Early Lockdown with Varying Air Cells

[Waterfaery]

So exciting.

 

[Rose Quartz]

Thank you. That's a relief about the tiny cracks because I have four like that.

I was trying to show the yellowing in the picture but maybe it's hard to see. The humidity has been up to 80% for a short time after chicks hatched and it went down to about 55% twice when I opened it. I was very quick and it only took 15 second or so to get back up. I have it set to 65%.

I opened it to take out shells to help relieve some of the obstacles and reduce the bumping and I opened another it time to upright number 6. Its pip hole has gone very dark but I'm remembering what you said yesterday about the blood vessels so I'm trying not to panic about that.

Number 23 has hatched and it's an Australorp. It pipped about 5 hours ago and hatched about an hour ago. I'm so glad I got at least one of each breed!

awesome! That sounds like it should be fine. I open my incu quite a bit after lockdown I take the chicks out after they hatch to keep the humidity from going crazy.

 

[Rose Quartz]

So exciting.

awwww, I have babies hatching rn too. I gave most of the eggs to my 3 broodies though lol so far there are 3 babies out there.

 

[Waterfaery]

What breeds are you hatching? Do you hatch a lot of eggs? You know so much! I'm so glad and grateful I've been able to learn all of this.

All 13 eggs hatched in the end! The last one just finished. There are 8 Australorp and 5 Light Sussex. I'm a bit sleep deprived now but it's been so exciting.

Numbers 8 + 13 had a lot of trouble after unzipping. They had cracked the shell all the way around but couldn't get free of the membranes. I let them try on their own for an hour but ended up helping to free them up.

Number 6 also had a difficult hatch and took a really long time. It's a bit less steady than the others but it seems to be improving slowly. So all of the malpositioned ones I was worried about hatched in the end but I suspect I will have to keep a close eye on 6.

I'm quite worried about number 20. It had a lot of bleeding from the abdomen when it hatched 3 hours ago. I put some cornflour onto it and it stopped the bleed. It's having a lot of trouble standing up now. It also seems to have a lot of swelling around the neck and it hasn't really opened its eyes that much. At first I thought its head was deformed but now I can see that the back of the neck is bloating out with something. It is starting to get a bit more active now, trying a bit harder to stand and starting to occasionally open its eyes so I'm trying to be hopeful. It's hard to show the neck swelling in a photo but hopefully you can see what I mean.

 

[Rose Quartz]

What breeds are you hatching? Do you hatch a lot of eggs? You know so much! I'm so glad and grateful I've been able to learn all of this.

All 13 eggs hatched in the end! The last one just finished. There are 8 Australorp and 5 Light Sussex. I'm a bit sleep deprived now but it's been so exciting.

Numbers 8 + 13 had a lot of trouble after unzipping. They had cracked the shell all the way around but couldn't get free of the membranes. I let them try on their own for an hour but ended up helping to free them up.

Number 6 also had a difficult hatch and took a really long time. It's a bit less steady than the others but it seems to be improving slowly. So all of the malpositioned ones I was worried about hatched in the end but I suspect I will have to keep a close eye on 6.

I'm quite worried about number 20. It had a lot of bleeding from the abdomen when it hatched 3 hours ago. I put some cornflour onto it and it stopped the bleed. It's having a lot of trouble standing up now. It also seems to have a lot of swelling around the neck and it hasn't really opened its eyes that much. At first I thought its head was deformed but now I can see that the back of the neck is bloating out with something. It is starting to get a bit more active now, trying a bit harder to stand and starting to occasionally open its eyes so I'm trying to be hopeful. It's hard to show the neck swelling in a photo but hopefully you can see what I mean.

That's weird it was one of your normal looking pips. I've seen this before with chicks that lipped the pointy end and put it down to the way they must have been squished in the shell.

It eventually went away. Losing blood isnt good it'll be a lot weaker than the others you can try putting sugar in their water, but i've never really found that to help that much. They all just get super hyper for an hour and then conk out.


