Vivid Hatchery
Chirping
Okay, so I am having a terrible time hatching chicks. I know that most of us here keep our chicks backyard or on a small farm, and I am no different. I provide a balanced layer feed ration. Most of my flocks are around 1:5 gender ratio. My birds have a lot of places they can run and escape, I keep a close eye on bullying, so even with that low ratio, they still space and multiple levels in their enclosures. I gather fairly clean eggs by hand. I put them in reused Styrofoam egg cartons. I often do not turn the eggs up on the side, each day, they mostly stay flat. The incubation room stays around 69 F consistently. 20% humidity in the room give or take.
The eggs are occasionally misshaped recently, however this has not been the case for months. I had the poor hatch rate then as well. Eggs are hard, no other types of deformities. One breed had a lot of calcium buildup on the shells but that has passed.
I do not wash the eggs before incubation. I will use a clean cloth or green brillo to scrape material off the egg, but it stays dry. Eggs are rarely out for a week before being set. That is the max. So every other egg is from day 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 day past. One study I read stated that as long as an egg is within ten days, there is still 98% probability it will remain as good as ones incubated on the first day.
I use a Brinsea 380 cabinet incubator. The most recent model. I run the indoor temp at 99.5 and the humidity at 40% unless there are eggs in lock down I bump it up to 60%. I need to but haven't purchased additional thermometers/ hyrgometers, but money is extremely tight right now. I use an automated humidity system so I do not have to raise fill any containers and have strong fluctuations in humidity levels. It maintains the humidity within a few degrees.
I have been pulling eggs at two different intervals. Once around day 7, and once around later on, around lockdown. At the time of the first inspection, I am often losing 20-30 percent. I am getting blood rings, and just failure to develop, so an absence of blood rings. Second, I get more at the second time, and they just failed to develop part way through. Like there is development inside, but then quit out. A lot are around day 8 it appears post mortem, but many others near hatch time. I lose another 30%+ during the lock down. Many still have yellow fluid in the yolk sack, mostly absorbed but failed to break through the air sack. But I have consistently been getting a ton that pierce the thin layer but then fail to hatch through the shell. I have been wanting to hold off on assisting to hatch until after day 21, but historically I never have any hatch after day 21, which gives me the impression that it is not a problem of the incubator getting too cool. Also, when I begin to assist unopened ones, it seems about half of the failures failed to pip. Others have a lot of water. Others died early that I failed to catch through candling. I have assisted some, but I want to get to the bottom of this. There is something significantly wrong, and I have not been able to discover it so I sought out you wise people.
I have purchased a second incubator, the Rite Farm 528 cabinet incubator, and it seems to be having a better go at it, I read through the first batch of eggs at day 8 and they were pretty good, only deaths in about 20%, which is pretty good because some had even been about two weeks old by the time the incubator arrived. It is having a hard time keeping humidity down, I have it at 40 max but I cannot keep it below 65%. I am worried about this drowning out my eggs at hatch. But I think if I keep this at this humidity throughout the entire incubation then it should not hurt it, but what are your thoughts?
Oh, another fact, I keep keep six different breeds. This is an issue that is more or less across the board. However, my large fowl barnevelder seem to be having the worst at it. I am NPIP, there is no sign of disease. No issues with mites or parasites. Fecal material looks normal. Marek's vaccinated at birth. I have had a problem lately with early molt. I have about 15 chickens who are going through an early molt, at age 9 to 11 months, as opposed to 14-16 which is common for a first molt.
I recently read a post by someone talking about hatching issues, and it occurred to me that a lot of this could possibly be caused by a riboflavin deficiency. They said death at day 4 and day 19 very common, and I have been having about one in 15 chicks born with a foot condition. I am surprised I did not put that together, I thought it was genetic or an injury. Does anyone know a recommendation for riboflavin supplementary dosage? For entire flocks?
The eggs are occasionally misshaped recently, however this has not been the case for months. I had the poor hatch rate then as well. Eggs are hard, no other types of deformities. One breed had a lot of calcium buildup on the shells but that has passed.
I do not wash the eggs before incubation. I will use a clean cloth or green brillo to scrape material off the egg, but it stays dry. Eggs are rarely out for a week before being set. That is the max. So every other egg is from day 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 day past. One study I read stated that as long as an egg is within ten days, there is still 98% probability it will remain as good as ones incubated on the first day.
I use a Brinsea 380 cabinet incubator. The most recent model. I run the indoor temp at 99.5 and the humidity at 40% unless there are eggs in lock down I bump it up to 60%. I need to but haven't purchased additional thermometers/ hyrgometers, but money is extremely tight right now. I use an automated humidity system so I do not have to raise fill any containers and have strong fluctuations in humidity levels. It maintains the humidity within a few degrees.
I have been pulling eggs at two different intervals. Once around day 7, and once around later on, around lockdown. At the time of the first inspection, I am often losing 20-30 percent. I am getting blood rings, and just failure to develop, so an absence of blood rings. Second, I get more at the second time, and they just failed to develop part way through. Like there is development inside, but then quit out. A lot are around day 8 it appears post mortem, but many others near hatch time. I lose another 30%+ during the lock down. Many still have yellow fluid in the yolk sack, mostly absorbed but failed to break through the air sack. But I have consistently been getting a ton that pierce the thin layer but then fail to hatch through the shell. I have been wanting to hold off on assisting to hatch until after day 21, but historically I never have any hatch after day 21, which gives me the impression that it is not a problem of the incubator getting too cool. Also, when I begin to assist unopened ones, it seems about half of the failures failed to pip. Others have a lot of water. Others died early that I failed to catch through candling. I have assisted some, but I want to get to the bottom of this. There is something significantly wrong, and I have not been able to discover it so I sought out you wise people.
I have purchased a second incubator, the Rite Farm 528 cabinet incubator, and it seems to be having a better go at it, I read through the first batch of eggs at day 8 and they were pretty good, only deaths in about 20%, which is pretty good because some had even been about two weeks old by the time the incubator arrived. It is having a hard time keeping humidity down, I have it at 40 max but I cannot keep it below 65%. I am worried about this drowning out my eggs at hatch. But I think if I keep this at this humidity throughout the entire incubation then it should not hurt it, but what are your thoughts?
Oh, another fact, I keep keep six different breeds. This is an issue that is more or less across the board. However, my large fowl barnevelder seem to be having the worst at it. I am NPIP, there is no sign of disease. No issues with mites or parasites. Fecal material looks normal. Marek's vaccinated at birth. I have had a problem lately with early molt. I have about 15 chickens who are going through an early molt, at age 9 to 11 months, as opposed to 14-16 which is common for a first molt.
I recently read a post by someone talking about hatching issues, and it occurred to me that a lot of this could possibly be caused by a riboflavin deficiency. They said death at day 4 and day 19 very common, and I have been having about one in 15 chicks born with a foot condition. I am surprised I did not put that together, I thought it was genetic or an injury. Does anyone know a recommendation for riboflavin supplementary dosage? For entire flocks?