First breeding season question

[izigg]

Thanks for the link ! After reading all there I feel its safe to say my second hen is not as bad off as the first was, she is eating and drinking and walking around with some difficulty but she is getting around better then the first who is now perfectly fine and back to her normal self. Hope to get a few good eggs yet from her ? They have all been eating the feed with calcium and they ate the scrambled eggs with shells this morning. In the morning I will get some crushed oyster as well and hope this takes care of it because they dont like to be touched and even though Im the only one who they let get close, they wont let me get to close before they all freak out so if I can avoid having to inject the other calcium gluconate it would be best.

 

[izigg]

Hens are all doing great and starting lay regular and have now collected 3 good eggs and signs of more to come. Thanks again. Not one of them is making a nest and just leaving the eggs so I am wondering if I should try making a box for them to use. I tried to pen up the hens before they laid but they all got so frustrated being locked up they wouldnt stop trying to get out and eventually smashed their eggs before I got to them so I stopped penning them in and they just drop n go it seems??? Any ideas as to why or how to correct this so they sit on a clutch? The most dominant hen recently laid and I thought she would be the one but she dropped her egg and left just the same???

 

[Birdrain92]

Hens are all doing great and starting lay regular and have now collected 3 good eggs and signs of more to come. Thanks again. Not one of them is making a nest and just leaving the eggs so I am wondering if I should try making a box for them to use. I tried to pen up the hens before they laid but they all got so frustrated being locked up they wouldnt stop trying to get out and eventually smashed their eggs before I got to them so I stopped penning them in and they just drop n go it seems??? Any ideas as to why or how to correct this so they sit on a clutch?  The most dominant hen recently laid and I thought she would be the one but she dropped her egg and left just the same???

They usually do that until they have a full clutch. Most clutches are 4-5 eggs. Sometimes more or less.

 

[izigg]

I recently purchased an incubator as a back up plan and now in the process of testing prior to egg setting in the next 7 days as I now have 3 eggs and going to try this, so after getting it started and regulating the temperature very nicely to 38 C* I was working on the humidity adjustment and after reading a few pea fowl 101 posts on hatching there was a little confusion as to what the correct humidity settings should be set at for proper hatching. Is there a best recomended setting for humidity on incubators, I have the humidity set at 87 and the actual reading is now at 83 to 84 humidity and holding at 38 C* or 100 F* with only roughly a .2 to .3 in temp fluctuations. I do not think its possible to make a wet bulb thermom with this type that could be easily read and calculated but with a humidity control setting I would think its not needed if I know the correct setting for peas which I do not and hoping someone does???

 

[Birdrain92]

I recently purchased an incubator as a back up plan and now in the process of testing prior to egg setting in the next 7 days as I now have 3 eggs and going to try this, so after getting it started and regulating the temperature very nicely to 38 C*  I was working on the humidity adjustment and after reading a few pea fowl 101 posts on hatching there was a little confusion as to what the correct humidity settings should be set at for proper hatching. Is there a best recomended setting for humidity on incubators, I have the humidity set at 87 and the actual reading is  now at 83 to 84 humidity and holding at 38 C* or 100 F* with only roughly a .2 to .3 in temp fluctuations.  I do not think its possible to make a wet bulb thermom with this type that could be easily read and calculated but with a humidity control setting I would think its not needed if I know the correct setting for peas which I do not and hoping someone does???

Unfortunately humidity isn't set across the board so to speak. For example, I got a 100% hatch rate with my IB eggs and no health problems or defects. The humidity I use is 60-70%. Other breeders will set theirs differently and have great success. In my opinion it's guess and check process.

 

[izigg]

I may have gotten a wet bulb humidity temp confused with proper settings for humidity in the machine , after researching more I found that 60 was a good setting setting for humidity which should translate into 87 wet bulb, but that is not exact science as the difference fluctuates as you say. There was an article that said to raise the humidity prior to hatching but to what level the article did not say which makes me question the expertise of the writers knowledge of pea fowl. I have been subtracting water to reduce the humidity lvl and have it down to 68 but have more work to do with the machine to get it down to 60 or there abouts.The trick it seems is figuring out which channels to fill and how much but I should be able to get it figured out by the next couple of days. I should get a couple more eggs here soon and hope to set 5 or 6 and wait till fall and let them have a clutch. How many eggs will you set at a time or can you add more eggs during the process ?
Somewhere I read the temps cant drop even a degree in an incubator or the embryo will die but Im having difficulty finding logic in this as normally a mother hen in the wild would leave her nest during the day at some point to get water at least. Yet people at some point candle the eggs so this would put a chill on eggs as well or does this not effect the growth process? If anyone can clear up some of this confusion for me I would appreciate how others have been successful at this.

 

[Birdrain92]

I may have gotten a wet bulb humidity temp confused with proper settings for humidity in the machine , after researching more I found that 60 was a good setting setting for humidity which should translate into 87 wet bulb, but that is not exact science as the difference fluctuates as you say. There was an article that said to raise the humidity prior to hatching but to what level the article did not say which makes me question the expertise of the writers knowledge of pea fowl. I have been subtracting water to reduce the humidity lvl and have it down to 68 but have more work to do with the machine to get it down to 60 or there abouts.The trick it seems is figuring out which channels to fill and how much but I should be able to get it figured out by the next couple of days. I should get a couple more eggs here soon and hope to set 5 or 6 and wait till fall and let them have a clutch. How many eggs will you set at a time or can you add more eggs during the process ?
Somewhere I read the temps cant drop even a degree in an incubator or the embryo will die but Im having difficulty finding logic in this as normally a mother hen in the wild would leave her nest during the day at some point to get water at least. Yet people at some point candle the eggs so this would put a chill on eggs as well or does this not effect the growth process? If anyone can clear up some of this confusion for me I would appreciate how others have been successful at this.

I start off around 35% and then gradually increase and remain at 60-70% a few days before hatching. I still open the incubator 2 times or more a day to rotate eggs and add water. Eggs can hold heat for a while. So long as you don't leave them out for hours. I usually set 4-5 eggs at a time and have set 3 sets at different times before.

 

[izigg]

Do you have a second incubator used for hatching or did you build a hatchery ? What temp did you find best maintained for success in hatching ?

 

[Birdrain92]

I only use one incubator. I try to stay as close to 100F or 37.78C the entire time.

 

[izigg]

Thank you, any other recommendations you found improved your hatches?