Big problems with Chukar partridge incubation and Hatching. Help???

[Chukar Enthusiast]

Hi all, i am new at this forum and almost as new with raising Chukar partridges. I live in Australia and we dont have alot of info or support with regards to getting Chukar out and about! Hope someone can help
Have 6 pairs of adults have been incubating the eggs for the past few months in a Brinsea fully automatic incubator and then transferring them into a manual tray incubator at day 19. Have altered the temp and humidity so many times, each batch gets a different temp and %. Nothing is yielding good success. We started off with temp at about 100F and humidity at 50%. Then kept temp the same and bumped up humidity we are now at 65% for the first 19 days and last 3 its over 70%. Poor success rates and not one has pipped and hatched on their own. They seem to still grow too big for the egg so cant break out of the shell. They also get stuck from the 'stuff' in the egg and we end up helping to peel away the shell, sometimes they bleed a bit. Those that we help generally survive and thrive, but its such a hard distressing thing to do and to watch them suffer.
Can anyone give me any advice everything i read conflicts everything else. What am i doing wrong?
Cheers

 

[pascopol]

Hi Mate, welcome to the forums. You will not likely get answers on pheasant forums, there is almost no partrige keepers here. Partridge should have separate thread, or it should be together with quail board.

If we rule out genetic or other inherited possible reasons, or deseases, and your embrios are growing to large, I believe the eggs lose too much water in incubation process.

What part of Australia you are in? If you are in the arid dessert part with very low humidity perhaps you need to start them

at 60% humidity or higher. Also incubator type come to play here, ones hold the humidity better than others.

You can consult JJMR794 , he is most active on quail board. He is my neighboor and personal friend.

JJMR794 is perhaps the most respected, and knowlegable expert in all aspects of raising quail, pheasant, and chukars on BYC.

He has hundreds of gamebirds and he also ships eggs. JJMR794 advocates to incubate and hatch gamebird eggs in horizontal (stand up) position.

Shot him a PM , he is very friendly and willing to help person.

In Florida humid climate most of us here incubates at 40-50 % humidity, then 60-70% or more for lockdown with very good results.

 

[JJMR794]

Thanx For The Compliments Pascopal,

I Have No Problem Hatching Them... I Just Cant Keep Them From Killing Each Other As Late Juvis Or Adults...

The Way I Incubate Them, Or I Should Say The Way That Works Best For Me...

Autoturner, Brinsea, Humidity During Incubation= 40-50%, The Brinsea Is Forced Air And Set At 99.5
On Day 21 I Move Them To The Hatcher, Humidity Up 60-70% All My Eggs Are Hatched In The Upright Position In A Still Air Hatcher. I Have Found A Couple Of Things Important To Hatching In General That Can Be Useful With Any Speces... #1 Upright For Hatch, Greatly Decreases Hatch Mortality, Even Gives The Backward Breach Kids A Fighting Chance. #2 Still Air Is Way Better To Hatch In As The Forced Air Has Air Current Circulating Around Inside That Will Dry Out The Egg Membranes Much Faster And Cause The Slow Hatchers To Get "shrink Wrapped" By The Inner Membranes. By Using A Seperat Hatcher I Can Improve Hatch Rates, Easily Do Staggered And Or Mixed Speces Hatches, And I Can Leave Each Specific Piece Of Equipment (incubators/ Hatchers) At The Optimum Setting And Not Have To Fiddle With Changing Things. Here Once They Are Set To Specific Parameters They Are Left Alone Unless Readjustment Is Needed.

 

[Robo]

I use my homme made cabinet for incubating and an LG and a hovabator for hatching. My cabinet usually stays on all the time, but it is not working right now.

 

[aprophet]

THE COUPLA HATCHES i HAVE HAD IT SEEMS TO TAKE AN ENTIRE DAY FOR THEM TO PIP AND ZIP 24 HOURS

 

[Chukar Enthusiast]

You people really know your stuff! I live on the east coast of Australia not far from Sydney and we get a fair bit of humid weather. i want to say Thanks for your responses and this is what i have done so far: i have waited to the 21 days (rather than 19) before putting them into the hatcher so will see if this helps. Also have changed the adults diet thus increasing protein as suggested so hopefully that will help too.
I always thought that if the humidity was low around the 50% mark that they would grow too big and not have as big of an air pocket and therefore decrease their rate of success. Its really got me confused as to what setting does what? I will however do the next batch with your recommendations as too the temp and humidity, i don't really know whether it is more with diet and genetics rather than the incubator. Hopefully i can get it right by the end of the season.

 

[Chukar Enthusiast]

Another thing??? HOw do you get them to stay in an upright position when hatching? I take out the trays and lay the eggs on the side - that is this alternative??
Cheers, and sorry for my ignorance

 

[Robo]

You can use shipping foams or cartons.

 

[JJMR794]

Quote:
ARE YOU USING AUTO TURNER? IF SO SIMPLY TIME IT TO WHEN THEY ARE UPRIGHT AND UNPLUG THE TURNER. OR AS ROBO SUGGESTS THE PAPER MACHE FLATS OR EVEN EGG CARTONS WILL WORK

 

[sohaib]

hi! i am a chukar farmer in u.a.e . i have got 1600 pairs of chukar partridges. lately i have observed some males in my breeding stock which are lazy,keep sitting in a corner with puffed up feathers and donot eat . can you tell me something about that?
regards