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

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Cynthia12 said:
Oh man! Ask me if I'm just a little bit jealous. We really need our driveway done. Back patio too. Have to wait it's turn. We're getting new siding on at the end of the month!! :ya. Where in the US are you going to visit?
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Visiting my parents in Texas as usual. We're having to cut back our trips to once a year since Honeybee's starting school next year and they don't get much time off for winter holidays here. There's a lot planned this trip, we got a trip to the coast and an amusement park visit and a day trip to Houston to look forward to.
 
This hatching year has been interesting, to say the least. Average hatch rates plummeted from the 97% of last year to barely 33%. Out of the chicks that did hatch, fatality rates were high; losing chicks never happens, so this is most unusual.

I've gone over everything I know dozens of times in search of a solution. I calibrated thermometers, hygrometers, checked for hot and cold spots (I did find a few, and corrected them by monkeying with bulb wattage,) sanitized the incubator several times, and evaluated breeder health and nutrition. Most of the embryos I've been losing have been at or just before lockdown. No evidence of infection, air cells are normal, no malformations, nothing. I have seen more malpositions than usual, but far from all of the fatalities showed that. I changed my turning methods three times over the summer in an effort to combat that. Eggs I set aren't old, either. The closest thing to an idea I have come up with is genetic issues causing the chick deaths in the line of Chanteclers I set the most eggs from. That doesn't explain the lockdown deaths in mutts and quail, though. :idunno I'm stumped. Their feed is the same as always, they free range, they have clean water, and they appear healthy. Actually, the Chanteclers have been getting a quality all-flock feed, not layer like the other birds get. For some batches I used a lockdown incubator (the LG) and for some I didn't. Hatch rates were the same across the two options.

I built a new mini incubator over the weekend last month. I plan to do very small scale hatches in it over the winter so I can keep tinkering. I'm going to do a re-build of the main incubator as well, and maybe replace the thermometers just in case. It's due for a re-build anyway. I'm tired of running out of space to set eggs, and the warped floor on this one drives me nuts. Er, more nuts. ;)
 

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