BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[ronott1]

Well, I'm pretty bummed out right now. Three days ago the power was knocked out by lightening and it was off 14 hrs. We're in a all electric house so no water from the well, no toilet, no A/C, no TV or internet and NO power for my incubator. It was off for 14 hrs at 75 degrees. Too long. Today is day 21 and Nada. Of course, I wasn't expecting any but people on the forum said wait it out. sigh. Fifteen good White Plymouth Rocks. I'll have to re order.

I did read something on another thread Incubator annon. thread, that for best results to soak you eggs in 3 Vit C capsules in water for 2 min and then let dry before putting in the incubator. Then on day 16, turn it off or down for 6 hrs to 75 degrees. Rate of hatch is up a lot and mortality is down. I'll try to get the article. Very interesting.

Define a lot? Was that anecdotal or were scientific studies performed.

It would be risky trying the soaking with shipped eggs.

Proven to increase hatch rate and hatchability is a two hour cool down cycle from day 8 to 18. Misting can help too but you have to make sure the eggs are dry prior to closing the incubator. Misting and then leaving the lid off to cool should work.

Oz was banned from that site because of the science he posted so It must be anecdotal information.

The best thing to do is to invest in a very accurate thermometer and incubate at close to 99.9. You will get close to the best hatch rate that way. Other things will get you one chick per hatch--like 35 out of 42 instead of 34. Often it is not worth the extra hassle.

 

[LindaB220]

Define a lot? Was that anecdotal or were scientific studies performed.

It would be risky trying the soaking with shipped eggs.

Proven to increase hatch rate and hatchability is a two hour cool down cycle from day 8 to 18. Misting can help too but you have to make sure the eggs are dry prior to closing the incubator. Misting and then leaving the lid off to cool should work.

Oz was banned from that site because of the science he posted so It must be anecdotal information.

The best thing to do is to invest in a very accurate thermometer and incubate at close to 99.9. You will get close to the best hatch rate that way. Other things will get you one chick per hatch--like 35 out of 42 instead of 34. Often it is not worth the extra hassle.

I found the article:

http://www.epsaegypt.com/pdf/2011_june/15- 1271.pdf

I'm glad you saw this because it reminded me of your 8-18 day cool down.

 

[ronott1]

I found the article:

http://www.epsaegypt.com/pdf/2011_june/15- 1271.pdf

I'm glad you saw this because it reminded me of your 8-18 day cool down.

Thanks for the link!

Give the eggs in your current hatch more time. Although 14 hours that late in hatch should not delay hatching, other factors will. Add one hour to the hatch per day in storage. You never know how old shipped eggs are.

The study had 3 more eggs hatch out of 90 set. I have washed dirty hatching eggs with Manna Pro egg wash. It has vitamin C on it and instructions for washing hatching eggs.

Brinsea has posted results of studies on using the cool down cycle like I described, two hours per day starting on day 8 to 18. There are several studies quoted for it.

From reading the article, It would not be a good idea to run the hatch with less than 40% humidity, as a guess, because of the extra moisture loss caused by the acid wash.

Cooling and Vit C washing is fine tuning and the article did say the temperature was the most important thing--it was in the Abstract section at the top. If hatches are consistently later than 21 days, temps are too low.

We all need to get the basics under control first. A lot of hatchers are spending a lot of money on expensive shipped eggs and hatching them in a home made cooler bater using a light bulb for the heat source.

My advice is to get a commercial incubator of good quality and invest in an accurate thermometer. It will be less expensive in the long term because the eggs will hatch better.

 

[LindaB220]

Thanks for the link!

Give the eggs in your current hatch more time. Although 14 hours that late in hatch should not delay hatching, other factors will. Add one hour to the hatch per day in storage. You never know how old shipped eggs are.

The study had 3 more eggs hatch out of 90 set. I have washed dirty hatching eggs with Manna Pro egg wash. It has vitamin C on it and instructions for washing hatching eggs.

Brinsea has posted results of studies on using the cool down cycle like I described, two hours per day starting on day 8 to 18. There are several studies quoted for it.

From reading the article, It would not be a good idea to run the hatch with less than 40% humidity, as a guess, because of the extra moisture loss caused by the acid wash.

Cooling and Vit C washing is fine tuning and the article did say the temperature was the most important thing--it was in the Abstract section at the top. If hatches are consistently later than 21 days, temps are too low.

We all need to get the basics under control first. A lot of hatchers are spending a lot of money on expensive shipped eggs and hatching them in a home made cooler bater using a light bulb for the heat source.

My advice is to get a commercial incubator of good quality and invest in an accurate thermometer. It will be less expensive in the long term because the eggs will hatch better.

Good to know. I have a commerical incubator but will have to get a better one later. Three temp gauges and 2 of them are 100 and the third in the water wiggler is 99.5 I will have to pay more attention to keeping humidity up to 40%. I've already contacted Wade at Rebel Roosters and he will send me more white rocks.

