Hands on hatching and help

[Calichicken2015]

Don't stress too bad, they aren't that far off. That size at day 7 wouldn't make me flinch, and it's just a couple days off. I'd say 5% more, as long as they don't double in size over a matter of just a few days, you should be good.

Thank you! I candled and 20/22 of my chicken eggs have good veins, 5/12 ducks

and those quail eggs are just too small and dark to see

 

[BYC910]

Thank you! I candled and 20/22 of my chicken eggs have good veins, 5/12 ducks

and those quail eggs are just too small and dark to see

I have a question . What was the age of the egg at set ? Shipped or from your flocks? I think that your air cells are pretty big for day five even at a high altitude . Our discussions on this in the past have never been about rapid air cell growth but oxygen transfer . You might be able to coat the top portion of the egg with something like a vegetable oil to help reduce moisture loss.

Has anyone ever tried doing that ?

Just a thought . @FridayYet what do you think ?

 

[Calichicken2015]

I have a question . What was the age of the egg at set ? Shipped or from your flocks? I think that your air cells are pretty big for day five even at a high altitude . Our discussions on this in the past have never been about rapid air cell growth but oxygen transfer . You might be able to coat the top portion of the egg with something like a vegetable oil to help reduce moisture loss.

Has anyone ever tried doing that ?

Just a thought . @FridayYet what do you think ?

I believe they are no more than 2 days old...local. But they are from down the mountain...not from a flock up here. I upped my humidity a little more to see how that goes. Last year was my first year incubating up here and I didn't really watch my air cells because I never had the issue before....so they were big and my hatch was low

This year I am monitoring closely!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I have a question . What was the age of the egg at set ? Shipped or from your flocks?   I think that your air cells are pretty big for day five even at a high altitude . Our discussions on this in the past have never been about rapid air cell growth but oxygen transfer . You might be able to coat the top portion of the egg with something like a vegetable oil to help reduce moisture loss.  Has anyone ever tried doing that ? Just a thought . @FridayYet what do you think ?

High elevation doesn't just affect gas exchange, it affects moisture loss as well. Because the air has less molecules, both gases and water moves through the pores at a higher rate causing rapid air cell growth. Both reduced oxygen supply and dehydration are big issues of high altitude hatching.

 

[newchickmama91]

Has anyone here hatched Aylesbury duck eggs? I've got one that's made it to lockdown today and watching it in there the egg is moving like mad and I can hear tapping?! It's only day 25.

 

[Gorman Farm]

I wanted to post what happened to my incubated eggs, and see if anyone has any feedback on what they think might have happened.

So I ordered some eggs from a well known breeder and had them shipped to me. They arrived and looked pristine, well packed in styrofoam and lots of padding and well marked as fragile eggs. I do realize that shipped eggs often have dislodged air cells so I wasn't expecting a 100% hatch.
I also grabbed a few of my own eggs and incubated set up the bator.

this is my incubator. I also put a hygrometer in the bator

this one shows current temp, current humidity and the high and low temp over the last 12 hours.

I waited til I had 99 degrees temp, and 37% humidity in bator and it stayed steady til the next morning, then I set the eggs. On their sides ( I do not use a turner) I turn by hand 3-4 times per day.
I should also say that I am in Florida (very humid here) and so I usually do a fairly dry 35-38% humidity til last 3 or 4 days of incubation.

Let me say that I have had 3 successful hatches doing things this way with 100% hatches. But perhaps I missed something this time.

So I set originally 20 shipped eggs, and 8 of my own eggs. The first 10 days I really didn't do much but turn the eggs, watch the temp & humidity and try to keep it the same. Temp was staying 99 or 100 and humidity was staying in the 30% range low 32 and high 39%. it would drop a hair when I opened to turn eggs.
On day 10 I candled and saw that I had several clears from the shipped eggs so I discarded them. My own eggs and several of the shipped eggs had air cells and I could see they were fertile. Opening and closing the bator to do the candling did cause the temp to drop to 97 degrees. I added a touch of hot water right away and that brought the temp and humidity back to normal within 3 minutes or so.

On day 14 I candled again, doing only 4 or 5 eggs putting them back and then waiting 15 mintues or so before I did the next batch to try and keep temp & humidity steady.

I removed some quitters with blood rings. But still had several viable eggs with moving chicks inside and nice air cells. I had 17 eggs at lock down.

I did not candle again, on day 18 I stopped turning, & raised humidity to 68% it fluctuated between 64 & 70% I did not open bator to add water I used one of the air holes and a syringe without the needle to shoot in water as needed. They were locked down.

On day 20 I got my first pip, this was pretty normal. On day 21 another chick pipped and started to zip. the first egg that pipped was not making any progress and it had been 20+ hours since it pipped. The second pip unzipped and was born, and there were no other pips in the bator. It was now 36+ hours since the first one pipped. I made the decision to help the first egg. I prepared a small tray with a heating pad and removed the first egg, made a circle around the air pocket with tweezers and made the pip hole a little larger and saw the chick was alive, I placed it back in the bator on a damp piece of paper towel under it. It was born about 2 hours later but I knew right away it had something wrong, it never stood or did anything but chirp and lay on its side umbilicus was still stuck to egg shell. It didn't make it. Meanwhile when I placed it back in bator I saw the humidity spike at about 73% probably because of the damp paper towel. Temp reading said high 100 low 97 degrees, the drop was when I opened to rescue shrink wrapped chick.

