Colorado

[duchess]

Thank you so much! (And sorry for the duplicate question

) We have a decent amount of ventilation and will make sure that we add thick roosts. Much appreciated!

 

[bumpershoot]

Has anyone had a bantam raise standard size chicks? I have a very determined bantam. I have tried to break her but she keeps brooding.
I don't want any more bantams, but I could give her a couple chicks from Jax or Murdoch's.

Thanks.
mo

I have had a Cochin Bantu raise meat birds/for me, It works really well.

 

[Pozees]

trsturself - Temp, humidity, ventilation, in that order, are the most important aspects of hatching. That said, you have to start with a clean environment and fresh, viable eggs. I know you know this, I"m just going through all the steps because when I have hatches with disappointing results I start with the basics to see if I can find anything - sometimes I don't know what fix works, and I don't care as long as it works.

Temp - most thermometers will not read with the accuracy required for hatching. A Brinsea Spot Check or a probe thermometer sold by Thermo Works will give accuracy within less than a degree, while most we buy anywhere else only say they are accurate +- 2 degrees. 2 degrees can make the difference. $20 thermometers save a lot of chicks

Humidity - I confess I do not use a measuring tool for this aside from that in the controls of the GQF 1588 I use as a hatcher. I fill both channels in the base plus add a glass bowl with a saturated towel, all sprayed with Oxine solution. I also run a humidifier in the room.

Ventilation - I leave all vents open and if I could afford it I would put an oxygen machine in the room where the incubators are. At our elevation, oxygen and humidity present unique challenges.

Fresh eggs - many times we pay for eggs shipped to us that are not fresh - by the time we get them they are 3-4 days shipped plus whatever age they were when sent. In all the shipments I've received, only one time were the eggs dated with collection date. It also turns out (I just read this last week) possibly pullet eggs withstand shipping better than older hens' eggs - tougher, younger chalazae and membranes, probably.

Clean eggs - I dip every egg I set, including my own, in ~110 degree Oxine solution for 4 seconds, let dry, then set. Bleach works as well. 1 teaspoon in a gallon or so of water as hot as the tap will run it. If bacteria are present on the shell, this will kill them. The temp of the water prevents the bacteria from going INTO the eggs via pores.

We are at 5400+ feet of elevation - this halves our chances of hatching shipped eggs again, after they are halved by shipping - expected hatch rate on shipped eggs here is 25%.

Then after all that, you are hoping the eggs were laid by healthy, well-fed hens and sired by healthy, well-fed cock birds.

Sally Sunshine, ozexpat, and ronott1 have several links available to read about hatching, all are a wealth of knowledge. There are several theories about failed hatching of shipped eggs, and they may all be right, depending on the eggs. Some may just not have been meant to hatch no matter what you do.

There are always things you can experiment with, and I completely understand your disappointment. I just threw away 12 Exchequer Leghorn eggs I paid $51 dollars for - not a single one even tried to develop. They only came from Kansas.

 

[cluckcluckgirl]

I have a 2 year old RIR who has been acting slow these past couple days. Today she didn't even want to come out of the coop, so I checked on her. Her tail was down, she was puffy, and her comb was not as bright as usual. She had poop around her vent, which I cleared away. I suspected she might be egg-bound, so I checked inside her vent and didn't feel any egg. Upon internal inspection, I discovered she had some dried up poop inside her (which I also removed) and a lot of this white, runny substance which I think is pee. I also discovered some lumps right below her vent (on the inside of her) which appeared to be part of her. They seemed to be covered with her skin as far as I could tell (I had gloves on) and felt as if a bunch of small pebbles were inside her right below her vent. What could be wrong with her? If she is egg-bound, could I have felt the egg using the procedure I did? She was a very good egg layer, so could it be ovarian cancer? Please help soon, I don't know if she'll be around much longer.

I posted this in the "Emergencies, Diseases, Injuries and Cures" section. Can anyone tell what this is?

 

[samsr]

The chicks have arrived. 100% hatch rate from the silkie americauna crosses that were fertile. And a 79% hatch rate so far from the dominique eggs from Wendle. Here are a couple of pics of the silkie americauna chicks that are up for grabs. They are bearded, cheaked chicks with 5 toes and fuzzy feet. Colors are from a tan to a brown color. Cute little guys.

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[suncatcher]

The chicks have arrived. 100% hatch rate from the silkie americauna crosses that were fertile. And a 79% hatch rate so far from the dominique eggs from Wendle. Here are a couple of pics of the silkie americauna chicks that are up for grabs. They are bearded, cheaked chicks with 5 toes and fuzzy feet. Colors are from a tan to a brown color. Cute little guys.

