hatching early!

[piggie]

this hatch I have had a bird hatch early under a chicken at 16 days and one hatch in the incubator at 17 days......and now one hatch on day 18 both were started the same day only because I had a broody chicken and wanted to see how well she would do but on hatching one she has fouled all her other eggs.

have given them a clean popped them back in to the incubator...dont know how they will go but we shall see tomorrow orthe next day it is day 20 today

any thoughts on the early hatchings?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Where are you located?
The only thing I can guess is that the temperature has been extremely warm, other hens have sat on the eggs occasionally or you misrecorded the date.
I've done the latter on occasion.

 

[piggie]

western Australia

the eggs have sat on the fridge for two weeks being turned

temperatures were last week in the high 30's*C and 40*C

the incubator is set to zero for the days and count up as they go along

the chook was set the next day out of eggs from the incubator.....

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Temps in that range will have them incubating on the fridge. Eggs kept above 27C will start to develop.
There is hatching potential of eggs kept between 35 and 40.5C
So they were partially incubated when you set the day counter to zero.

http://www.brinsea.com/Articles/Advice/PowerOff.aspx

http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/content/80/10/1406.short

 

[shortgrass]

@ChickenCanoe the poster is in Australia! Notice the CELSIUS?


Ack its 4 am, ya lost me....what are you talking about a fridge for?

oh okay, they put them ON the fridge...


Hey, I haven't had my coffee yet, give me a minute ha-ha

 

[shortgrass]

Ok now that I actually READ the posts lol, is there a difference in the humidity between the incubator and the hen? That would be my suspicion is a change in humidity can affect hatch rates too...

 

[Egghead_Jr]

That's crazy hot. Doing a quick conversion that's 104F for a high. I'm fretting this start of winter but glad my summer highs max out 32C.

Another thought of early incubation is if they are smaller pullet eggs and especially bantam bird eggs.

 

[piggie]

yes it is hot and we had 40*C today as well. but we have had a good hatch none the less in the incubator. The temperature and the humidity has been all over the place. We stand the incubator in a foam tray and we dont have the foam top....but we have a doona and a sheet folded up in 4 on top of the incubator.....this is good for the temperature unless it gets really hot like today but still it only goes up .1 of a degree which is not bad...

We live in a shed which is not padded out at all, but lined, but hot in summer. Might have to build me a insulated area or turn the fridge up a bit and store the eggs here for now till ready to load and then add to incubator forget the hen...she is just hard work.

any way some thing to sort out and think about for the next lot to go in.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

You could store the eggs IN the fridge, cellar or any other place that is cooler than 27C. That way, hatch day will be more predictable.