I've been hatching chicks for about 6 years now i think. Mostly from my own birds. I have a mix this time. I usually just hatch barred rocks, but i had a polish rooster running around and set my easter egger eggs this time too. So we'll see what i get.

 

[Waterfaery]

Yes, it is weird. I was so worried about the malpositioned ones but it turned out that the last eggs to pip and hatch seem to be the weakest of the chicks even though they pipped normally. I actually found all of the Light Sussex chicks had a harder time hatching than the Australorps. Two of the Light Sussex were malpositioned and three were normal but they were all so enormous. I don't really understand how they possibly fit in their shells.

Hopefully the swelling will go away. The chick definitely has issues, though. It's really confused and doesn't even seem to be able to find the heat without help. I've put some extra vitamins and minerals in their mash to give them a boost. I'm trying them on a nipple waterer right from the start and lots of them aren't getting it yet but a few really have so I'm hoping the rest will copy tomorrow. I'm not sure how number 20 will cope with it.

A mix is lovely. That's what I'd like to do in the future. I think it makes healthy birds. I've been keeping hens for a long time but I have no roosters and I've never hatched before. I keep peafowl and had 10 peachicks hatch last year but the peahens did all of the work. I want to build a flock now that I can maintain without having to buy in new birds so I decided to try hatching some of a few breeds I'm keen on. If all goes well, I'd prefer to let the hens hatch and raise any future chicks themselves. I currently just have standard hybrid layers, no broodies, so I had to go with the incubator for this year.

I'm getting some La Bresse eggs, hopefully next week, so I'll be incubating again. I really want to figure out why I had so many malpositions. I've been reading about the different causes and trying to rectify anything I might have done wrong. I'm definitely going to weigh the eggs as well as candle this time to try to get the humidity right. I found it tricky to judge the air cell size. Otherwise, I'm not sure what I can do differently. I do wish I bought a different incubator that doesn't roll the eggs on their sides but I'll have to work with it.

I've learned a lot from your information and from this experience so maybe I won't be such a mess of nerves next time, although I'm anxious by nature so no doubt I'll still find it tricky.

I hope your hatches are going well. It's exciting not knowing what you'll get! Probably some very cute babies from that mix.

 

[Rose Quartz]

Yes, it is weird. I was so worried about the malpositioned ones but it turned out that the last eggs to pip and hatch seem to be the weakest of the chicks even though they pipped normally. I actually found all of the Light Sussex chicks had a harder time hatching than the Australorps. Two of the Light Sussex were malpositioned and three were normal but they were all so enormous. I don't really understand how they possibly fit in their shells.

Hopefully the swelling will go away. The chick definitely has issues, though. It's really confused and doesn't even seem to be able to find the heat without help. I've put some extra vitamins and minerals in their mash to give them a boost. I'm trying them on a nipple waterer right from the start and lots of them aren't getting it yet but a few really have so I'm hoping the rest will copy tomorrow. I'm not sure how number 20 will cope with it.

A mix is lovely. That's what I'd like to do in the future. I think it makes healthy birds. I've been keeping hens for a long time but I have no roosters and I've never hatched before. I keep peafowl and had 10 peachicks hatch last year but the peahens did all of the work. I want to build a flock now that I can maintain without having to buy in new birds so I decided to try hatching some of a few breeds I'm keen on. If all goes well, I'd prefer to let the hens hatch and raise any future chicks themselves. I currently just have standard hybrid layers, no broodies, so I had to go with the incubator for this year.

I'm getting some La Bresse eggs, hopefully next week, so I'll be incubating again. I really want to figure out why I had so many malpositions. I've been reading about the different causes and trying to rectify anything I might have done wrong. I'm definitely going to weigh the eggs as well as candle this time to try to get the humidity right. I found it tricky to judge the air cell size. Otherwise, I'm not sure what I can do differently. I do wish I bought a different incubator that doesn't roll the eggs on their sides but I'll have to work with it.

I've learned a lot from your information and from this experience so maybe I won't be such a mess of nerves next time, although I'm anxious by nature so no doubt I'll still find it tricky.

