Hatching at high altitude

[bumpercarr]

Of my latest incubator run, hatch day is tomorrow... 15 (3 are iffy) of 28 made it to the hatcher.

The humidity is holding at 65 - 70%. Temp is 99.7 - 100.1. And I put 3 3oz baggies of soda lime in yesterday to hopefully hold on through the end of the hatch.

One just pipped! in the last hour. It is 1 of 2 LF Silkie eggs (like they are really big...). They were extra eggs included in an order of Marans eggs. Cute little eggs, but once again the small ones pip first. Just like Pozees said and all of the information that I read after my last hatch states.

So, this hatch looks like 12 of 28. All shipped eggs from sea level up to EL1600. We shall see...

Let us know how it goes. 12 of 28 would make me very, very happy.

 

[Pozees]

Did you use the soda lime in your incubator/hatcher? I just ordered it, should be here on Wednesday. I think I'll put some in this hatch that I'm working on to see what happens. I don't use a separate hatcher, I hatch in the incubator. Gets interesting when you have staggered hatches.

I had it in the incubator for, as I recall, the last 9 days of the first 18, I'm afraid to put it in the hatcher but may have to try that next.

Let us know how it goes. 12 of 28 would make me very, very happy.

Same here!

 

[lgc1970]

My Sportsman came pre-set at 100 degrees and I have not messed with it.

I have a Welsummer pullet and 2 cockerels I have been hanging onto because the boys are quite passive and have had their tails removed twice by more dominant males (they are no longer housed with), so I didn't really feel I could sell them with no tails.  If you would like them, I will sell the 3 for $30.  They hatched in early March, so are almost 4 months old.

I put 5 Mottled Houdan and 5 Silver Duckwing Leghorn eggs into the hatcher last Wednesday, 1 LH hatched, 1 tried and died halfway through zipping and seemed large for its shell, the others never even internally pipped, and all that went into the hatcher had developed (5 of 9 MH, 5 of 16 LH).  Very disappointed.  Of my Silkie eggs, 4 of 6 hatched, they were laid here, and the ones that didn't look like they died immediately after transfer to the hatcher.  I am mulling over trying half the next group in the hatching tray of the Sportsman, so no change in atmosphere or humidity, to see what happens.

I am very sorry to hear this... I keep my incubator and hatcher on the same desk in the room with the humidifier and heater (still going with nights continually dipping into the 40s here). I raise the temperature and restock the humidifier on move day at least an hour before I can do the move. I also move them on Day 16 or 17 and recandle on Day 18. I wonder if you could put some soda lime in the hatcher near a door or vent hole that could allow you to get it out readily on Day 19 or 20. But I have had the soda lime wrapped up in the cheese cloth, placed it in with chicks and had no issues. They are not attracted to it because it is white or a faint purple, neither seems to be a color that attracts chickens. Another option would be to cover it with a piece of 'woven' shelf cloth or linen or more cheese cloth right on the bottom of the hatcher. Chicks don't start scratching until they are a day or 2 old.

Also, I have done staggered hatches before, but that was when I was living at EL0800 and incubating with eggs from down the road that hatched out 'like popcorn'. Not sure I could bring myself to do it now... I never incubated eggs that were more than 3 days apart and just stopped turning the newer eggs 2 - 3 days early so none would be disturbed near the end. I keep the 2 spaces now to ensure that I can rotate my incubating eggs and not disturb the settings etc. during the pre-hatch days. Means that I can almost continually add to the bator, too. Umm,,, not that I would want that .

 

[bumpercarr]

Progress report day 10! Out of the 16 eggs that I have in the bator (they are from 3800 ft) I have 7 duds, clear on candling. Six are definitely viable, I see movement and am sure that there are viable embryos in the eggs. Three are maybes, not sure what I am seeing so I'll leave them to the next candling. My soda lime will arrive tomorrow, so I will put some in and hopefully (fingers crossed) it will ensure that the six viable hatch and maybe a few out of the maybe pile.

