Experimental Dehydrator Hatching - I'm doing it!

[Cornflower]

For the one that isn't hatching, use a q tip to put coconut oil on the membrane, then wet the membrane... If you don't see red veins you can pull the membrane away. I've seen chicks where their leg was over their head and they couldn't push out of the egg.

Hi I did what you said and the coconut oil made the membrane easier to see through. It looks like the umbilical is still attached and red and is exposed where the shell is peeled away. My daughter also thinks she see's more veins on the other side under the shell. The chick is chatty with us and doesn't seem to be in distress, so we put her back in the incubator. I took the other chicks out and into the brooder so they don't scratch that egg open in a bad way. I don't have experience to judge so I'll leave her alone until it looks like she has to get out or else. Thank you for your advice, it really helped to be able to see through that membrane a little better. She's quite the conversationist!

 

[SmiYa0126]

Hi I did what you said and the coconut oil made the membrane easier to see through. It looks like the umbilical is still attached and red and is exposed where the shell is peeled away. My daughter also thinks she see's more veins on the other side under the shell. The chick is chatty with us and doesn't seem to be in distress, so we put her back in the incubator. I took the other chicks out and into the brooder so they don't scratch that egg open in a bad way. I don't have experience to judge so I'll leave her alone until it looks like she has to get out or else. Thank you for your advice, it really helped to be able to see through that membrane a little better. She's quite the conversationist!
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Wonderful! Chatty chick is good news!

 

[Tstraub]

This is cool! I successfully hatched a chicken in a homemade incubator back in March. I only had one of 12 survive. I have since made adjustments and am currently on day 2 of my second try. Anyway I just wanted to reply so I can follow your thread. Good luck with your baby chicks.

 

[Cornflower]

I have some new about the chatty chick. At 7:30 tonight she started hatching. She was in there breech. I tried to help by cracking the egg where she had it already cracking. And she made it out! No 4 chatty chick is looking good drying out in the incubator with her hatchmate No 14 who leaped out of her shell exactly when I slipped chatty back in. I've called chatty chic "Gabby" and when she hears a human voice she gets gabbing along and it almost sounds like warbling. I haven't taken pictures yet. I had to go to my home care I'm covering for my mom at 8pm and just barely made it out the door. Everyone is tucked in and I'm having a bit of coffee to perk me up.
Four more eggs to go, and they have no signs of pipping yet. 4am marks the end of day 21, so they have all night.
All the chicks are doing really good!
Thank you all for being here for me. Some of this was scary but you've pulled me through and gave me the confidence. I've never had chickens before and never hatched any kind of eggs before but I've always want to!
I don't know how to thank you enough. Thanks again! <3

 

[Cornflower]

This is cool! I successfully hatched a chicken in a homemade incubator back in March. I only had one of 12 survive. I have since made adjustments and am currently on day 2 of my second try. Anyway I just wanted to reply so I can follow your thread. Good luck with your baby chicks.

Thank you and good luck on your chicks, too!

 

[Cornflower]

Update 6/10: Yesterday (6/9) at 10 PM I shut down the incubation. The last 4 chicks didn't make it.

The tape sealing the cover had dried out and I didn't notice that until 7. But I had struggling to get the humidity back to 70% for the 24 hours after the last chicks were dried and removed.

The tape looked closed and I thought it was sealed, so I didn't know why injecting water wasn't working. I couldn't get it above 50% RH. I had no idea it was wide open along the front.

The chick that had pipped was chirping around 7pm when I finally discovered the breech and repaired the tape. I must have been really tired not to realize the humidity problem had gone on for 24 hours by then! I thought it would be okay to let the RH come back up and keep checking on her, like the last difficult chick. But her shell membrane dried out and she deceased. She wasn't talking to me when I called to her and didn't move, so I opened the box.

I suspected the other late eggs were gone, too so I candled them and they weren't moving. One was pouring around and turned out to be decomposing. All of the membranes had dried in the un-pipped eggs.

These were also the in center of the rear row of eggs and I hold their position to be suspect. I had kept the eggs in relatively the same positions they were in while being incubated in the dehydrator. I didn't really take note of which eggs was where, but those may have been directly in the flow of the air from the fan.

High incubation heat causes embryos to absorb their yolk sacs too fast and it's used up before they're developed enough to hatch. It also retards their development. I had been tempted to place a barrier behind the eggs to shield them from the brunt of hot air from the fan.

I shut the dehydrator off at 10:30 pm. The house felt empty without that annoying roar I had lived with for the past 23 days. After a large bowl of ice cream I cheered myself on. I have 7 very healthy and clever chicks to enjoy, and boy have we been having fun!

Today was very warm, so I have had them out on the lawn in an enclosure made from a beehive super box, with a protective greenhouse shelf over them and I rigged my sweater over that to create partial shade. I tossed their crumbles on the ground. They were so focused on pecking and exploring, micro-napping, and signaling to each other of every little curious thing they discovered that I didn't see any picking or pecking at each other. I couldn't just throw them into the warming box under the red light all day with nothing to do but wait to grow up.

Three of the oldest already have the beginnings of wing feathers showing. The other chicks would occasionally give the white showing a test peck. They learned to scratch the ground looking for more crumble that might be hidden under the grass. They go so much exercise, education and nutrition on our outings over the last two days. I hope I've done almost as well as a mother hen would for them.

Town is getting loud. Summer is heating up and cars are roaring, hammers are ringing, and people are letting off firecrackers. I'm worried the sudden loud explosions might frighten them so badly they die. I already had to unfreeze a couple chicks from the first banger ignited while we were out. They locked up tight and I had to offer a drop of water to snap them out of it. None of them froze with the second firecracker, so they might be ok with it now, but I don't want to chance it. The 4th of July comes earlier every year. It might be quieter at the farm. I wanted to work with them more here. But I can always go there a few times a week with good weather and take them on outings.

I have been requested to hatch more chicks out. I'm going to continue my search for a good incubator. I just don't know what size I'll need in the future. But I think a proper incubator will not be as annoying or heat the house like the dehydrator does, and will be a good investment.

So this closes my story on the dehydrator-turned-incubator thread. I hope it was informative and educational and helps anyone in the future who may choose to try incubating eggs this way. I've had a lot of late nights and early mornings, and fed my inventive tendencies. Now the chicks sleep mostly through the night, and I maybe I can again, too! (So looking forward to a solid night's sleep!)

Happy hatching and good night!

 

[fredwck]

@Cornflower when you mentioned "Eggs are losing weight a tad faster than schedule." like how much were you able to accelerate their weight loss? I had actually struggled to do this with a waterless incubator and might give a dehydrator a try, that's such a good idea.

I'm going to complete my other post about weight loss and humidity.

PS: I use that exact scale haha. I think I do need one with 1 decimal place for a nicer curve.

 

[Sally PB]

@Cornflower, this would make a great article!