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

[Pensmaster]

Seems like that would depend on your water trays, too.

Deep enough to handle the movement would work as well

 

[kajira]

Yep, sounds like a good compromise!

So far, my girls in my silkie pen, have successfully hatched 1 egg. The baby is still alive as far as I know - most of the other babies, have died while in egg, or very shortly after birth. not sure why. haha

 

[mlm Mike]

Deep enough to handle the movement would work as well

Yep, that should do it.

 

[mlm Mike]

So far, my girls in my silkie pen, have successfully hatched 1 egg. The baby is still alive as far as I know - most of the other babies, have died while in egg, or very shortly after birth. not sure why. haha

At least you're not getting way too many silkies.

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Last time my silkie went broody, my silver penciled rock stole her baby and raised it herself lol

ETA she also stole my wheaten Marans baby and the welbar's baby. She's a baby hog!

 

[duluthralphie]

You disinfect your eggs. If one washes their hands...personally I like using my gloves (Kiki...that's enough out of you!) because the glove gives a better grip on the egg, you're not going to be introducing THAT much to the egg.

See I'm completely different in my thoughts here...I want only the best shelled/toughest embryos to survive...and the less than ideal shelled ones to not make it. That instantly weeds out the inferior shelled eggs and inferior embryos. Survival of the fittest right from the beginning.

I give my Broodies worthless eggs (EE) to hatch and keep the good ones to myself. Broodies cannot be trusted, They decide to stop, they roll away good eggs. They are great mothers and an easy way to raise chicks, but they have their risks.

When I say reach into an incubator, naturally, I mean with a sterile latex glove,,,,,,Introducing "not that much" is more than I want to introduce. I hatch to the standards my USDA vet requires for NPIP and then a tad more.

I know some of you will find this odd but I got through over 10 gallons of Bleach year hatching and rearing chicks. This does not count the bleach I use in my normal chicken keeping.

I know someone on here thinks I am a tad anal about my hatching practices....Luckily she is MIA for a few days.... I think she said she would be back tomorrow...

I practice survival of the fittest once they hatch. It is just too easy for a bacteria to get a foot hold inside the incubators and lose 220 plus eggs in a fast swoop..

@Pensmaster aRE yOu iMpLyING MIGHT b Cray cRAY?

 

[kajira]

At least you're not getting way too many silkies.

Well, there's the potential for half silkie/half cochin - it's really my bantam cochin that's been raising the surviving chick while the silkies sit on the eggs. Her mom raised 11 chicks, 1 survived to adult hood out in the field/goat yard. So... I don't have high hopes that 1 alone will survive, but we will see what happens!

Last time my silkie went broody, my silver penciled rock stole her baby and raised it herself lol

ETA she also stole my wheaten Marans baby and the welbar's baby. She's a baby hog!

That's funny, my cochin's have been better momma's than my silkies so far, but we will see.

 

[duluthralphie]

I have a Cray-Cray question.

I have heard or read somewhere of people incubating eggs for a couple days before shipping them to be finished incubating? Have any of you heard of that or tried that?

Does it work or is a myth? Supposedly it limits moisture loss and you get a higher percentage of hatches out of shipped eggs.....

 

[OneMountainAcres]

I have a Cray-Cray question.

I have heard or read somewhere of people incubating eggs for a couple days before shipping them to be finished incubating? Have any of you heard of that or tried that?

Does it work or is a myth? Supposedly it limits moisture loss and you get a higher percentage of hatches out of shipped eggs.....

I have never heard of this before but I think it would risk killing the embryo, especially in colder weather. Maybe it would work in hot, summer weather. For moisture loss, I just follow Sally's method and put plastic grocery bags in the box, under the eggs. Once they're all packaged up, I tie the bags shut around them

 

[ronott1]

I give my Broodies worthless eggs (EE) to hatch and keep the good ones to myself. Broodies cannot be trusted, They decide to stop, they roll away good eggs. They are great mothers and an easy way to raise chicks, but they have their risks.

When I say reach into an incubator, naturally, I mean with a sterile latex glove,,,,,,Introducing "not that much" is more than I want to introduce. I hatch to the standards my USDA vet requires for NPIP and then a tad more.

I know some of you will find this odd but I got through over 10 gallons of Bleach year hatching and rearing chicks. This does not count the bleach I use in my normal chicken keeping.

I know someone on here thinks I am a tad anal about my hatching practices....Luckily she is MIA for a few days.... I think she said she would be back tomorrow...

I practice survival of the fittest once they hatch. It is just too easy for a bacteria to get a foot hold inside the incubators and lose 220 plus eggs in a fast swoop..

@Pensmaster aRE yOu iMpLyING MIGHT b Cray cRAY?

You are not crazy for dis infecting. Be careful not to breath the bleach fumes though. A recent study showed an increase of lung cancer with only one cleaning with bleach a week with hospital workers.

Maybe use something like lysol? Wear a mask though