day (7) 37 grams – Day (15) 34 grams – Day (18) 34 grams – LOST 12.82%

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Wow thank you SO much that is amazing I will do it the same way you have done. Next time I candle I’m going to start marking the air cells.

Seeing all of this math and everything, makes my head hurt.

I feel like incubating shouldn't be such a hard process. I don't even do anything like this, but I don't deal with other people's eggs.

I know the quality of my eggs and they're like gold to me especially with 90% hatch rates.

Does doing all this math truly give you a better hatch rate?

Hello yes I also do have my own eggs from my girls right in the yard but my first hatch def could’ve been better and I’m not familiar with just looking at air cells yet.

lol! No, it doesn't for me, I've always gone by air cell development but everyone is different. Do what you're comfortable with! Weighing is more effort in my opinion but it also takes a lot of the guess work out for someone that has never hatched before and is struggling to decide what the "right" air cell development looks like even with diagrams.

This was actually my first time weighing along side watching the air cell development because someone requested that I do it for different sized eggs. I'll eventually put together an article with both methods to help people decide what works best for them.

An article would be amazingggg! Ya it was hard for me even with the diagrams last time.

 

[Phillyndilly]

I think it’s a good way for people to touble shoot issues. For example, the poster that’s weighing her eggs this time, had a bunch DIS at the end of her last hatch and she suspects it was due to too low humidity and weighing them this time sort of takes the guess work out of it. It can give some peace of mind. I did it once and never plan to do it again because it was just too much work and math for me. But if I was having issues and couldn’t figure them out, I’d consider doing it.

Haha yes thank you. That’s exactly why I’m doing it but I am so bad at math. Percentages aren’t so hard tho so hopefully I’ll be fine lol.

 

[HeaterCW42]

Welp, looks like I'm the April fool The 8 eggs that made it to lockdown were all shrinkwrapped! The first egg had pipped before 4 am, and no progress 12 has later. Pip 2 never got to zipping...humidity was around 66-71, but idk. Anyhow I did a lot of reading and decided to intervene. Went to work shelling all of them, and six are now recuperating in the bator. I'm going to let the last two wait a bit, there were still blood vessels. Looks like at least two boys too, what am I going to do with them!

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Welp, looks like I'm the April fool The 8 eggs that made it to lockdown were all shrinkwrapped! The first egg had pipped before 4 am, and no progress 12 has later. Pip 2 never got to zipping...humidity was around 66-71, but idk. Anyhow I did a lot of reading and decided to intervene. Went to work shelling all of them, and six are now recuperating in the bator. I'm going to let the last two wait a bit, there were still blood vessels. Looks like at least two boys too, what am I going to do with them!

Oh my! So sorry about the shrink wrapped babies, at least you were able to help them in time.

 

[gmjarvi]

Welp, looks like I'm the April fool The 8 eggs that made it to lockdown were all shrinkwrapped! The first egg had pipped before 4 am, and no progress 12 has later. Pip 2 never got to zipping...humidity was around 66-71, but idk. Anyhow I did a lot of reading and decided to intervene. Went to work shelling all of them, and six are now recuperating in the bator. I'm going to let the last two wait a bit, there were still blood vessels. Looks like at least two boys too, what am I going to do with them!

Wow! I'm glad you were able to get the 6 out so far. Fingers crossed they are strong!

 

[CindyinSD]

Thanks so much to you both! I had this giant heat plate out in my coop for my spoiled girls all winter. After sanitizing it, I brought it in here and made a stand for it in the brooder. I think I made the stand too high because they can’t press their backs up against it.
I actually made my husband run to our feed store to grab this heat lamp today but I’m super nervous about it. I’ve heard and seen horror stories. I’ll probably use it for this first week or so and probably by next week they’ll be tall enough to touch the heat plate.

You could just build up shavings under the plate if it's too tall. Within a couple-three days mine are always parked on top rather than under the plate anyway.

