Help !

[PoultryQueen101]

I have eggs I am using for a 4-H project. I purchased 18 silkie eggs from a breeder (got23) and over half were infertile we paid $70.

My project was to see how well eggs would hatch in an up, down, position. One batch was set 21 says down, one 21 days up. One batch was set 18 days down, then up, and one was set 18 days up, then 3 days down.

So far all that's hatched are two of the eggs from the up 18 down 3. En route are the eggs laid down the entire time.

I feel the up and down up eggs have died.


I know it was a part of my project, and we have gotten more eggs from the breeder and she sent only the ones that were shown fertile for this hatch.


Should I lay the up eggs down or will this just messages up?

Also, one egg has a saddled air cell and I can see it breathing. It's only got half of the egg lengthwise to hatch.


Sorry for the questions, I haven't hatched since last summer.


Humidity was 30%ish through day 19, where it was raised to 40% and the chicks have kept it around there by IPing. Still, one chick was sticky.


Hatched
2/6 up down

 

[chickens r life]

Can you hear any chirping? I don't think it's a good idea to mess with the eggs too much since you are in "lockdown". What day are at right now?

 

[kuchchicks]

I think your humidity is too low at 40%. I would raise it up to near 70%. That's probably why they are sticky. With your humidity that low I would not open your Bator a whole lot.

 

[PoultryQueen101]

I'm not going to raise it past 50% if anything too many chicks have drowned. 70% wet bulb... maybe.
I hear chirps in the down bator and have 1 pip and since it's the brinsea mini, I can see a couple chicks breathing in the air cell.

As for the other... nothing.


It should be nearing the end of day 21 for silkies. And day 21 for minorcas and buckeyes.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I think your humidity is too low at 40%. I would raise it up to near 70%. That's probably why they are sticky. With your humidity that low I would not open your Bator a whole lot.

Totally agree

I'm not going to raise it past 50% if anything too many chicks have drowned. 70% wet bulb... maybe.
I hear chirps in the down bator and have 1 pip and since it's the brinsea mini, I can see a couple chicks breathing in the air cell.

As for the other... nothing.


It should be nearing the end of day 21 for silkies. And day 21 for minorcas and buckeyes.

Wet bulb are not percentages, they are in degrees and if you are using a wet bulb you need a whole different set of numbers than a hygrometer. If you are using a hygrometer, 50% is very low for a hatching humidity. Chicks don't "drown" from high hatch humidity, they drown from an average high hatch humidity that does not allow the egg to loose enough moisture over the period of the incubation as a whole. Eggs don't gain fluid from extra humidity. Extra humidity prevents the egg from loosing the fluid in itself. As long as you have gone into lockdown with healthy sized air cells and the egg has lost the moisture/weight it needs to raising the humidity for hatch does not cause "drowning".

I personally shoot for 75% during hatch and often it ends up 80%+ because I am a meddler and open my bator often during hatch. People that have a hands off method can run at 65% very successfully, but I would not ever be comfortable running hatch under 65%.

Humidity is carefully controlled to prevent unnecessary loss of egg moisture. The relative humidity in the incubator between setting and 3 days prior to hatching should remain at 58-60 percent or 84-86º F., wet-bulb. When hatching, the humidity is increased to 65 percent relative humidity or more.
Frequently there is confusion as to how the measurement of humidity is expressed. Most persons in the incubator industry refer to the level of humidity in terms of degrees F., (wet-bulb) rather than percent relative humidity. The two terms are interconvertible and actual humidity depends upon the temperature (F.) as measured with a dry-bulb thermometer. Conversion between the two humidity measurements can be made using a psychrometric table. Taken from: http://msucares.com/poultry/reproductions/poultry_environment.html

I disagree with the first 18 days being that high as I have found that a low humidity incubation, especially in the styro bators work much better, so I shoot for 30% the first 17 days to allow for moisture loss and I monitor my air cells then I go up to 75% for hatch. I rarely loose any chicks post hatch and have no deaths after pip or leg issues. Hates rates from lockdown 90%+ my highest was 100%

But you also have to take altitude into consideration as well, because hatching in a high elevation poses it's own problems as well.

