Incubators Anonymous

[DMRippy]

Ok.  So I watched this video about feather sexing chicks at a day (or 2) old. 

 .  Then I wrote to McMurray's Hatchery and asked them what breeds they used feather sexing on.  This is the response I got from them. 

Dear Becky


The following breeds may be feather sexed:


Araucana

Buff Orpington

Rhode Island

Black Giant

Dark Cornish

Silver Laced Wyandotte

White Rock,

Buff Minorca

Turkens

Black Minorca

Single Comb Leghorn

Black Australorp

New Hampshire

Pearl Whites


-------------------------------------------------------------

Sincerely,

Murray McMurray Hatchery

So, watch the video and see how it is done.  They show some great photos that you can learn from!  Hope this helps us all!

Not in real life....just from that hatchery. They breed that way. It is special breeding. I THINK the roo has to have the slow feathering gene for that to work.

Y'all covered that better than i did.

HI! I am just on my phone so i dont reply much....but i try to keep up.

 

[Flowerbh]

Not in real life....just from that hatchery. They breed that way. It is special breeding. I THINK the roo has to have the slow feathering gene for that to work.

Y'all covered that better than i did.

HI! I am just on my phone so i dont reply much....but i try to keep up.

I've heard that over and over, but I did use feather sexing on my batch of NNs and was right for all but one. I have also used it for some other batches and the only time it really didn't work is for these wyandottes and cochins. The wing feathers were so fuzzy I couldn't tell one length from the other....so having to grow them out a tad. It worked on my salmon Favorelles... so, even if it doesn't work all the time, at least I can kind=of think I know what I am doing, right? LOL

 

[ChickNmamma]

Quote:
Sure, it will work.. 50% of the time.

It only works when they are 2-4 days old though, so growing them out longer than that will not work. The boy's feathers catch up to the girls by then.

My Wyandottes all had the slow feathering gene in the girls (but I only got girls). They were the last ones to feather in - looked nekkid for a long time. My Cochin was feather sexed as a girl, only he wasn't. It didn't work on any of my bantams.

But truly, you may be learning other signs to spot the differences between boys and girls. I tried it on my Ameraucanas.. and showed 3 boys and 5 girls and I have 4 boys and 4 girls (so far). Its just when those girls turn into boys that it is so annoying...

would be much nicer if the boys would turn into girls!. My friend tried it and showed way fewer boys than she ended up having (so far)... so it doesn't work on Partridge Chanteclares (sp) or Ameraucanas reliably.

 

[HughesFowlFarm]

Last Friday I put 3 eggs in my incubator. I was on vacation and left that night at 10pm. I literally just came home and looked into my incubator. I shined a light on them and 2/3 have red lines running through, the other doesn't. For 8 days at a steady temperature of 85 degF, no egg turning, no air cirulator, or anythin wet to keep the humidity up. Does these red lines mean they are progressing, or are the 2/3 just fertile? Please someone give me an answer, I am very anxious. ..... I just opened the one without a red vein and sure enough it was not even fertile

 

[Duck Drover]

I have had "clears" show up in shipped eggs when USPS handled a package too roughly.  The ones that survived the miss-handling were either lucky or very strong embryos.  I also second the heat/cold although it usually is a "shock" temperature as well as excessive (like too sudden of a change).  Those ones sometimes show it by micro-fracturing and weeping though.

I picked up the eggs myself so they were not shipped. There were no temperature extremes either.

 

[ChickNmamma]

Last Friday I put 3 eggs in my incubator. I was on vacation and left that night at 10pm. I literally just came home and looked into my incubator. I shined a light on them and 2/3 have red lines running through, the other doesn't. For 8 days at a steady temperature of 85 degF, no egg turning, no air cirulator, or anythin wet to keep the humidity up. Does these red lines mean they are progressing, or are the 2/3 just fertile? Please someone give me an answer, I am very anxious. ..... I just opened the one without a red vein and sure enough it was not even fertile

Um.. why were they at 85 degrees? If they had been at 99 degrees in 8 days there would be a big black blob, lots of veining and growth. How many red lines? Is is pretty dark in there (like 1/3 of the egg)?

The ones with red lines are fertile and are growing. Whether they will continue at such a low temperature or have problems I don't know. They may be delayed, I would up the temperature and give them a chance.

Although next time I really suggest you plan on being around for the first 10 days. The embryos form at that time, and they would prefer to be turned (so they don't stick) and have proper heat.. Humidity isn't as much of an issue, some people don't ever add humidity until the eggs are ready to hatch.

Quote:
That sounds like they were simply infertile. I would tell the person you got them from, they may need to change something to up the fertility. I picked up 10 eggs when I got my birds and only one egg hatched - the rest were all clear. All the eggs I tried to hatch the first time from the pair I got were clear (10) but they were in quarantine. NOW they are forming (9 out of 10)!.. so sometimes it may be something going on with the hens/roosters...

 

[Zootopia]

I picked up the eggs myself so they were not shipped. There were no temperature extremes either.

That is part of the puzzle of incubating. Last year I hatched over 300 shipped eggs, i couldn't even tell you how many eggs I started with. The 300+ chicks that hatched were Awsum. I also incubated my own eggs and was having great results. Then one hatch in late summer I only had 3 develop out of 18 set. The shipped eggs seemed fine, just my eggs. The next hatch I set fertility and hatch rates were back up to 95+%. No Idea what happened on that one set, I've looked at it from every angle. Who knows.

 

[AvianEgo]

Last Friday I put 3 eggs in my incubator. I was on vacation and left that night at 10pm. I literally just came home and looked into my incubator. I shined a light on them and 2/3 have red lines running through, the other doesn't. For 8 days at a steady temperature of 85 degF, no egg turning, no air cirulator, or anythin wet to keep the humidity up. Does these red lines mean they are progressing, or are the 2/3 just fertile? Please someone give me an answer, I am very anxious. ..... I just opened the one without a red vein and sure enough it was not even fertile

are you sure it isn't a blood line? That would mean something started and than died often due to bacteria. Care to explain what you were doing with the eggs? Certainly not incubating i hope, other wise you need to do done reading on incubation... The one you cracked open could have been fertile, just nothing should grow at that low of a temp

 

[Flowerbh]

Sure, it will work.. 50% of the time.

It only works when they are 2-4 days old though, so growing them out longer than that will not work. The boy's feathers catch up to the girls by then.

My Wyandottes all had the slow feathering gene in the girls (but I only got girls). They were the last ones to feather in - looked nekkid for a long time. My Cochin was feather sexed as a girl, only he wasn't. It didn't work on any of my bantams.

But truly, you may be learning other signs to spot the differences between boys and girls. I tried it on my Ameraucanas.. and showed 3 boys and 5 girls and I have 4 boys and 4 girls (so far). Its just when those girls turn into boys that it is so annoying...

would be much nicer if the boys would turn into girls!. My friend tried it and showed way fewer boys than she ended up having (so far)... so it doesn't work on Partridge Chanteclares (sp) or Ameraucanas reliably.

I think you misunderstood.. When I said I would have to grow them out a tad, I didn't mean that I would try to feather sex them later....I meant I would just have to wait and see how they grow out! I know feather sexing is only good on day 1-2. Anyway, the wyandottes are the ones I can't figure out.....some are easy to see right away and others are just....well a mystery to me! LOL.

 

[schmithco]

what would everyone recomend for an incubator? i dont really want to spennd 6-700 dollars but i cant seem to find any cheaper that are worth anything