whats better? for some reason with incubating my chicks are turning out deformed and vitamin deprived. but for some reason when hatched under a hen I never got these problems. Im honestly fed up with incubating now and its only my first batch, seriously considering getting a few silkiies mainly for hatching.
If you are using the same eggs in your bator that you would be putting under a broody hen, vitamin deprivation is most likely NOT your issue. If the bator temp is off, either too high or too low, if there are temp swings, that can lead to birth defects.
Your choice whether you continue to incubate, or get some silkies.
IMO, silkies bring a new set of issues into the LF flock. They are forever broody. They have a tendency to be parasite magnets. They have more than their share of faulty genes, the most prevalent being the vaulted skull which is lethal (if I have my facts straight) if you breed vaulted hen to vaulted roo. The vaulted skull also makes them more prone to brain injury and neurological defects. Silkies can (not necessarily will) be a target for being picked on in a smooth feathered flock.
Re: incubating: Have you calibrated your thermometers? (I calibrate to 100* using a good medical grade thermometer in a glass of warm water) Are you using the right temp? 99.5 is recommended for forced air. (I use 100). 102 is recommended for still air. Have you run your bator for as long as a week, with it loaded with water bottles to approximate the volume of eggs you will be incubating? Done frequent temp checks during that time? Checked temp in ALL areas of bator for warm/cold spots? Problem solved any temp variance by using air baffles or adding new vents if appropriate. Keep your bator in an area of the house that has consistent temps? (no direct sun, no drafts, no temp swings between high day time and low night time. Even that can be managed with a few blankets and Yankee ingenuity.) Do you do dry incubation using an accurate calibrated hygrometer? Recommended: keep humidity between 30 - 40% through day 18. Monitor air cells during this time. Humidity is a tool to ensure that air cells are the proper size in correlation to the age of the embryo. As you approach day 14 and beyond, that's the time to make final adjustments in humidity. After day 18, or as late as first external pip, you then jack the humidity up to 65%. Finally, by reading all of "hatching eggs 101" in the learning center, you can fine tune your hatching skills.
Incubating is not for everyone. If you would rather manage a Silkie or two, that's what you should do. I much prefer artificial incubation to bringing a Silkie into my flock. In my LF flock, I've had to break a Dom, a PBR, and an Ameraucana within the last year. If I have a hen go broody when it's convenient for me, of course, I'll welcome that, but if not, I love to incubate!
Finally, no matter how you produce new chicks, I strongly recommend that you condition your breeders, starting at least 2 weeks before collecting eggs. A good multivitamin will ensure that your eggs have everything they need to grow good healthy chicks, no matter what method you choose to hatch them. Also, check mill dates on your feed to be sure it is not over 6 weeks old. Old feed rapidly looses it's nutrients.
