February 2017 Hatch-a-long

[dee34491]

Looks amazing!
Is cold weather a concern for incubation (keeping temps up and/or power outages) or because you're not sure if it affected fertility?

...yes fertility and temperature before gathering...Roosters get active with warm weather. !!

 

[orrpeople]

...yes fertility and temperature before gathering...Roosters get active with warm weather. !!

Indeed they do... and this year, they've had a difficult time because (for us anyway) the weather has been almost summer one day, and then cold and rainy the next!!

 

[MontainBourbons]

Hello, I didn't have the best hatch recently. All 20 of my chicken eggs were developing just fine but on hatch day only 9 hatched. After the hatch ended I candled the other eggs and they didn't even have an internal pip. I believe that the air sacs were great, if anything a tiny bit too big. The only thing bad about the hatch was that it was just over 12 hours late. Any Ideas on what could have happened??? This happened to me lots last year also.

I also had to lower the humidity on day 15 to regulate the egg sac size.

 

[Jim121898]

Hello, I didn't have the best hatch recently. All 20 of my chicken eggs were developing just fine but on hatch day only 9 hatched. After the hatch ended I candled the other eggs and they didn't even have an internal pip. I believe that the air sacs were great, if anything a tiny bit too big. The only thing bad about the hatch was that it was just over 12 hours late. Any Ideas on what could have happened??? This happened to me lots last year also.

I also had to lower the humidity on day 15 to regulate the egg sac size.

Well a couple things come to mind. Number one what was you incubating temperature during incubation? Being they were late by your calculations tells me perhaps the temp was a tad low? Second question would be what was you incubating humidity before day 15? I generally run anywhere for 30%-40% humidity for 1-18. So by dropping the humidity that caused the air sac to grow to what your saying was a tiny bit to big.

 

[Jim121898]

I also forgot to ask what was the humidity during lock down day 19-21? Also how long after the 9 hatched did you give the remaining 11? Some folks say to give an additional 2 days for any late hatchers.

 

[MontainBourbons]

Well a couple things come to mind. Number one what was you incubating temperature during incubation? Being they were late by your calculations tells me perhaps the temp was a tad low? Second question would be what was you incubating humidity before day 15? I generally run anywhere for 30%-40% humidity for 1-18. So by dropping the humidity that caused the air sac to grow to what your saying was a tiny bit to big.

Temperature was set at 99.8 but was usually around 99.5. Before day 15 it was about 48% but we lowered it to 20% up to day 19. I will keep it at around 35% from now on.

I also forgot to ask what was the humidity during lock down day 19-21? Also how long after the 9 hatched did you give the remaining 11? Some folks say to give an additional 2 days for any late hatchers.

60% during the hatch and 1 day for late hatchers, nothing happened within 24 hours after the end of the last hatched egg. We candled all of them, no internal pips or movement.

 

[Jim121898]

Temperature was set at 99.8 but was usually around 99.5. Before day 15 it was about 48% but we lowered it to 20% up to day 19. I will keep it at around 35% from now on.

60% during the hatch and 1 day for late hatchers, nothing happened within 24 hours after the end of the last hatched egg. We candled all of them, no internal pips or movement.

Temp should not be an issue then as long as you know your thermometer is accurate. Humidity adjustment 35% is pretty safe. You may also want to go 70%+ during lock down it just helps soften everything up. Good luck with your next hatch I'm setting another 10 EEs today.

 

[SunHwaKwon]

Oh, my gosh! I must be getting old. I didn't realize until I snapped this pic and checked it against my hatching spreadsheet... I missed putting one of the Sebright eggs in the incubator!! :/ I had twelve eggs, and then realized that one had a hairline crack and was seeping (tossed it), which left eleven... but there are only ten in this picture. Oops. Sure enough, poor Zarina has been sitting in the egg carton for an extra two days, while all the other eggs have been incubating. Those cute bantam eggs are so little, I didn't see it sitting there lonely in the newspaper wrapping. I guess I should expect that one to hatch two days after the others, yes? I hope I didn't do major harm by leaving it resting at room temperature an extra two days. Three of the eggs have stable air cells. Seven are wobbly, but not detatched. I put the wobblers upright in paper towel tube rings, and am turning them very gently. That worked well for my shipped Silkie eggs, so I am hoping to have success again. Poor Zarina! *sigh*

They may hatch around the same time. IME bantams hatch around day 19.

 

[orrpeople]

I hate when I do stupid things. I had 3 eggs from my own flock that were "loose" in the bator (all the others were in their cut out cartons and I ran out of room), so I had been turning them; sometimes propping them up against the cartons,sometimes just rolling them. I just realized yesterday that when I had propped them up, I was doing it pointy end up!!! Gggaaahh! Poor little embryos. I do hope they don't suffer from my dumbness!!

 

[SunHwaKwon]

I hate when I do stupid things. I had 3 eggs from my own flock that were "loose" in the bator (all the others were in their cut out cartons and I ran out of room), so I had been turning them; sometimes propping them up against the cartons,sometimes just rolling them. I just realized yesterday that when I had propped them up, I was doing it pointy end up!!! Gggaaahh! Poor little embryos. I do hope they don't suffer from my dumbness!!

They should be fine, I think. My neighbor is a jack*** and I used to go check on his chicks for him if he worked late or went out of town or whatever. They were in the laundry room and so was the incubator. I would go through his eggs and candle them since he didn't know how and set them in the turner pointy end down. Next time I'd go over and they'd be pointy end up. I'm like ***. He said he thought he was supposed to turn them. SMH. First off, they were already in an automatic turner... anyway, he would still manage to get chicks to hatch despite them being upside down, improper temps, staggered and hatching in the turner, and basically all the other things on the list of what not to do. lol Granted his hatch rates weren't EXCELLENT but he did get chicks (and quail and turkeys)