[/IMG][/IMG]

They are adorable! What color egg did they come from? That is a nice cross.

 

[samsr]

I believe the lighter ones came from blue eggs and the brown ones from the green eggs. I have my 4 week olds outside now. Needed to make room.

 

[trsturself]

Thanks Pozees. I've read everything I can find about hatching eggs. I am curious about my thermometer. It seems to vary a lot. I calibrated it against a professionally calibrated one and it only reads off by 1 deg but it fluctuates more than I expected. I use the wafer thermostat which I read are good at keeping stable temps.

I have a humidifier running right next to the bator. I just use tap water for the humidity which I heard could contribute to problems.

If I try this again (We are in the middle of a ton of projects and possibly moving so I won't be setting any more eggs for now) I will try disinfecting the eggs before putting them in, lowering the thermostat closer to the bottom of the bator, getting a new thermometer, and figuring out a way to keep the eggs at the same level the whole time. These weren't shipped eggs this time which is even more disappointing because I can't blame it on that. These are from Ashdoes and I think she is getting ok hatch rates.

Day 21 and still no pips. I'm going to give them a few extra days though because we lost power one day and the temp dropped for about an hour. Like I said though, I saw a lot of movement on day 18 so I was hopeful.


Samsr - I want one! This is a cross my daughter has wanted for a long time. The light one is really cute. Wish we had the room. Are you planning on doing more of this cross? Once we get some land we'd definitely be interested. Maybe I can convince my daughter to give up one of her regular silkies for one of these now.

 

[trsturself]

I don't remember who was looking for the Silver Fox rabbits but there was a breeder at the swap today. Here is her website for anyone interested. http://jumpingjackalopesrab.wix.com/jumpingjackalopes

 

[suncatcher]

[CONTENTEMBED=/t/68894/colorado/19300#post_13186699 layout=inline]Thanks Pozees. I've read everything I can find about hatching eggs. I am curious about my thermometer. It seems to vary a lot. I calibrated it against a professionally calibrated one and it only reads off by 1 deg but it fluctuates more than I expected. I use the wafer thermostat which I read are good at keeping stable temps. [/CONTENTEMBED]
[CONTENTEMBED=/t/68894/colorado/19300#post_13186699 layout=inline] [/CONTENTEMBED]
[CONTENTEMBED=/t/68894/colorado/19300#post_13186699 layout=inline]I have a humidifier running right next to the bator. I just use tap water for the humidity which I heard could contribute to problems. [/CONTENTEMBED]
[CONTENTEMBED=/t/68894/colorado/19300#post_13186699 layout=inline] [/CONTENTEMBED]
[CONTENTEMBED=/t/68894/colorado/19300#post_13186699 layout=inline]If I try this again (We are in the middle of a ton of projects and possibly moving so I won't be setting any more eggs for now) I will try disinfecting the eggs before putting them in, lowering the thermostat closer to the bottom of the bator, getting a new thermometer, and figuring out a way to keep the eggs at the same level the whole time. These weren't shipped eggs this time which is even more disappointing because I can't blame it on that. These are from Ashdoes and I think she is getting ok hatch rates.[/CONTENTEMBED]
[CONTENTEMBED=/t/68894/colorado/19300#post_13186699 layout=inline] [/CONTENTEMBED]
[CONTENTEMBED=/t/68894/colorado/19300#post_13186699 layout=inline]Day 21 and still no pips. I'm going to give them a few extra days though because we lost power one day and the temp dropped for about an hour. Like I said though, I saw a lot of movement on day 18 so I was hopeful. [/CONTENTEMBED]
[CONTENTEMBED=/t/68894/colorado/19300#post_13186699 layout=inline] [/CONTENTEMBED]
[CONTENTEMBED=/t/68894/colorado/19300#post_13186699 layout=inline] [/CONTENTEMBED]
[CONTENTEMBED=/t/68894/colorado/19300#post_13186699 layout=inline]Samsr - I want one! This is a cross my daughter has wanted for a long time. The light one is really cute. Wish we had the room. Are you planning on doing more of this cross? Once we get some land we'd definitely be interested. Maybe I can convince my daughter to give up one of her regular silkies for one of these now. [/CONTENTEMBED]

We are on well water, I switched to bottled water for my last two hatch's of last year, gotta try everything here! My very last hatch was the one that I had success with shipped eggs. Not sure if you are on well water or city water, but I do wonder about the chemicals they put in it that makes it safe to drink.

That lower temp might make them late to pip, I hope those hatch for you yet! I don;t think it is you, as you had a successful hatch last time, could be the power outage, who knows!