I hope your hatches are going well. It's exciting not knowing what you'll get! Probably some very cute babies from that mix.

The bigger swelled up looking chicks is likely from higher humidity than they needed during the first 18 days.

If your local area tends to be normally humid i'd recommend trying lower humidity around 20%. I dry incubate for the first 18 days and sometimes run into it being too wet still.

I didnt get too many interesting babies. 4 grey and a bunch of barred rock looking babies. That's normal for me though. I still have 2 eggs in the incubator but i doubt they'll hatch they quite a bit behind the other chicks

 

[Waterfaery]

Sorry for the slow reply. It's hectic now with all the babies. I was thinking of doing it with low humidity originally but I was nervous because the incubator manual said 40-50%. I don't know why they recommend that if it's not ideal. I'll definitely try the lower humidity next time.

I'm actually a bit annoyed by the incubator. I paid a lot for it because I thought it was supposed to be one of the better ones and I wanted something totally reliable but it had so many issues. It's supposed to do 24 eggs but it's really way too small for that in reality. My eggs were constantly getting stuck against the side and against each other they were so cramped. I did check multiple times a day and turned any that hadn't been turning but I do wonder if them getting stuck in the turner contributed to the problems. Then I only had 13 eggs going into lockdown and it was seriously crowded in there. I don't know how 24 with hatching chicks could possibly fit. There were lots of other small things about it that just seem a bit cheap and not what I expected from the supposed best brand.

Anyway, I'm delighted with my chicks! It's such great fun.

Did your last 2 hatch in the end?

 

[Jaime918]

Sorry for the slow reply. It's hectic now with all the babies. I was thinking of doing it with low humidity originally but I was nervous because the incubator manual said 40-50%. I don't know why they recommend that if it's not ideal. I'll definitely try the lower humidity next time.

I'm actually a bit annoyed by the incubator. I paid a lot for it because I thought it was supposed to be one of the better ones and I wanted something totally reliable but it had so many issues. It's supposed to do 24 eggs but it's really way too small for that in reality. My eggs were constantly getting stuck against the side and against each other they were so cramped. I did check multiple times a day and turned any that hadn't been turning but I do wonder if them getting stuck in the turner contributed to the problems. Then I only had 13 eggs going into lockdown and it was seriously crowded in there. I don't know how 24 with hatching chicks could possibly fit. There were lots of other small things about it that just seem a bit cheap and not what I expected from the supposed best brand.

Anyway, I'm delighted with my chicks! It's such great fun.

Did your last 2 hatch in the end?

What kind of incubator are you using? There are little tricks to each. Like the Nurture Right 360 works best with a cabinet liner in the bottom, the ones with the roller bars have to sit in certain positions to keep from bunching at the ends.

 

[Rose Quartz]

Sorry for the slow reply. It's hectic now with all the babies. I was thinking of doing it with low humidity originally but I was nervous because the incubator manual said 40-50%. I don't know why they recommend that if it's not ideal. I'll definitely try the lower humidity next time.

I'm actually a bit annoyed by the incubator. I paid a lot for it because I thought it was supposed to be one of the better ones and I wanted something totally reliable but it had so many issues. It's supposed to do 24 eggs but it's really way too small for that in reality. My eggs were constantly getting stuck against the side and against each other they were so cramped. I did check multiple times a day and turned any that hadn't been turning but I do wonder if them getting stuck in the turner contributed to the problems. Then I only had 13 eggs going into lockdown and it was seriously crowded in there. I don't know how 24 with hatching chicks could possibly fit. There were lots of other small things about it that just seem a bit cheap and not what I expected from the supposed best brand.

Anyway, I'm delighted with my chicks! It's such great fun.

Did your last 2 hatch in the end?

One of them did.

I think i read you had a brinsea? But maybe that was someone else. All incubators say 40 - 50% is right, for the majority of places it is. But if it's particularly humid where you are, or even depending on time of year it needs to be something different.


The malpositions are most likely from them not getting turned enough.which sucks if you have an auto turner that isnt working properly. If all of you eggs started growing it is possible your losses are related to that too.