I left eggs in bator til day 24 (today) then I decided to do eggtopsies. I found fully formed chicks in all my own eggs, dead. In the shipped eggs there were a variety of stages in development, and one mostly formed chick probably made it through most of the incubation.

This was a disaster and I ended up going to TSC and picking up a few chicks for the lone survivor of my hatch.

 

[BigWeenMachine]

I had a very similar experience last year with my duck eggs. all the shipped eggs just died in the last week of incubation. I also had that same hygrometer last year and when I actually got some accurate hygro/thermometers that were built for incubators I discovered that that particular hygrometer was nearly 20% off. I have had pretty good success with the Incutherm hygro/thermometers. You can find those at incubatorwarehouse.com. I'm not an expert at incubating but my guess is either the hygrometer was off or the shipped eggs just got scrambled and weren't strong enough to survive.

 

[newchickmama91]

Mine all seem to die during hatching. I'm currently trying the dry hatch and the embryos are growing much better than ever before! So will see when lockdown starts. The ducks all drowned in lockdown so I figured I'd try something different. Seems to be working

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I wanted to post what happened to my incubated eggs, and see if anyone has any feedback on what they think might have happened.

So I ordered some eggs from a well known breeder and had them shipped to me. They arrived and looked pristine, well packed in styrofoam and lots of padding and well marked as fragile eggs. I do realize that shipped eggs often have dislodged air cells so I wasn't expecting a 100% hatch.
I also grabbed a few of my own eggs and incubated set up the bator.
[COLOR=005CB1] [/COLOR]
this is my incubator. I also put a hygrometer in the bator
[COLOR=005CB1] [/COLOR]
this one shows current temp, current humidity and the high and low temp over the last 12 hours.

I waited til I had 99 degrees temp, and 37% humidity in bator and it stayed steady til the next morning, then I set the eggs. On their sides ( I do not use a turner) I turn by hand 3-4 times per day.
I should also say that I am in Florida (very humid here) and so I usually do a fairly dry 35-38% humidity til last 3 or 4 days of incubation.

Let me say that I have had 3 successful hatches doing things this way with 100% hatches. But perhaps I missed something this time.

So I set originally 20 shipped eggs, and 8 of my own eggs. The first 10 days I really didn't do much but turn the eggs, watch the temp & humidity and try to keep it the same. Temp was staying 99 or 100 and humidity was staying in the 30% range low 32 and high 39%. it would drop a hair when I opened to turn eggs.
On day 10 I candled and saw that I had several clears from the shipped eggs so I discarded them. My own eggs and several of the shipped eggs had air cells and I could see they were fertile. Opening and closing the bator to do the candling did cause the temp to drop to 97 degrees. I added a touch of hot water right away and that brought the temp and humidity back to normal within 3 minutes or so.

On day 14 I candled again, doing only 4 or 5 eggs putting them back and then waiting 15 mintues or so before I did the next batch to try and keep temp & humidity steady.

I removed some quitters with blood rings. But still had several viable eggs with moving chicks inside and nice air cells. I had 17 eggs at lock down.

I did not candle again, on day 18 I stopped turning, & raised humidity to 68% it fluctuated between 64 & 70% I did not open bator to add water I used one of the air holes and a syringe without the needle to shoot in water as needed. They were locked down.

On day 20 I got my first pip, this was pretty normal. On day 21 another chick pipped and started to zip. the first egg that pipped was not making any progress and it had been 20+ hours since it pipped. The second pip unzipped and was born, and there were no other pips in the bator. It was now 36+ hours since the first one pipped. I made the decision to help the first egg. I prepared a small tray with a heating pad and removed the first egg, made a circle around the air pocket with tweezers and made the pip hole a little larger and saw the chick was alive, I placed it back in the bator on a damp piece of paper towel under it. It was born about 2 hours later but I knew right away it had something wrong, it never stood or did anything but chirp and lay on its side umbilicus was still stuck to egg shell. It didn't make it. Meanwhile when I placed it back in bator I saw the humidity spike at about 73% probably because of the damp paper towel. Temp reading said high 100 low 97 degrees, the drop was when I opened to rescue shrink wrapped chick.

I left eggs in bator til day 24 (today) then I decided to do eggtopsies. I found fully formed chicks in all my own eggs, dead. In the shipped eggs there were a variety of stages in development, and one mostly formed chick probably made it through most of the incubation.

This was a disaster and I ended up going to TSC and picking up a few chicks for the lone survivor of my hatch.

Sorry to hear about the bad hatch. Generally I would say with the shipped that it very well could be damage at the cellular level making the chicks weak, but it is a tad concerning that your own didn't prosper either. I would double check the accuracy of the hygrometer, but it sounds as though you monitored the air cells as well? How did the air cells look before you set them? Not detached or saddled? You have vents open right?

 

[Gorman Farm]

Sorry to hear about the bad hatch. Generally I would say with the shipped that it very well could be damage at the cellular level making the chicks weak, but it is a tad concerning that your own didn't prosper either. I would double check the accuracy of the hygrometer, but it sounds as though you monitored the air cells as well?
How did the air cells look before you set them? Not detached or saddled?

You have vents open right?

Hi, yes I only kept the ones with good air cells and they seemed of average size for the stage I checked. I tossed 2 saddled air cells on day 14.
Yes all vents were open. My unit has quite a few tiny ones and then two bigger ones. Ok, I think I will buy another hygrometer and check them side by side for next hatch.