EDUCATIONAL INCUBATION & HATCHING CHAT THREAD, w/ Sally Sunshine Shipped Eggs

[ChickenCanoe]

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGA/Bresse/BRKBresse.html

 

[Pensmaster]

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGA/Bresse/BRKBresse.html

Umm “a bit flighty” yes.

However once they learn they can’t get out of the covered pen they settle right in.

 

[Pensmaster]

@ChickenCanoe
Temps in incubator made it to 103 in the barn yesterday, only 95 inside the barn. Hopefully I caught it in time. Less insulation around the incubator now.
The new chicks are sure enjoying the heat. Good time to hatch.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Wow! 103 is scary. Too close to 104 for my liking. What stage of incubation are they in?
I had a friend, (actually the one who sold me his 3 aging Sportsman incubators) who used these incubators in his barn. He reported disparate results based on ambient temps.
For years, I incubated in my basement. (just the opposite of your barn environment) It is always cool down there year round. The incubators always had to work overtime. Right now I'm incubating in an unused upstairs bedroom. Now that it is hot up there, the incubator temps are very stable. There is an office in the basement I would like to convert to an incubation clean room with supplemental gas heat. After insulating the room, I can raise the room temp to 85+ fairly inexpensively that will alleviate the strain on the incubators. I can then create a temporary brooding space, perhaps elevated outside that room so I can immediately move the chicks out of hatcher trays for food and water whether I'm keeping them or shipping them.
For this last batch, I didn't even use the Premier 1 heat plate. Just put them in a box in the 90F room. They hatched a week ago and it is 84F up there now so I probably will never give them heat. It is cooling down for a week or so which will have me using the heat plate for Friday's hatch.

 

[Madpolak]

We are incubating eggs in Colorado at about 6200 ft Elevation. Using Nurture Right 360's that most people rave about but I am not particularly happy with them. Hard keeping the temp stable and lots of hot and cold spots. Have to monitor it constantly.

That being said, I keep losing my viable eggs at about 7-10 days. I have had 10 hatch out of over 100 set. Trying to determine if it's an incubator issue or operator error. Any thoughts?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Could be an elevation issue.
It could be the other two as well or a combination thereof.
High elevation can present multiple incubation issues.
https://thepoultrysite.com/articles/incubating-eggs-at-high-altitudes
Basically, lower oxygen and density of air molecules. That causes the molecules in the incubator air to fly around faster.
There are several suggestions in the link I gave to deal with it.
Particular attention needs to be paid to humidity, venting and temperature.
The introduction of cold dry air will negatively affect the hatching environment.
Where are your hatching eggs from? If they are from eggs your hens produced, that should alleviate some of the issues because birds laying at high elevation may have smaller pores in their egg shells.
If the eggs are from flatlander's birds. That may be the Whole issue.
One thing I considered was to get an Inogen oxygen concentrator to feed into the incubator.

 

[Razadia]

Baby enjoyed the camera a little too much.

And I found this beauty while chasing one of my house cats down. I'm not sure about the exact species, but I do know she's some kind of Emperor Moth.

 

[Madpolak]

Foundation stock came from an Ameraucana breeder in Texas. The eggs are all ours laid in Colo. I have wondered if that shell porosity (not sure that's a word) issue is determined by where the hen is born or their current location. Incubator is in a room with no drafts and kept at about 72 deg. The oxygen issue may be the key. Exploring different incubator options also.
Thanks for the reply and the link.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I'm not sure about that either, whether egg shell composition is from the lineage of the bird or where they currently reside.
Porosity is a word.
Without inserting oxygen, I think the link has other suggestions on compensating.
I was considering moving to an elevation above 4'000 ft. and oxygen compensation is something I've been studying

 

[Pensmaster]

Wow! 103 is scary. Too close to 104 for my liking. What stage of incubation are they in?
I had a friend, (actually the one who sold me his 3 aging Sportsman incubators) who used these incubators in his barn. He reported disparate results based on ambient temps.
For years, I incubated in my basement. (just the opposite of your barn environment) It is always cool down there year round. The incubators always had to work overtime. Right now I'm incubating in an unused upstairs bedroom. Now that it is hot up there, the incubator temps are very stable. There is an office in the basement I would like to convert to an incubation clean room with supplemental gas heat. After insulating the room, I can raise the room temp to 85+ fairly inexpensively that will alleviate the strain on the incubators. I can then create a temporary brooding space, perhaps elevated outside that room so I can immediately move the chicks out of hatcher trays for food and water whether I'm keeping them or shipping them.
For this last batch, I didn't even use the Premier 1 heat plate. Just put them in a box in the 90F room. They hatched a week ago and it is 84F up there now so I probably will never give them heat. It is cooling down for a week or so which will have me using the heat plate for Friday's hatch.

Thursday will be first week. I’m hoping as I got to them in the afternoon it will be ok. Top of insulation box is now off. My fault. I thought they would stay at temp because barn temp generally runs 95.