 

[CindyinSD]

I love love love my heat plate. I wish I had a couple more of the small ones and a large one for the grow out brooder. I like that they're a bit safer than heat lamps, but I think a heat lamp can be just fine when used properly. I feel like the heat plates make hardier birds, though, since the heat is only under the plate and they have to move away from the heat source to eat, drink, etc.

My ducks hated the plate, and outgrew it quickly anyway, so I've been using a heat lamp for them and one in the grow out pen as well since those chicks are too big for the plate now. My bantams and recent hatchlings love it, though.

You can also make a larger one by wrapping a heating pad in a plasticized feed bag & taping it together. Devise a stand for it and rewire it to eliminate the auto-off switch and you're golden.

 

[Akoharski4]

You could just build up shavings under the plate if it's too tall. Within a couple-three days mine are always parked on top rather than under the plate anyway.

They’ve got both the heating plate and the heat lamp and they seem happy. The seem to be gravitating towards the plate. I’m assuming because it’s not so darn bright lol.

The first four (two silver laced polish, 1 buff silkie, and 1 *i think* paint silkie) have all started eating and drinking. I set up a nipple waterer although I’m second guessing if maybe I should just do the bucket type instead. I’ve seen a few birdie poops too so that’s a good sign. My stargazer chick also seems to be doing just fine. Is walking around and eating and drinking without any tumbling or looking up.

I had #5 pip and never zip. It was starting to really get shrink wrapped in there so I assisted with some coconut oil on the membrane and pulled back a little shell along the air cell. The darn membrane was stuck to her one wing and she just couldn’t get herself out. Not sure how because humidity was at 70%. Poor thing. I pulled most of shell around the air cell away carefully and she finally popped out. Yolk was completely absorbed and there was zero bleeding in the membrane so she was definitely ready. She has a somewhat vaulted skull so I’m thinking that’s what gave her a hard time hatching. Otherwise she’s chirping away and now in the brooder with her other roommates.

i hear some chirps in the incubator so I’m hoping my final two will hatch. They looked good on lockdown day so

 

[BluebirdHomestead]

BBS Ameraucana hatch update! Night of day 21 and 9 babies are out. 17 went into lockdown. 3 pipped and then died. 1 I am not sure why, as it’s beak was exposed. 2 seemed to not pip through the membrane and then got rolled pip down and maybe suffocated? Alas. 3 have not pipped yet, one of which I thought looked weird at lock down. I candled and all 3 have slight movement, so they are alive, but I am not holding my breath. 2 were pipped low and seemed stuck so I opened viewing holes. 1 is ready to come out and I made a partial zip and am waiting to see if it’ll push out on its own. It has its wing stuck over its head. The other one isn’t quite ready to come out, so I’m leaving it until morning. If I get these 2 out, I’ll be happy with the hatch rate. That’ll be 11/17 that went into lockdown. I’m used to horrible shipped egg hatch rates, so anything over half is fine with me.

 

[Akoharski4]

BBS Ameraucana hatch update! Night of day 21 and 9 babies are out. 17 went into lockdown. 3 pipped and then died. 1 I am not sure why, as it’s beak was exposed. 2 seemed to not pip through the membrane and then got rolled pip down and maybe suffocated? Alas. 3 have not pipped yet, one of which I thought looked weird at lock down. I candled and all 3 have slight movement, so they are alive, but I am not holding my breath. 2 were pipped low and seemed stuck so I opened viewing holes. 1 is ready to come out and I made a partial zip and am waiting to see if it’ll push out on its own. It has its wing stuck over its head. The other one isn’t quite ready to come out, so I’m leaving it until morning. If I get these 2 out, I’ll be happy with the hatch rate. That’ll be 11/17 that went into lockdown. I’m used to horrible shipped egg hatch rates, so anything over half is fine with me.

Jealous of your hatch rate. This was my first experience with shipped eggs and I’m currently 5/18. Most didn’t even make it to day 7 for me.