Hatching Question

[shannybell]

I just recently finished up hatching my first set of incubator chicks and I have a couple of questions. My main question is this...the earlier the eggs the hatched, the healthier the chicks seemed. They would get out of the shells just fine with no cord attached and all of the yolk sack absorbed. However, the more time that lapsed before hatching, the problems set in. I had several that pipped internally which I ended up helping just a little because on day 25 I could still hear chirping but still no external pip and I was so afraid that they were going to die, they I finally helped some. Those finally finished hatching out on their own but had unabsorbed yolk sacks. So there I am, up at all hours of the night, blow drying chicks sitting in the bottom half of their shells, waiting for their yolks to be absorbed. Some did, some didn't. I also had a few hatch at 23 days and when they hatched, one of them that hatched overnight had an unabsorbed yolk sack and had crawled all over the incubator by morning and had covered the remaining eggs and my cheese cloth and everything in there with yolk and blood. Needless to say, by the time this hatch was over, my incubator was really stinky. I was worried about bacteria growing in there and contaminating the other eggs and hatching chicks...UGH I was quite disheartened by the outcome this time and had said I wasn't going to try it again so soon but I've let my kids talk me into it again already.

Is it normal for there to be more complications the longer the eggs go in the incubation period?

Also, is it possible to have too much humidity in the beginning (day 1-18)? I didn't have a hygrometer until day 18 so I'm not really sure what it was in the beginning but I have a little giant and I just kept the troughs full. This time around, I've only filled one half full and my hygrometer is reading 63% so I'm sure it was way higher last time.

Any advice is appreciated!

 

[HEChicken]

It sounds as though your temperature was a little low - hatching on day 23-25 is longer than it should take when the temp is optimum. I usually find the first pips on day 19, with the majority hatching on day 20. I've never had a chick hatch later than day 21 (with the temp at 99.5 in a circulated air incubator).

And yes, the ones that hatch latest do tend to have more difficulties - your instincts are correct there. But, increase your temperature a little next time and hopefully you won't have some of those issues.

Also, yes it is most certainly possible for the humidity to be too high in the first 18 days. There is some GREAT information on this here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...hathon-all-poultry-welcome/1500#post_10945080
Scroll down to the section on Carbon Dioxide Poisoning and it will answer a lot of questions about humidity.

Good luck and keep us posted!

 

[shannybell]

I have a still air incubator and I'm thinking that may be the big difference in the temps?? I was reading them like I had read you were supposed to...set the thermometer on top of the eggs. And being the worrier that I am, I had two, the one that came with it and then I purchased another incubator thermometer from the local co-op. I had one on each side so I could easily see one through each window and they read pretty much the same. Then when it got close to day 18, I bought a thermometer unit from walmart that measures humidity too, the digital kind and put it in there. It reads about 3 degrees less than the mercury thermometers. It may measure from the bottom where it is cooler and I'm okay with that as long as I know that my mercury thermometers are reading correct on top of the eggs. Those are reading 102 (give or take 1/2 a degree) and the digital is usually at 99. Does that sound right? Or still sound a little low? I looked back and my first chick hatched at 10 pm the night of day 21.

 

[HEChicken]

The problem with thermometers is they can often be wrong - especially the digital ones. This is where it gets really tricky to know what temperature you are at while incubating. My first attempt, I had 5 different thermometers in there (yes, I know

) and every one of them had a different reading.

Finally, in frustration, I went to Walmart and looked at all of the analog thermometers, most of which you can see the readings right through the packing. They had one little therm that they only wanted $1 for, and they had 20 of them so I looked at every single one. 3/4 of them had the same reading so I figured those were most likely to be reading accurately, purchased one, and scrapped the other 5 I'd been using. As one last test of it, I set it on top of my house thermostat for a few hours and was pleased to find that it read the same temperature the thermostat was set at.

You are correct that you want to be a little higher in a still air than if you had a fan. I would venture a guess that your thermometers are reading a little low, and that's okay as long as they're consistent. Next time, I would bump it up a degree and see if you get a more timely hatch. If you do, you will know for future hatches, where to set it to get the best results. A lot of this is just tweaking in the end and everyone has to go through this learning curve before they find what works for them.

 

[shannybell]

I will try to get to walmart today to do what you did then! That's a great idea! The thin little incubator thermometers from the co-op are not cheap...like $8. Which would be okay if I knew it was reading correctly Sooo, did I mention that I have eggs in the incubator now? Everything does point to bumping up the heat just a bit but I sure don't want to cook the little babies.

Can you describe what I would be looking for...the analog thermometer for $1 at Walmart? And would it be with the other digital "home" type thermometers?

 

[HEChicken]

Yes, it will be in the thermometer section. Mine is a little white piece of plastic with the red dial in the middle. I will warn that it is small so you have to peer to see the level it is at and won't be able to make adjustments in 1/10th's of degrees, but I found knowing it was accurate was worth it, and my hatches improved after I got it. I got mine a few years ago so the models might have changed by now. I did a quick look on their website and found this one that is similar: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Accurite-8-Thermometer/16888912 although I would guess mine is only about 5" instead of the 8" in this model so it might be easier to see. It is $1.97 at my local store so won't break the bank either.

 

[shannybell]

Yes, it will be in the thermometer section. Mine is a little white piece of plastic with the red dial in the middle. I will warn that it is small so you have to peer to see the level it is at and won't be able to make adjustments in 1/10th's of degrees, but I found knowing it was accurate was worth it, and my hatches improved after I got it. I got mine a few years ago so the models might have changed by now. I did a quick look on their website and found this one that is similar: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Accurite-8-Thermometer/16888912 although I would guess mine is only about 5" instead of the 8" in this model so it might be easier to see. It is $1.97 at my local store so won't break the bank either.

Yes I saw that style when I was in there last week! Thanks so much for taking the time to look that up and post the link

Okay, I have another question if you are up for it... Did you read the part about that one chick I had hatch out sometime overnight with an unabsorbed yolk sack and had crawled all over the incubator and remaining eggs by morning and gotten yolk/blood on everything. All I could picture was the bacteria that the little chick had just spread all over everything in there. I was leary about wiping the eggs off with a damp towel for fear of contaminating the them further through the pores. I was also worried about the chicks that hatched out onto the surface that had that all over it even though I did remove the stained cheese cloth and replace it with clean cloth as soon as I removed the chick. I think I read that the yolk/blood is full of bacteria and it just grows like crazy in the incubator conditions. I'm hoping I will have a better hatch this time and that won't happen, but I would like to know what I can and can't do during incubation to clean that up should it happen again.

 

[HEChicken]

You raise some good questions and I'm not sure I'm qualified to answer them. I haven't heard that the yolk contains a lot of bacteria though if there IS bacteria present, I agree that the conditions of incubation would certainly be just right for bacteria to grow.

Hopefully you won't have that happen again with the temperature being a little higher. Even if it does, you are probably better off leaving the incubator closed during hatch altogether - don't open it to retrieve chicks, add water, rearrange anything. The chicks will have a much easier time hatching if the incubator remains closed than if it is constantly being opened.