Hatching shipped eggs at high elevation.

[WVDoug]

I also have a question about altitude and chicken eggs, but unrelated to hatching.
I am a private pilot, and sometimes visit friends and family by small plane. I'd like to bring them fresh eggs, but how high do you think I can take them? Are the shells porous enough to release pressure so they wont burst at 8K-12K ft (until the air cell is gone, anyway)?
Anyone know?

 

[lgc1970]

I also have a question about altitude and chicken eggs, but unrelated to hatching.
I am a private pilot, and sometimes visit friends and family by small plane.  I'd like to bring them fresh eggs, but how high do you think I can take them?  Are the shells porous enough to release pressure so they wont burst at 8K-12K ft  (until the air cell is gone, anyway)?
Anyone know?

The shipped eggs by the USPS often take an unpressurized trip by plane and reach their destination without loosing very much if any moisture in that amount of time. There are 2 problems with shipped eggs rough handling causing the air sac to detach and taking the eggs to a higher elevation.

The detached air sac is from the eggs being shaken a lot during shipment. I receive eggs via USPS from sea level and incubate them at EL8150 (my home). That is where much of the issue arrises. If you raise the incubation elevation from the laid elevation very much this needs to be accounted for in incubating. This is best done by raising the humidity a little for the entire hatch.

 

[COsteveo]

Just set eggs for try #2. Doing an experiment of sorts with these - I set 66 eggs, but only have a proper holder for 30 of them, so the other 36 will be on their side and rolled around for turning. The eggs came from eastern Nebraska and did not travel by air. Air cells look good. My only concern is that it was really hot yesterday and I don't know if they were stored inside the post office or in the back of the truck until this morning.

My own quail started laying last week, so I will set some of my own eggs after this batch.

 

[lgc1970]

I'm at hatch day right now. This is the first good hatch I have had with shipped eggs. All of them were shipped from sea level and I am at EL8150. Started with 30 eggs, 23 went into the hatcher, today - 12 out, 4 pipped.

My experiments have taken me through: working out how to control CO2, humidity levels, and temperature adjustments.

Good luck! COsteveo

 

[COsteveo]

Update: despite a big temperature spike in the incubator last week (my fault), eggs have been hatching. Two on day 17, 11 on day 18, and 1 so far on day 19.

Unfortunately, my in-the-carton vs. on-the-floor experiment was ruined when my wife started removing shells and consolidating the remaining eggs yesterday. I was at work so I couldn't stop her, but she promises it was safe because all 11 had finished hatching and there weren't any pips at the time. The only thing I can say with confidence is that both groups are hatching.

Since these did not travel by air, I suspected the air cells were fine and set them as soon as I got them because they had already been delayed a day by the July 4 holiday. (I was surprised they shipped on Wednesday of that week, but I got them Saturday morning.) Candling at day 12 showed definitively that all air cells were good. Had some early quitters, but not an excessive amount.

I have 8 days worth of eggs (about 85) waiting to go into the incubator as soon as the current batch is done. I want to get them in there ASAP so if enough of the current set hatch tonight I will move the remaining eggs aside and add the new ones, leaving the old ones for a few more days to see if I have any stragglers.

 

[COsteveo]

Update: did get a better hatch rate from my own eggs, but not anything to write home about and possibly not even statistically significant. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 30%.

What I did learn is that my DIY incubator is lousy. I finally gave in and purchased a hovabator because I wanted some hot automatic turning action, and that thing is rock-steady. I figured one of the cheap incubators would be about as good as what I had built, but that was not the case. The first batch yielded 45 chicks from 91 eggs, even though I had been holding them for as long as 10 days and didn't think to turn them during that time.

 

[lgc1970]

I will have 2 more bator runs this fall. I am turning on the bator tomorrow to get ready. Already have some Langshan eggs on the way next week.

What I have learned for elevation 8150:

1. Temperature should be higher for me (101.5 F)
2. CO2 must be countered - most effective way is to add soda lime (medical grade) into the bottom of the bator for the whole run
3. Humidity is not a big deal (maintained at 45 - 55 works well)

My run in early July hatched out 8 of 12 total (10 went into lock down) of Dark Brahmas.

 

[COsteveo]

Not shipped eggs, but experimented with dry-hatching my own quail eggs. 118 eggs set, about 85 made it to lockdown, 26 hatched. I figured that would happen but I forgot to add water for the first 3 days so I just went with it. Previous hatch was 75/120.

 

[gogetter]

I will have 2 more bator runs this fall. I am turning on the bator tomorrow to get ready. Already have some Langshan eggs on the way next week.

What I have learned for elevation 8150:

1. Temperature should be higher for me (101.5 F)
2. CO2 must be countered - most effective way is to add soda lime (medical grade) into the bottom of the bator for the whole run
3. Humidity is not a big deal (maintained at 45 - 55 works well)

My run in early July hatched out 8 of 12 total (10 went into lock down) of Dark Brahmas.

Can you tell me more about this medical grade soda lime? Does or go in the water channels? I'm planning to hatch expensive shipped eggs at high altitude and don't want to kill them all.

 

[SundogIce]

From a 5/28/2014 post by Igc1970 listed under thread: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/194395/hatching-at-high-altitude/50

"I have found a website that can explain what R2elk is referring to.

http://www.lime.org/uses_of_lime/other_uses/industrial-chem_uses.asp

This is NOT medical grade soda lime or soda lime NI. I cannot even find a way to purchase this type of lime-soda without being an industry in need of the product, but I am certain there is a way [there is always a way]. As you read through the description you can see that this stuff has toxic byproducts, is caustic, and should be AVOIDED! Not kidding.

Below is a picture of the bag that the soda lime I am using comes in. Pozees is buying the very same product, from I believe the very same distributor.



I will keep everyone up to date on my incubation progress. So, you can wait to hear how my story goes before you go buying this stuff. It is not outrageous, but it is not by any means cheap either ($7.80 + S&H $10 flat fee). I ordered several bags, because after talking to a couple of my Chemical Engineering friends from college (I am a Civil Engineer) I believed that this was exactly what I was looking for to 'scrub' the CO2 from my bator environment. 1 bag should last through 2 incubation cycles, which works out to about $5 / bator run for me.

To date even though I started out with 60 eggs; several were removed (10 clears, 7 blood rings, then 5 at Day 9) before the soda lime was added. So, I am going to start my count at 43 for this experiment. I do not know if those last 5 would have survived had I put the soda lime in on Day 5; therefore, I am going to count them in my total loses for this experiment.

If I am able to hatch out 50% at my elevation, then I believe that this experiment can be identified a success. That means I need to hatch out 22 from the 43 eggs. Does anyone agree with that assessment? Should I hatch out 22 or more, then I have 1 giant piece of my hatching puzzle. If I hatch out 16 or more, then I will try it again placing the soda lime in at earlier and earlier days to find the greatest benefit (I probably will do this anyway, as I just cannot give up after 1 or 2 tries nor after 1 scenario). If it truly is a flop, then hopefully I have only wasted my own $50."