 

[ronott1]

Good to know. I have a commerical incubator but will have to get a better one later. Three temp gauges and 2 of them are 100 and the third in the water wiggler is 99.5 I will have to pay more attention to keeping humidity up to 40%. I've already contacted Wade at Rebel Roosters and he will send me more white rocks.

I hope they do better this time!

You are doing a great job--shipped eggs can be very iffy.

We cannot ship hatching egg from California now.--We are into triple digits for our highs again.

 

[gjensen]

I agree with Ron, though I have come to believe that the actual temperature can vary on the incubator. Not that an ideal varies, but conditions can vary across an incubator (depending on the incubator), so the placement and setting can vary.

With my incubator, and where I place my thermometer, I like 99.5. If I do everything right, I can get a 95% hatch rate. I am not going to try for better.

The best tips for hatching that I know of is have a good incubator, and a good thermometer (as Ron said). I try to stay away from all of the extras, and keep it simple. All I want to do is set the incubator, and place the eggs. I will candle them once to get rid of clears etc. Then I leave them alone until I set them in the hatching tray. Who hatches, hatches. Who doesn't, doesn't.

The only extra that I found useful is hatching them upright. Keeping the eggs from rolling around during hatch helped me.

You may still have a decent hatch. I have accidently left an incubator turned off and had a decent hatch. I have also lost power and still had a decent hatch. Both were a little late, and a little staggered. Both were better than I had expected.

I think most people would find that among people that have hatched into the thousands of eggs, that they prefer to keep it simple. I prefer to put my efforts into the fitness of the parents. The fitness of the parents is directly correlated to the fitness of the chicks, and the viability of the eggs.

All bets are off once the eggs have been shipped. I have had pretty good luck with shipped eggs, but that does not mean it will always be that way.

 

[bmvf]

The family and I visited the local fair and I made sure to stroll through the poultry barn. With my newbie experience, I can't tell you if there were quality birds. Oddly when looking for my breeds, I saw no Delaware's and only one New Hampshire. Come to think of it, I didn't see any wyandottes either, I'm sure there were others missing. They did have a few Brahma's and a load of Leghorns plus a few phoenix roosters.

What disappointed most was the size of the eggs I saw in the cages. We only saw a few eggs, but those birds were huge and the eggs were very small. I'm reminded of the arguments I see here on BYC and how show birds aren't as productive as they should be.

 

[gjensen]

The family and I visited the local fair and I made sure to stroll through the poultry barn. With my newbie experience, I can't tell you if there were quality birds. Oddly when looking for my breeds, I saw no Delaware's and only one New Hampshire. Come to think of it, I didn't see any wyandottes either, I'm sure there were others missing. They did have a few Brahma's and a load of Leghorns plus a few phoenix roosters.

What disappointed most was the size of the eggs I saw in the cages. We only saw a few eggs, but those birds were huge and the eggs were very small. I'm reminded of the arguments I see here on BYC and how show birds aren't as productive as they should be.

Just be careful not to lump them all in the same boat. Some are, and some are not. Also consider that you may not get a good representation at a local fair. One more point is that many of the birds that you will find in their prime @ a show are laying pullet eggs. You will not see as many hens. These are birds that are right at the point of lay, and at their finest concerning feather.

It is true that many large fowl breeds are under performing. I have been disappointed before, and then I have been pleasantly surprised to.

It is my hope that more will learn how to properly breed these birds. There is very little interest in that part of keeping poultry.

 

[Turk Raphael]

Here's something just a little different. I was wondering if we might have bitten off just a bit too much of dad's hellacious mix of canine-cajones when we decided to ultimately have two of these crazy pups. We even considered giving one back but Brother stopped those thought dead by sending me the following pics this morning, taken with a trail-cam.

Many of you know that dad has a massive pack of very large and aggressive dogs for the purpose of protecting his 'compound' from all types of unwanted guests and they are turned lose at night when everything is locked up. We never felt we had enough property here to require two large dogs, as we are invited to WV at the first sign of SERIOUS civil unrest but our thinking has changed.

These pics were taken not 500 yards from dad's goat barn and were collected today. What will surprise many, we have black bear moving around this area of KY...more and more frequently every year. None of us are afraid of bears...in fact, when we get a chance, we hunt them in West Virginia with dad's hounds. Great fun and harms no one...Yes we do shoot the bears but only with CAMERAS for the last several years, however we do not condemn those hunters who do take bear because they have to be thinned. There are more bears in West Virginia now than there were when the Native Americans were chasing them around with sticks and arrows, 300 + odd years ago. They seem to be like rabbits, the more that are harvested, the more prolific they become. Those stats can easily be checked with WVDNR.

In any event, since we have chickens and rabbits and... goats will be here in early spring of 2015....both pups can stay. They are a major pain in the butt, quite literally sometimes, I think they will give us a heavy layer of night-time protection pretty soon...especially for these miserable coyotes and worse, coydogs.

Enjoy the pics...Jason estimates this one to be about 400 pounds...quite large for that (or this) part of the country.

 

[Turk Raphael]

Sorry...double clicked.