Hatching at high altitude

[bumpercarr]

All shipped from Bend, Oregon, (just looked it up: EL3600; higher than I though; 10 eggs into bator, 9 into hatcher) and western New York (EL1400; 20 eggs into bator, 14 into hatcher).

What breeds? I got these from Oregon as well. I think Bend, but I'm not sure. Dark Brahmas?

 

[lgc1970]

Red English Orpington (1 roo) over Buff American Orpington (8+ hens)

Those from New York are all mixed breeds I think. Several with feathered legs, but no feathers on the feet.

 

[bumpercarr]

Red English Orpington (1 roo) over Buff American Orpington (8+ hens)

Those from New York are all mixed breeds I think. Several with feathered legs, but no feathers on the feet.

Very cool. I have one hatched now and one pipped, but the hatchling flipped it over so it may not make it...we'll see. I've had them hatch from all different directions before, but since these are technically a little late they tend to not have as much stamina.

 

[bumpercarr]

One hatched, three pips, two doing nothing yet. Hopefully there will be 4 hatched in the morning, even better would be 6 hatched!

 

[lgc1970]

23 eggs went into hatcher
14 fluffy chicks came out

In the end, we have 14 in the brooder now. Those last 3 eggs did nothing and 1 more did not make it out of the egg, for a total of 6 non-viable pips. Plus, 1 of the last 3 looks iffy right now. I will check in to give an update later. But the totals are 30 / 23 / 14 (13). I had 4 clears / early quitters, 2 around Days 8 / 11, 1 at Day 18.

I tried to maintain the humidity from 60 - 65% (reality was 50 - 70%, because my humidifier is not working its best) for the whole run. I kept fresh soda lime going in as needed, 3oz daily at the start up to 9oz a day at the very end. As for the temerature, I found another research summary that discussed temperature and air pressure together and from this I raised the temperature from 100^ to 101.5^ around Day 9 and maintained this until the end. I think I will be trying 102^ next. The article discussed that the reduced oxygen and heat transfer ability of the air are the main factors in reduced embryonic development at altitude. Air pressure and air molecule movement are both increased slightly with the increase of temperature. This is the link to the article. If you are at a lower elevation this should work somewhat linearly, but the 99.5^ temperature would start being increased around EL3500 when the air pressure starts to decrease greater than nominally.

http://www.hatchtech.nl/aboutus/articles/High Altitude Incubation.pdf

Next Fall I will be using this formulae to start.
Humidity: 60 - 65% (start to finish), then 60 - 65% Days 0 - 18 // 55% Days 19 - 22
Soda Lime: Daily
Temperature:102^

As this experiment continues I will continue to post my results and changes. But at EL8150 I believe and have stated that a result of 50% or better is probably a win. I had 26 that had a chance to have made it to the hatcher, so 13 / 26 is exactly 50% on all shipped eggs from EL3600 (10 / 6 in brooder) and EL1400 (20 / 8 in brooder).

 

[Pozees]

Very interesting article. This part at the end makes me wonder, though, if increasing temp is really going to be beneficial:

Due to overheating after day 9 of
incubation, the metabolism of the embryo increases and consequently the oxygen requirement
increases as well. Due to the lower oxygen availability at high altitude the negative effects of too
high embryo temperatures on hatchability and chick quality, and chick performance in the field
are larger at high altitude than at sea level.

Then again, your result indicates it may have helped. Since I run a Sportsman cabinet and set a new tray each week, I have eggs in all three weeks of development in there at the same time. I cranked up my humidifier to full speed during hatch, which raised the humidity in the incubator to 40-41%. I had a couple stuck to the membrane so will add a bit more surface area of moisture to the hatching tray next time. I haven't put soda lime in since putting eggs into the hatching tray Wednesday, but will be putting it back in today.

I let 11 days go by before setting the next chicks due, but have a friend's duck and goose eggs due to stop turning this coming Wednesday. Because of their increased humidity requirements I will probably put them in the 1588 so I can boost humidity higher than in the hatching tray of the cabinet. Last time I got the only viable duck egg to hatch, but not the goose egg I thought would. My first time incubating waterfowl. I would really like to see a gosling or two in the hatcher this time around. Of the six she sent, 3 are viable but one looks like it has already quit. The duck eggs look better, I believe there's a chance to hatch 4 of the 6 of those. They are local, just driven from Penrose to my place just south of Pueblo, so fingers crossed

 

[bumpercarr]

This time, I received 16 shipped dark brahma eggs from elevation 3700 ft. I am at 4500 ft. Of those 16, 7 were either infertile or early quitters, 3 were maybes and 6 were fertile with movement at day 10. I kept my humidity at 55-60% for the first 10 days, increased it to 60-65% for the next 8 days and added soda lime at day 12 (didn't have it before then). At lockdown, I increased humidity to 70%, realized that somewhere along the way the turner had been turned off and in my upset forgot to put in the soda lime for hatching. Of the 9, I only put 6 into lockdown, the three maybes were definite no goes at day 18.

Right now I have 2 hatched, 1 zipped, 1 pipped. I suspect that the 1 pipped is not going to hatch, but we aren't at the 24th hour yet so we'll wait and see. Still have the whole staggered hatch thing going on, but at least I got 6 out of 16 to lockdown, which is more than I've gotten before. My previous hatch results were 0/28, 0/34, 4/26, so 4/16 is a great improvement. Still not giving up on the last two eggs, but suspect that they were late quitters based on my candling at lockdown. I wouldn't consider my process a success, but it is an improvement. Can take what we are learning here and work up to maybe 50%...I hope.

I will continue to study up until my next hatch, which at the earliest will be this fall. I am working on another experiment as well, and when all of the kids (I currently have 1 hen, 1 cock, 4 two and a half month old pullets, 2 seven week old pullets, 1 seven week old cockerel, 7 three week old unknowns and what is hatching today...all brahmas). I'm planning on ensuring that no one is carrying the V/v (vulture hock recessive) gene in my next hatchings this fall/winter and then will begin the breeding program with my own stock. In the meantime, I will be ordering some more dark brahma eggs to increase the number of darks that I have to breed to.

 

[bumpercarr]

Now I know what you meant by goopy hatchings. This third hatchling (the other one that had pipped died before making it out) was completely stuck in the egg. The shell had dried to it's back and it could not get out, so I had to assist it (even though I don't like to assist). It is dried goop everywhere on it. I've had to soak it in water to try to remove some of the sticky, dried on goop. It can't open it's eyes because it's head is dried hard. I don't know if this chick will make it. Unbelievable, never had this happen before. Maybe 70% humidity is too high?

 

[bumpercarr]

Now I know what you meant by goopy hatchings. This third hatchling (the other one that had pipped died before making it out) was completely stuck in the egg. The shell had dried to it's back and it could not get out, so I had to assist it (even though I don't like to assist). It is dried goop everywhere on it. I've had to soak it in water to try to remove some of the sticky, dried on goop. It can't open it's eyes because it's head is dried hard. I don't know if this chick will make it. Unbelievable, never had this happen before. Maybe 70% humidity is too high?

Or more than likely the auto turner getting turned off did this?

 

[Pozees]

Probably the humidity, although I have had chicks do this at a variety of humidity settings. Usually rinse them under warm running water and wipe a wet finger or thumb or paper towel gently across the eyes until they loosen up.