Incubators Anonymous

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DMRippy said:
I hatch ALL my eggs upright.
Click to expand...

I took some eggs that my broody had abandoned and put them under a lamp. I had them upright, big ends up. Two hatched. One almost hatched he kicked the shell top off but was upside down and drowned. When I broke the others open after a temp spike, they were all almost there but one other was upside down. If they had been laying down and kicked out the bottom they may have made it. Being that they went most of the incubation on their side under the broody there may be a greater chance that they could be positioned backwards. It is a hypothosis. Anyone else have similar experiences with it? I didn't even try candling because they are Olive Egger and nearly impossible to see into.
 
Hi Everyone,
I'm new to this thread, and somewhat new to incubating with an incubator. I have an R-com 20 Max, which I absolutely love. I do not have a separate hatcher. But I may have really messed up this last hatch, and I'm wondering if anyone has some advice for me.

I breed Red Dorkings. I normally use broody hens plus incubation at the same time. I collect and identify the eggs for parentage for 7-12 days, then put them in the incubator. If I have a broody hen that has held her brood for at least 2 days, then I put some eggs under her at the same time. The eggs under her will have all come from the same hen, and those are the only chicks that will be unmarked. The incubator eggs are hatched out in pedigree cages, and are marked with parentage leg bands and grafted to the broody as soon as they are dry. This has worked very well for me, allowing me to hatch from a large number of hens, keep accurate breeding records, and still uses broodies for some incubation and all chick raising.

Then I messed up!!

My husband has an ancient flock of Croad Langshans that he inherited from his father 6 years ago, so these birds are at least 7-9 years old. We've never bred them. We lost the first hen to cancer last fall. Six to eight weeks ago my husband asked if I would hatch out some of their eggs, as he suddenly became worried that his dad's flock would die out. Well, the fertility of old, arthritic birds on pain medication is never good, even when eggs are produced, which are few and far between, and the hatchability of these few, occasionally fertile eggs is a whole other issue, especially with such poor shell porosity. But I said I'd give it a try.

To give me the best chance of hatching out Langshan chicks, I decided to put every Langshan egg produced into the incubator every week, as these eggs are fragile and likely to be broken by even the most careful broody. . But because their fertility is so poor, I knew that if by some miracle one did hatch, the chick would probably be alone if I didn't incubate some Dorking eggs at the same time. So every week between 4-5 Langshan eggs (from any of the Langshan hens) were placed in the incubator along with 3-5 Dorking eggs (all from the same Dorking hen). And after 2 weeks, the Langshan eggs were always clear, and the Dorking eggs went to waiting broodies to finish the incubation and raise the chicks. It was a great system, until I changed it!!
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After getting 36 out of 36 Langshan eggs clear (including 7 that were placed in the incubator so quickly after they were laid that they were still warm), we decided that it was probably time to quit trying. It was also getting quite late in the season for Dorkings (they tend to lay October through June-July). So I took all the remaining Langshan eggs I had and some final eggs from multiple Dorking hens and put eveything in the incubator for one last hatch, a total of 26 eggs (I know, the R-com 20 is only supposed to hold 20 eggs, but it can easily hold more if you arrange them properly and are willing to hand turn the extras). And as expected, in a week I candled everything and all 7 of the Langshan eggs were clear and 18 out of 19 Dorking eggs were doing great. Five of the eggs from Hen #4 were put under a broody, and the other 13 eggs from 4 different hens were kept in the incubator. That would have worked out great, except the favorite Langshan hen was seen breeding with the best rooster the week before, and then that week gave us 3 eggs. This hen hadn't laid three eggs in the same week in over 2 years, and they were potentially fertilized by the best rooster. How could I not try to hatch those 3 eggs? So I put those 3 Langshan eggs, along with 3 eggs from my best Dorking hen into the incubator, when my remaining 13 incubator eggs had been incubating for 7 days.

So day 18 came for the set of 13 eggs and I needed to start lockdown, but I had these additional 6 eggs that were sharing the incubator that were only on day 11. I candled them and of course the 3 Langshan eggs were clear, and the 3 Dorking "companion" eggs were going strong. What I should have done was take the 3 companion eggs out to the broody to keep warm while I hatched the 13 eggs in their pedigree cages, then take the companion eggs back from the broody after lockdown was over. But unfortunately, that's not what I did. I typically incubate at 45% humidity, adjust as needed based on egg weights, and hatch at 65-68% humidity, depending on shell porosity. I figured that the high humidity was only going to last 2-3 days, and that I could make up for it by incubating for several days or more at 20% humidity, weigh the eggs daily, and go back to my usual settings when the weight loss caught up to normal. So I left the 3 companion eggs in the incubator at 68% humidity during days 11-14 of their incubation, and hand turned them three times daily

Well, after the 13 eggs hatched and the chicks were grafted onto a broody, we had a major rainstorm here and the ambient humidity went up and stayed high, so the incubator has been unable to achieve as low a humidity as I needded. It is now day 18 for the 3 companion eggs, and they have only lost 8% of their weight. When I candled them the embryos are moving, but the air sacs are a week behind schedule and there's obviously lots of water still in the egg surrounding the embryo.

So is there anything I can do to keep these 3 chicks from drowning at this point. I have a broody waiting for these chicks, and thought of giving her the eggs, but it's impossible to monitor a hatch under a broody, so I'd never know it these chicks were in trouble. Should I put the eggs into lockdown but keep the humidity low to hope for 2-3 more days of water loss (which may not be enough).? Should I hatch the eggs in an upright position, air sac up instead of on their side, to allow the chick to utilize the airsac better after its internal pip, and hope it keeps its nostrils above water? Should I clean a tiny area on the egg and use a sterile needle and syringe to pierce the egg and aspirate out the extra fluid (and if so, where exactly would be the best location on the egg to do this)? Or is there something else that is likely to work better?

Well, lesson learned. Next year I'll buy a separate hatcher, just in case I ever need one.
 
What is your homes humidity ? Mine is a horribl 70 right now which is why I incubate in my basment dehumidifier keeps it at 40% so I can raise and lower it. I would let it drop a few days I have even upped the temp on mine by .1 degree for a day to assist when the eggs looked too wet inside.
 
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Sydney Acres-
I like your hatching system & don't know if I have much to contribute. I did have a similar situation though, when I had some backyard test eggs developing for a week (to make sure my home-made incubator was working). Then my "expensive" shipped eggs arrived. I didn't want to just throw out the orig test eggs, & I'd have trouble if I tried to keep them together during hatching. So, I asked around to see if anyone had an incubator. A teacher from a different school had one, two home school families each had one, & even my sister had a 15 yr old Hova-Bator. I was able to pull my test eggs out & put them into a borrowed hatcher.
 
Faraday40 said:
Sydney Acres-
I like your hatching system & don't know if I have much to contribute. I did have a similar situation though, when I had some backyard test eggs developing for a week (to make sure my home-made incubator was working). Then my "expensive" shipped eggs arrived. I didn't want to just throw out the orig test eggs, & I'd have trouble if I tried to keep them together during hatching. So, I asked around to see if anyone had an incubator. A teacher from a different school had one, two home school families each had one, & even my sister had a 15 yr old Hova-Bator. I was able to pull my test eggs out & put them into a borrowed hatcher.
Click to expand...

That was a great idea. Sad thing is, I could have easily borrowed an incubator from a close friend (although I really didn't need one, as I had a broody hen). I just naively didn't think it would be a problem, since it was only for 2-3 days. Lesson learned. Folks, don't try this -- it doesn't work as well as I thought!!
 
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