 

[PoultryQueen101]

Totally agree Wet bulb are not percentages, they are in degrees and if you are using a wet bulb you need a whole different set of numbers than a hygrometer. If you are using a hygrometer, 50% is very low for a hatching humidity. Chicks don't "drown" from high hatch humidity, they drown from an average high hatch humidity that does not allow the egg to loose enough moisture over the period of the incubation as a whole. Eggs don't gain fluid from extra humidity. Extra humidity prevents the egg from loosing the fluid in itself. As long as you have gone into lockdown with healthy sized air cells and the egg has lost the moisture/weight it needs to raising the humidity for hatch does not cause "drowning". I personally shoot for 75% during hatch and often it ends up 80%+ because I am a meddler and open my bator often during hatch. People that have a hands off method can run at 65% very successfully, but I would not ever be comfortable running hatch under 65%.
Humidity is carefully controlled to prevent unnecessary loss of egg moisture. The relative humidity in the incubator between setting and 3 days prior to hatching should remain at 58-60 percent or 84-86º F., wet-bulb. When hatching, the humidity is increased to 65 percent relative humidity or more.
Frequently there is confusion as to how the measurement of humidity is expressed. Most persons in the incubator industry refer to the level of humidity in terms of degrees F., (wet-bulb) rather than percent relative humidity. The two terms are interconvertible and actual humidity depends upon the temperature (F.) as measured with a dry-bulb thermometer. Conversion between the two humidity measurements can be made using a psychrometric table. Taken from: http://msucares.com/poultry/reproductions/poultry_environment.html

I disagree with the first 18 days being that high as I have found that a low humidity incubation, especially in the styro bators work much better, so I shoot for 30% the first 17 days to allow for moisture loss and I monitor my air cells then I go up to 75% for hatch. I rarely loose any chicks post hatch and have no deaths after pip or leg issues. Hates rates from lockdown 90%+ my highest was 100%

But you also have to take altitude into consideration as well, because hatching in a high elevation poses it's own problems as well.

First 18 days was 30% I lost about 50% viable chicks in two different incubatoes. One was the brinsea mini and I can't even tell humidity and the other a hovabator. About half of those chicks were sticky or had a lot of liquid within the membrane. But half were very dry. And I think all were shrinkwrapped. I had to quickly open all my eggs yesterday, which saved 3 chicks now flapping around my brooder that had internally pipped and were trying to get out. The last egg did not make it and seemed to have needed another day. We kept it moist and waited for it to lose all the veins from its membrane. It had internally pipped. But died overnight. it's veins were very thick and large and I knew a Nick would kill it. So i kept moistening, but overnight it dried out. It's yolk showed it was behind schedule. I know I can't do anything now, but I have another set of eggs right now that I want the best for. The most viable eggs will be moved to the brinsea mini. They are all silkies, a few bantam polish, and a few large fowl polish. So whatever humidity would be best for them. I just want to have a good hatch for once. It seems that no matter how many we put in, we always get 8-9

 

[PoultryQueen101]

I am in central Ohio and it is really challenging weather. Some days are sunny and hot and the next day it snows. (Literally!)

 

[AmyLynn2374]

First 18 days was 30%

I lost about 50% viable chicks in two different incubatoes. One was the brinsea mini and I can't even tell humidity and the other a hovabator.
About half of those chicks were sticky or had a lot of liquid within the membrane. But half were very dry. And I think all were shrinkwrapped. I had to quickly open all my eggs yesterday, which saved 3 chicks now flapping around my brooder that had internally pipped and were trying to get out. The last egg did not make it and seemed to have needed another day. We kept it moist and waited for it to lose all the veins from its membrane. It had internally pipped. But died overnight. it's veins were very thick and large and I knew a Nick would kill it. So i kept moistening, but overnight it dried out. It's yolk showed it was behind schedule.

I know I can't do anything now, but I have another set of eggs right now that I want the best for. The most viable eggs will be moved to the brinsea mini.

They are all silkies, a few bantam polish, and a few large fowl polish. So whatever humidity would be best for them.
I just want to have a good hatch for once. It seems that no matter how many we put in, we always get 8-9

Shrinkwrapping generally occurs from low humidity and the egg loosing too much moisture. I have awesome results with this method (and I use an old model LG bator) : http://letsraisechickens.weebly.com...anuals-understanding-and-controlling-humidity but the important thing is to check your thermometers and hygrometer for accuracy and to monitor the air cells to make sure that your humidity is working for your eggs. If your eggs are more porous than normal you'll find you might want to raise the humidity a bit. Harder/thicker less porous eggs might need less. If you monitor the air cells in the eggs you will have a much better chance at understanding how well your humidity levels are working and adjusting them before lockdown to make sure they are where they need to be. I use 30% for the first 17 days, running dry when I can and at lockdown I up it to 75%. If at any point in the incubation I think my air cells are growing a little too fast, I raise the humidity slightly a few days to slow them down and put them where they need to be. HIgher altitudes excluded from this method because hatching in a high altitude carries it's own troubles. The low humidity incubation methods (on the average) work very well in the styrobators if the hatcher has accurate thermometers/hygrometer and the bator holds a fairly steady temp. It can be successful in plastic bators as well, it's just a matter of double checking by air cell monitoring, (or weighing).