Getting the flock out of here - a diary of a crazy chicken man

[ozexpat]

Day 18... well almost

I am going to try and get to sleep a little earlier tonight so I am giving an update now - 1 hour before day 18 starts,

Today is normal hatch day for quail. The remaining chicks that will hatch should hatch by this time tomorrow.

Bernie will fire up the display case bator shortly and put the 160+ viable of the 260+ chicken eggs that made the journey tomorrow.

After losses from transportation, here is what will go into lockdown

PIGLETTS'S BUFF ORP 9/12,
JERSEY GIANT 19/25,
BBS ORP 14/15,
GOLDEN SEBRIGHT 5/14,
LAVENDER ORP 3/7,
AUSTRALORP 19/27,
BLACK BRESSE 8/17,
SERAMA 8/20
LFR'S ANDALUSIANS 2/5,
OGM'S HRIR 3/4
OGM'S SPLASH MARANS 2/2,
BCM 6/8,
KEVINS 12/13
LFR'S BANTY COCHINS 0/2
NO MARKINGS (RIR BPR LavOrp) 60/91

 

[hillfloweranch]

Day 15 update 21 hours into day 15. Bernie candled the quail and kept 34 viable eggs. The plan was to move them the styro bator at day 15.5 but the 110v transformer seems to have blown a fuse. I instructed Analou to jump on a jeepney to Kabankalan City to buy a replacement fuse and 2 spares. In the meeantime, Bernie can use the transformer I have set up for the 12v-110v inverter. The adventure continues. To keep the photo junkies happy, here are some pictures of the water falls in the mountains behind us,

This photo junkie is satiated!!! Lol

 

[ozexpat]

Day 18.

Coturnix hatch is basically over. We have 18 that made it through. This will be enough Texas A&M to get the breed going. I may bring some more next year for genetic diversity. I am seriously pleased that we got a few. When I saw the losses from shipping I thought that these guys were so scrambled we had no chance.

The humidity issue is still scaring me. I may have to rig a full size style dehumidifier into the megabator. There were several quail that internally pipped but could not manouver to get out of the shell. Late loss like that is usually from chicks that have no room from being overloaded with fluid.

I have everything crossed that we can get a eighty chickens out and a breeding pair minimum of each.

We will delay lockdown till the last possible minute.

The adventure continues................

 

[sluggospud]

Day 18.

Coturnix hatch is basically over. We have 18 that made it through. This will be enough Texas A&M to get the breed going. I may bring some more next year for genetic diversity. I am seriously pleased that we got a few. When I saw the losses from shipping I thought that these guys were so scrambled we had no chance.

The humidity issue is still scaring me. I may have to rig a full size style dehumidifier into the megabator. There were several quail that internally pipped but could not manouver to get out of the shell. Late loss like that is usually from chicks that have no room from being overloaded with fluid.

I have everything crossed that we can get a eighty chickens out and a breeding pair minimum of each.

We will delay lockdown till the last possible minute.

The adventure continues................

Does this mean that any fertile eggs from your breeding pairs will need to be hatched in an incubator because it's too humid to hatch eggs under a broody hen?

 

[Ashburnham]

,

 

[ozexpat]

Does this mean that any fertile eggs from your breeding pairs will need to be hatched in an incubator because it's too humid to hatch eggs under a broody hen?

....and there lies the magic of a chicken's butt.

The answer is a simple no. The rationale behind the answer is a complex milieu that we have trouble duplicating.

My 'scovy duck recently sat on 21 eggs. Her sister sat on 16. Five weeks later we had 37 ducklings. Now a duck lays an egg per day. so even if they shared eggs, we had eggs that were 18 days old hatch. 100% hatch rate. Good luck trying to do that in an incubator!

Nature shares something with fowl that it does not share with us. We spend millions of dollars each year in research trying to duplicate nature. Nature also doesn't pack eggs and transport them 10000 miles.

Ultimately we will use broodies whenever we have them. I have nine local hens that are much more like the green and red jungle fowls that gallus domesticus derived from than the selectively bred chickens I am trying to hatch. They go broody constantly. I will use their butts whenever I have the opportunity and I pray that it will be many times a year.

There is so much more to it than humidity but I am trying to replicate what I have had success with. That's the dry hatch method. 40% humidity seems to work for me. 50% leaves me with chicks that chirp in their shell and die.

 

[Bens-Hens]

I was cutting some metal today on a really big saw, and thought of your incubator, Day 19 approaching and how there could be 200 eggs in there, having a little pre-pip wiggle!

Fingers crossed for the 100 mark, aim high!

 

[ozexpat]

I was cutting some metal today on a really big saw, and thought of your incubator, Day 19 approaching and how there could be 200 eggs in there, having a little pre-pip wiggle!

Fingers crossed for the 100 mark, aim high!

Its getting close all right. I would love to hatch 100. Thanks for the encouragement Ben. Your a decent bloke for a Sandgroper

When I have the bator outside you should check your radio signals - you may get alien communications bouncing off it and heading south.

 

[Phage]

Oz, if excess humidity is an issue throughout the incubation then I would not necessarily increase it at all for hatching.

 

[ozexpat]

Oz, if excess humidity is an issue throughout the incubation then I would not necessarily increase it at all for hatching.

it has been a thought of mine as well. My concern is that I could then cause shrink wrapping. I would hate to lose chicks for another reason - although one they start pipping the humidity with jump on its own. Hoy Vey.

One day when I am old and retired I will do controlled studies on all the theories I have.