Diary & Notes ~ Air Cell Detatched SHIPPED Chicken Eggs for incubation and hatching

[cochins1088]

OK, hit me with your best shot here.

My shipped eggs experience:

18 Welsummers - all dead by hatch time except one who hatched and then died. All badly malpositioned at eggtopsy.
14 Barred Rock - 3 hatched, all the rest died and the others that made it to lock down were badly malpositioned at eggtopsy
18 Breda - 9 made it to lockdown, one pipped and died in the shell day 19, all others were dead at eggtopsy with bad malpositions and could not even reach the air cell with the exception of one.
18 Quechua/Colloncas - 16 survived terrible shipping experience but none developed.

My personal mutts hatched fine (20 of 24 I think). I am dry hatching which leaves me with about 30% humidity in the bator for the first 18 days. Bator is forced air and 99-100 degrees. I move them to an LG still air for hatch with 65% - 70% humidity and temp of 101 at the top of eggs, 99 at the bottom.

I have let shipped eggs sit for a day before setting them. I have tried auto turners and now hand turning. I have hatched in cartons and I have hatched laying down.

Is this just what I should expect because they are shipped, its Texas and its summer. Or is there a common cause of malpositions that I don't know about?

I have 6 Bielefelder Eggs and 12 mor Quechua/Colloncas shipping to me on Monday. Is there even a point or am I just going to kill them all?

The Bredas that I just lost were perfect on day 19. All moving around and looking very much alive when I candled them. Day 21 they were all dead.

Have you tried keeping track of weight loss yet? I recommend trying it with the next batch. It may or may not help with the mal-positions, but there's not harm in trying.

Also, I do NOT recommend doing this unless the eggs are very expensive, you know for fact they are mal-positioned, and you have a decent amount of experience with assisted hatching, but I have done complete assists with success. I'm PM you with more details about completely assisted hatches later tonight.

 

[ozexpat]

Have you opened the vents for the latter part of hatch? Are you using the same incubator for hatching and incubating. Did the local eggs incubate with shipped eggs set the same day?

 

[familypendragon]

Have you opened the vents for the latter part of hatch? Are you using the same incubator for hatching and incubating. Did the local eggs incubate with shipped eggs set the same day?

Vents are open the whole time. I use a forced air for incubating and a still air for hatching. I have not yet done a batch that combined shipped and local eggs - but I do have a few of my own that I set with the next batch of eggs, which are also local - well 4 hours drive.

 

[familypendragon]

Have you tried keeping track of weight loss yet? I recommend trying it with the next batch. It may or may not help with the mal-positions, but there's not harm in trying.

Also, I do NOT recommend doing this unless the eggs are very expensive, you know for fact they are mal-positioned, and you have a decent amount of experience with assisted hatching, but I have done complete assists with success.  I'm PM you with more details about completely assisted hatches later tonight. 

No - I meant to do it with the batch I just set, but I got distracted when I got home from picking them up and put them in without remembering. They are only on day 4 (they aren't shipped though) do you think there is any point in weighing them now?

 

[familypendragon]

Also, I am questioning the humidity reading of my gadget. I took it out and have it sitting on the counter next to the one that has the probe and it took for ever to adjust, and still reads 5 points higher on humidity. I have this one in the hatcher since I have to monitor the humidity http://www.walmart.com/ip/AcuRite-Digital-Humidity-and-Temperature-Monitor/16888914

I use the probe from this one in the incubator since I am dry hatching and know the humidity in the bator is usually about 10 degrees less than in the room.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Acu-Rite-Indoor-Outdoor-Thermometer/896347


Does anyone have experience with this one http://incubatorwarehouse.com/incubator-remote-thermometer-hygrometer.html

Or is there one you can recommend that measure humidity well?

 

[cochins1088]

Quote:
It won't be as accurate, but yes. Weigh them as soon as possible.

 

[familypendragon]

It won't be as accurate, but yes.  Weigh them as soon as possible.

I weighed the first 4 (Crested Cream Legbars) individually and got between .05 and .06 kg each. I took the next 18 and put them in a carton which weighed .02 kg. The total was .86 kg - so .84 after reducing by the tare. So that works out to .046 per egg. Do you think I should weigh each individual egg? I am worried about handling them as I had one that I couldn't tell which end had the air cell and candled it. When i did I found it had veining starting. So I am worried about handling them so much :/

 

[ozexpat]

I weighed the first 4 (Crested Cream Legbars) individually and got between .05 and .06 kg each. I took the next 18 and put them in a carton which weighed .02 kg. The total was .86 kg - so .84 after reducing by the tare. So that works out to .046 per egg. Do you think I should weigh each individual egg? I am worried about handling them as I had one that I couldn't tell which end had the air cell and candled it. When i did I found it had veining starting. So I am worried about handling them so much :/

To weigh eggs you really need a scale that will measure grams. Your numbers are not accurate enough to get a good idea.

The other thing I may suggest is to keep some eggs in your forced air for the whole hatch. Try to reduce variables till you drill down on your problem.

 

[cochins1088]

Quote:
Yes, like Oz said, you'll need a scale that measures in grams.

If you're incubating large numbers of eggs, weigh them as a group. If you're incubating a small number of expensive eggs, weigh them individually. It's more accurate.

 

[loveourbirds]

WOW I am glad you got them back! what is the issue that your not having luck? hatching chicks out? meaning eggs not fert well? I would give them the chicken booster probotics I posted a while back, I tested it and I am amazed! let me see if DH has images of the babies outside. I will post then and link you up with the product and its decent priced too

they would just quit late in the hatch, i wasnt aware when i got rid of them i had protein issues with my feed mix. when we switched feeds things got better with several of the more "high strung" breeds. im going to guess there was over 90% fertility, i didnt calculate it out.

i will try the probiotics too. im just happy to see something can hatch, i was worried about them being to inbred since they were from show breeders.