Incubators Anonymous

[CaCO3]

That's hysterical. And you still bought them?

But they could still be weird.... Guess we'll find out in 21 days!

 

[Duck Drover]

That's hysterical. And you still bought them?

But they could still be weird.... Guess we'll find out in 21 days!

I think she even spelled out W-A-D-E and suggested I look it up but I got "weird genes" stuck in my ears and could not figure out what I should look up. I was basically looking for purebred eggs that I could hatch to sell but I wanted interesting breeds in case I ended up not being able to sell them or if I decided I want to keep some for myself. I have hatchery "Araucana" and "Ameracauna chicks because I want Easter Egger chickens to lay blue, green, and pink eggs (when I raised chickens in the past they were what the feed store sold as "Araucana" so I wnted the same chickens) and I have seen the BCMs and "olive egger" chickens so I thought they would be good for hatchiing. The Barnevelders are beautiful and they lay large eggs so I got those too. I paid $35 for three dozen eggs so that is about $1 each and she told me I should sell them for $8 each. My husband lost his job so I am trying to find ways to make some money. If it takes hatching chickens with "weird genes" then I will enjoy seeing how they come out! Here is a picture I took of some of the eggs.

 

[Duck Drover]

I should have said the Black Copper Marans are on top and the Barnevelders on the bottom in the picture. I took them on my stove in a clear plastic tray so the tray would not show up in the picture and just the eggs would be seen. The light is not great so it is hard to see the color but I was trying to take it quick and get the eggs back into the incubator.

 

[ki4got]

Hoping someone can help me assess my candling accuracy .... If there is a more on point thread please redirect me there.

I just wrapped up a staggered hatch over the last few days using broodies and incubator. I just went outside and broke open my culled eggs and 3 of the 5 had very well developed chicks in them. All of the eggs were pulled out after seriously scrutinized candling, plus even then I usually wait a few more days and recheck to make sure it really looks like the embryo is dead. One of the eggs I gave up on was at beginning of day 22 under the broody and the others had hatched. It was a small pullet egg. Air cell was a much smaller like not as much had evaporates during incubation, and there was a visible clear space below the embryo. I could barely make out thin veins but no obvious shape of a chick and absolutely no movement at all. When I broke that one open there was a very small chick but yolk sac was still not absorbed, if at all. If anyone is following this rambling explanation - I'm thrilled. I guess what I need to know from those more experienced is if it is better to leave ? eggs in the incubator for a few more days instead of guessing wrong. I am really wondering if I have been killing perfectly good embryos by making bad judgment calls at the later candling points. I'm confident about being able to recognize early death blood rings, but I may be seriously wrong with anything past day 7. I usually wait a couple of days and let the eggs cool before cracking them. In my mind that is somehow preferable than cracking it open straight out of the incubator. Obviously I won't be able to tell if I was wrong because its definitely going to be dead at that point, but is that wrong too? Should I not wait? (i.e., you learn your mistakes by cracking it open and finding out you were wrong - if so that sounds too horrible for me, don't think I'd handle that well.)

what i would do, personally, is write either the date the eggs are set or the date they're due when you put them uner hens or in the incubator. that way you know for sure.

it could be, if that was under a broody, someone may have added an egg to her nest further down the road.

when you're candling you should be able to tell if an egg is still alive or not, if it looks like it's not so far along, you should be able to see active blood vessels. in eggs that quit nearer to hatching, you can usually see a clear-ish area below the air cell where the blood vessels have receeded and the chick has settled.

 

[Runawaylobster]

WOW that is cool! I had 2 eggs from my WL and BOTH had double yolkers... I was kinda freaking out about it. They both quit mid way so I didn't have the stress of worrying about them hatching.

Glad you helped him out. Lucky one survived. Very rare for that to happen with a successful hatch of any kind.

Yea, i was shocked. I put the little guy back in the incubator overnight, I think it may have genetic problems though, one leg doesn't seem to be working as well as it should but overnight the leg improved and he perked up, so who knows. I may yet have to cull though, Let's see. i'll keep you posted.

right as hatch day came around our humidity dropped like crazy, it was 59 deg overnight.. so weird for us! anyway the incubator was having trouble with keeping the humidity up to 60 and i have 3 shrink wrapped chicks that i had to help out this morning. I figured after trying to zip for 24 hours it was time. They are back in the incubator getting perked up and drying out.. fingers crossed. This is the first time this has happened since it got the sportsman.. I guess it is not immune to climate changes either.. and i was getting lulled into a sense of security with it..

 

[rmtrevizo1]

Question to all of u. I would love to do incubator and do some meat birds. Could some one give me advice. I right now have 1 pullet bo and 2 bcm roos. Which I thought I had bcm pullets. What do u all think I should do with these roos? Breed them or what. Sorry new to this I got them for eggs but now the two won't prodce cause their male and my bo is only 5 months old

 

[CaCO3]

Thanks. I do date the eggs and put check marks or "x" or ? when I candle. The one I am still agonizing over a tad had a clear space almost as big as the air cell below the chick. I could see sort of an outline if its head when I moved the light to a certain angle. Almost like the banded appearance midway through incubation. absolutely no detectable movement despite there still being some room in that shell. usually I hear peeps at least a day before pipping but was silent. One other thing I noticed was that the egg seemed to cool particularly faster than usually while candling. I was holding it the whole time so it should have been warmer. Not sure if embryos produce heat but if so that would be another indicator that it had died. I know on obsessing a bit on this. It just is never a good feeling that I might be wrong. I am a advanced beginner at incubating.

 

[ChickNmamma]

Thanks. I do date the eggs and put check marks or "x" or ? when I candle. The one I am still agonizing over a tad had a clear space almost as big as the air cell below the chick. I could see sort of an outline if its head when I moved the light to a certain angle. Almost like the banded appearance midway through incubation. absolutely no detectable movement despite there still being some room in that shell. usually I hear peeps at least a day before pipping but was silent. One other thing I noticed was that the egg seemed to cool particularly faster than usually while candling. I was holding it the whole time so it should have been warmer. Not sure if embryos produce heat but if so that would be another indicator that it had died. I know on obsessing a bit on this. It just is never a good feeling that I might be wrong. I am a advanced beginner at incubating.

Yes, the chicks do produce their own heat once they start pipping. If the egg cooled down faster than the others it either was not ready for lockdown or it was gone. The ones i have had with the clear below as big as the aircells above usually did not hatch. Mine are taking their own sweet time this time - so I will have a report in a few days hopefully of what the questionable ones did.

Have you ever tried the "Float Test"? When they get close to hatch you can actually see them move in the warm water, whereas you might not be able to see the movement by candling. I did that a few times with some questionable eggs - only I am dyslexic and I opened the floaters instead of the sinkers. It was very sad. Won't do that again!

 

[CaCO3]

Read about the float test but haven't tried. Will put it in the toolbox for next time! Sorry about the mix up you had but we are all human and oh yes that stuff happens. Yesterday I was running around trying to clean up and I unplugged the incubator and was outside doing stuff when I realized I had a chick in there to keep clean while its navel closed up. It was prob only 15-20 min before I remembered but I could easily have gone out to do errands and had a problem.

 

[CaCO3]

Do any of you vaccinate for mareks if you used a broody hen? I have some chicks that I am going to vaccinate that are incubator only but would do the standard broody chicks if no downside. The broodies were not vaccinated because they are bantams from hatchery.