So far, I would say that ordering from the mid-level altitude helped significantly. Generally, I've had between 0% and 5% viable at day 10 so having 6/16 (37.5%) viable at this point is good news for me!

and maybe

 

[bumpercarr]

Preparing for lock down on Wednesday morning and starting to push my humidity up to over 70%. Using the soda lime, having to change it every day now...at day 11 only had to change every 2 days. Candled last night, out of six that were viable, 5 look good. The other one I put in the maybe row along with one of the maybes (out of three) from day 11 candling. Saw some slight movement in the 5, they are getting big now so harder to move around in the shell I think. Will candle again at lockdown. So, that is the update for now. Day 21 is Friday, so I should have some peeping on Friday through Saturday.

If these 5 hatch, it will be the best hatch I've had on shipped eggs in a long, long time. I think the best I've ever done before was 2 out of 6 under a broody. Best in an incubator was 4 out of 28. So.............here's hoping!

 

[lgc1970]

I have been organizing for chickens and summer vaca! So, I haven't had much time to write. My daughter gets on BYC more than I do right now... :/

So, my last hatch was okay. 8 out of the original 28 hatched, but 1 didn't make it. So, I have a total of 14 hatched chicks; and after giving a couple bantams to the neighbors, we have 12 little cuties. But my hatcher got hot the final 24hrs and I think it lead to the remaining 4 not hatching. The hatchlings were STICKY!!! I actually dipped them in warm water after they had dried to help get the 'stick' off. Hatcher ran at 70 - 75% the whole time, but the incubator ran at 45 - 55%.

My latest run I will be putting 24 out of 30 shipped sea level eggs into the hatcher. This is my best run yet! Soda lime fresh every day or so the entire time, bator at temp 100 - 100.5 for much of the run, humidity at 55 - 65% for the entire run. This time I will not be raising the humidity for the hatch; I am just going to keep it at 60 - 65%. See if that will get me fluffy chicks this time. July 5th is Hatch Day!

Good Luck bumpercarr!

 

[bumpercarr]

Good luck to you too!! I think we both really need this hatch to turn out and our chicks will almost have the same birthday! The heat here is killing me, chickens seem to be handling it okay, but not well. This is why I usually don't hatch this late.

 

[lgc1970]

Thanks a bunch, bumpercarr!!

Yes, I really need this to work. This run has 10 Red English over Buff American Orpington (10 went in at the start!), plus 14 eggs of various FBCM mix, OE, EE and Wellie mixes or possibly pure. The Welsummer eggs really do not like the change in venue for incubation, those are the only ones that did not really make it to the end here (of the 6 pulled eggs those were 4 of them, then 1 OE, 1 FBCM). I only started with 7 Wellie eggs to begin with. Those and the Ameraucana eggs are the ones that did not make it in previous runs, too.

5 Days and Counting (down)!

Then I have 1 hatch left on the horizon,10 days later... Those are all Brahma; 10 Dark, 1 light / buff / dark random). I want Dove (my 3wk old hatchling Buff Brahma) to have a few friends. She is so adorable! with those feathery feet and always wanting to be held.

 

[lgc1970]

Oh, and ... the heat is pretty 'up there' here, too. But I live way up in the mountains, so high here means 86^. It is also dry, so the chickens have been drinking way more. I should put the baby chicks brooder out in the greenhouse next to the big chicken coop so I can get the heat lamp out of the house! With the windows open, the greenhouse stays a pretty constant temperature, and the heat lamp can get hung a little higher over the pen.

I wonder if this is why the room temp for the incubators spiked? The temp did rise a bit last week, even though it was still dipping down into the 40s / low 50s at night.

 

[bumpercarr]

Oh, and ... the heat is pretty 'up there' here, too. But I live way up in the mountains, so high here means 86^. It is also dry, so the chickens have been drinking way more. I should put the baby chicks brooder out in the greenhouse next to the big chicken coop so I can get the heat lamp out of the house! With the windows open, the greenhouse stays a pretty constant temperature, and the heat lamp can get hung a little higher over the pen.

I wonder if this is why the room temp for the incubators spiked? The temp did rise a bit last week, even though it was still dipping down into the 40s / low 50s at night.

109 was the high here today. I've never, ever had it this hot before. Usually get a couple of days in the low 100s two or three times in the summer. I don't think we've had a day (okay, maybe one) below 100 in three weeks. It is unreal. Maybe this means the rest of the summer will be cooler?