Bad hatche Rate And sex link question

[SamuelMcF]

First question:
I know you get a sex- link when you cross a male RIR rooster with a Female Barred Plymouth Rock. (never tried myself) But after doing some research I saw that if you breed a Male BPR with a female RIR then you will get a barred chicken with no sex-linking. Why is that?? Wouldn't it just be the same? I would like to know before I try it out. (I have a BPR rooster and RIR females)

Second question:
I have a hovabator 1620N. I have used it three times. The first time I used eggs that a friend down the road gave me. 8 out of 8 eggs hatched but they were late. second time I used eggs that I bought from somebody about 3 hours away and I drove them home. out of 20 eggs only 9 hatched. I cracked open the rest of the eggs after they were in the incubator for many days and found fully developed chicks in every single one that were all dead! the ones that did survive had hatched a day and a half late! third time I am in right know. I have 6 eggs in. None of them have hatched or even pipped and it is day 22. I heard them chirping a lot last night and now absolutely nothing. I am afraid they've all died. I keep my incubator at 100.5 and I don't have a hygrometer but I follow the factory instructions on which trays to fill. I just don't understand why they all hatched fine the first time but the next times it didn't work at all. I had the exact same settings each time. Please Help!!

 

[Katy]

Quote:
I can't help you on your first question but can try on the second.

If your eggs are consistantly hatching late I'd think your temps are too low during incubation. Have you checked the temp with different thermomters? What kind of thermometer are you using?

You really need to get a hygrometer to keep tabs on the humidity. If I filled the trays in my incubators like the instructions say to I'd drown every chick in every egg I tried to hatch.

 

[bockbock2008]

Having similar hatching failures so keeping an eye on this thread. Not late hatches for me just a high quitting rate between days 18 -21.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Tadkerson gives great information on sex links in this thread. I think it would help you.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=261208

Some genes are only passed from the hen to her male offspring, not her female offspring. These are the sex linked genes. Most of the genes are not sex linked, but a few are. A rooster always passes a set of genes to all his offspring. Some genes are dominant and some are recessive. If the genes that the hen only passes to her male offspring are dominant over the genes the rooster contributes to all his offspring, then that gene will show up (express itself) in the male offspring and not the female. Barring is a dominant sex linked gene. With a RIR rooster and a barred hen, the male offspring will inherit this barring gene and the female offspring will not. Since the barred rock's black base color is dominant over the RIR's red color, the female chicks will be solid black, although a little red normally leaks through, especially around the neck. The males will basically be black and white barred.

With a barred father and RIR mother, both male and female offspring will inherit the dominant barring and the dominant black from the father. So in color they will wind up looking pretty much like him, though they might have some red leakage.

I do not have that specific incubator. I do not know if it is still air or forced air. Late hatching generally means the incubation temperature is just a little low, but I cannot tell you how to adjust yours. Have you calibrated your thermometer? Any of them can be off a bit.

These links may help you in trouble shooting your incubation.

Mississippi State Incubation Troubleshooting
http://www.poultry.msstate.edu/extension/pdf/troubleshooting_incubation.pdf

Florida Incubation Troubleshooting
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/aa204

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

If you could hear them but they never hatched I would assume the humidity to be way low but that is a guess.
anyway.
late = low temp
all quitting on the last day or so = wrong humidity.

 

[dnschuler]

I am having the same problem. Out of 48 eggs I hatched 14 healthy ones, 2 that I don't think are going to make it and 28 that are fully developed chicks dead in the shell. What is the problem? I had perfect temperature.

 

[bigdawg]

Quote:
i agree, late hatch = low temps. all quitting = low humidity buy a brinsea spot check thermometer for temp, and a 6.00 thermomo/hydro from walmart to check humidity although not very relaible anything is better than nothing at all. brinsea is the the most accuate on the mkt.