Dixie Chicks

[Beer can]

zombie chickens!

 

[Ravynscroft]

Ha! My girls beak looked like that when she screeched! And she puffed uo to 4x her normal size, lol... debating on moving her, gonna wait a couple days and see if she's serious...

 

[Alaskan]

I have a broody on six eggs on anywhere from day 3-5. She's mean...

I think that mean broodies are more likely to be good mamas.

Nah, I've heard a lot of issues from the Easter HAL... over 8000 eggs were set and only just over 4000 hatched... lots of weird problems happened...

and @minihorse927

OK, what is the doollywhap?

So... I had a few more chicks supposed to hatch Yesterday... but remember I left the top off of my incubator twice... so hatching today is still within the realm of normal.

And, I have 4 more, totally good looking chicks that died before internal pip... 2 Ameraucana and 2 Marans.

So.... the one pamphlet I pulled up said:

Chicks dead after
pipping:
Eggs not turned first 2 weeks
Thin-shelled eggs
Temperature too low during
incubation
Temperature too high during
incubation
Humidity too low during incubation
Humidity too high during incubation
Infection, diseases

But that is after pip, and mine died right before or after internal pip, not eternal pip.

Anyway...I dunno. WILD.

I only had 3 Am eggs in there, and maybe 4 Marans.... 1 Marans and 1 Am hatched fine by themselves... BUT the Am chick has a kinda big nasty belly button... should be fine though. And, the Marans has two fused toes.

I have one Marans in shell, not yet hatched but alive... at this point I opened them all... this one was alive, but not yet internally pipped, and yep, I internally pipped for him (I was perfect though, no blood), then I got him nice and moist and probably leave him until the morning.

AND THAT IS IT! Since the other 2 Am eggs are dead in shell, as are the other two Marans eggs.



SUPER frustrated.


Someone else in my town posted on Facebook that she has been hatching all spring and getting 100% hatch rates. I am jealous.

 

[Ravynscroft]

@Alaskan I really dunno what is going on... I had excellent hatch rates Oct-Jan, now it's down very low...

But I think mine has something to do with ambient humidity, maybe? Our humidity has skyrocketed... and really having issues keeping humidity down in the bators...

Dying after internal pip is usually either suffocation from not externally pipping soon enough, or drowning from excess liquid around the chick from too high of humidity...

What humidity % are you incubating your Marans and Am's?

 

[Alaskan]

They have been at about 30% during regular incubation... and then I increase greatly at hatch (but only 1 day before)

I did see extra fluid in one egg, but not in the others... and the membranes feel nice and supple and perfect.

 

[Ravynscroft]

They have been at about 30% during regular incubation... and then I increase greatly at hatch (but only 1 day before)

I did see extra fluid in one egg, but not in the others... and the membranes feel nice and supple and perfect.

Is 30% totally dry in your bator, or can you go lower?

I found my best hatch with Marans was almost totally dry til lockdown... think I only put a tiny bit of water in when it dropped to 17%...

 

[Alaskan]

30% is totally dry... no water anywhere

We have been raining every day... oh wait, and snowing every day, oh wait, and most days also hailing

 

[Ravynscroft]

Hmmmm... my cabinet bator holds humidity like that... I want to try lowering humidity in it some more... gonna try putting small pans of unpopped popcorn in it... heard that was good for lowering humidity...

 

[Alaskan]

how low do you think that it should be?

It is true, that earlier this year, my hatch was MUCH better, and with no precip and the wood stove going, I think the incubator was running about 20%, maybe at times as low as 16%.

 

[Ravynscroft]

how low do you think that it should be?

It is true, that earlier this year, my hatch was MUCH better, and with no precip and the wood stove going, I think the incubator was running about 20%, maybe at times as low as 16%.

That range sounds about where I want to try to get mine to... idk, could be a bad idea, but it's the only thing I can think of that's changed...