Dixie Chicks

[WVduckchick]

Beer Can --

Bummer!   Was there enough air/oxygen in the incubator during lockdown?   I've had "launch pad" failures with shipped Marans eggs and a few others. Low-altitude laid eggs not getting enough air through their pores when attempted to hatch at a higher altitude.  The ones that did manage to hatch were definitely, err, physically and mentally challenged and disposed of.

So sorry to hear that your chicks were so close.  That's heartbreaking.

Good point. Good ventilation is often overlooked!

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
I think the point really was IF you take eggs from low altitude to high altitude the air pressure is simply not enough to allow respiaration.

 

[getaclue]

Beer Can --

Bummer! Was there enough air/oxygen in the incubator during lockdown? I've had "launch pad" failures with shipped Marans eggs and a few others. Low-altitude laid eggs not getting enough air through their pores when attempted to hatch at a higher altitude. The ones that did manage to hatch were definitely, err, physically and mentally challenged and disposed of.

So sorry to hear that your chicks were so close. That's heartbreaking.

I had not thought about low-altitude laid eggs not getting enough oxygen through their pores, when shipped to a higher altitude. I wonder if putting them in a plastic bag with a higher concentration of oxygen for a couple days prior to shipping would solve the problem. That way there would be more oxygen in the eggs, and they could acclimate more gradually to less oxygen at higher altitudes.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
I think about the only way to handle it would be to put the incubator in a pressurized chamber. Like a barametric chamber.

deb

 

[WVduckchick]

I think the point really was IF you take eggs from low altitude to high altitude the air pressure is simply not enough to allow respiaration. 

I was meaning ventilation in general. I didn't know Beer Can was at high altitude.

 

[Alaskan]

@Alaskan remember that batch of chicks you had that were dead in shell?
Did you figure out what happened?

I just hatched 13 naked necks. Did a eggtopsy on 15 that never pipped, figured they would be bad eggs. Every one perfectly formed chick that looked like should have hatched. No internal pip, not shrink wrapped or drowned and positioned good.
I never opened the bator after lockdown until the 13 were 24hrs old, none of the other eggs any pips. Waited another 24hrs later did eggtopsy on the 15 left. Looked like they died the day all the rest pipped and popped out..
Pretty sad. Don't know what went wrong.

Read this, it goes over possible reasons:

https://extension.illinois.edu/eggs/res24-05.html

Deb,

Those are really good.

 

[perchie.girl]

Deb,

Those are really good.

Thanks Al.... I really wanted to do Scrimshaw or Carved eggs but this is filling that niche. Without the power tools

deb

 

[Alaskan]

I saw one exhibition of carved eggs. Pretty impressive. The lady that did them said that lots of eggs ended up broken.

 

[WVduckchick]

I've tried it. Even bought the anti-vibration attachment for my dremel.

 

[Peep_Show]

What I meant to say was that the size of the pores (shell porousness) is different on eggs laid at a lower altitude than at a higher one. Too, there is less oxygen in the air the higher up in elevation from sea level. And then if you have a color coating added to the surface of the shell (like a Marans brown ink spray) there's even less oxygen transmitting through the shell. I honestly hadn't thought about barometric pressure as a factor.

I have hatched eggs from sea level, but the hatch rates are less. A difference of 1-2500 feet isn't such a big deal regarding hatch rates. But from 1 to 5000 feet or above and you can count on throwing a lot of shipped eggs out. Nowadays I check the location elevation of where they're coming from. I imagine if I got eggs from Colorado I'd have an excellent hatch rate as my location is lower in elevation than there.

(Note to self: Research Colorado egg vendors for next flock)