Jan./Feb. 2014 hatch a long

[gimmie birdies]

these were bro/sis the girl ended up frizzle, the boy- brown- was sorta frizzled

but now he is not

 

[lismarc]

I'm sooooo glad you referred me to this thread. Looks like a lot of fun seeing what everyone is doing.
In total (after Sunday) should be around 4 dozen. BUT many are for my fellow peeps.... I hope. It's so hard to give them away.

 

[AmericanMom]

We got a little blizzard ourselves a couple of days ago here in Utah. We hatchers always worry about that electric going out don't we. :/

It has passed for now...Sun is out... went out to do morning chores and Chickens all wanted out of the run, stood out in the rain while I cleaned their coop and gave them there scratch .. I think they would stand in a blizzard for that stuff lol.. they love it.. Incubator is doing great, Temps holding steady between 99.5 and 100.7 and Humidity is holding at 44 , Last time I was constantly messing with that temp dial because I thought it had to be a certain temp, I know now just to leave it alone because it self adjust and will go down and up within a degree and a half...as long as it doesn't drop or spike we good..

I almost feel they are in danger because I'm not fussing and stressing

 

[Farmer Viola]

Ok... so I candled and the air cells are still a little wiggly but I have been turning in the cartons. It looks like the veins are around the air cell and the embryos are stuck either under the air cell (I can't see them) or right next to it. They don't move when I move the egg. They sat fat end up for 3 and a half days all together (24 hours before incubation and another 36 hours after I put them in because the air cells were still detached.) Could it be possible that because they sat without turning for so long the yolk got stuck to the membrane? If so what are the dangers of this? A couple of the embryos look like quitters while some of the others I have seen moving. This is all new to me since this is only my second hatch and my first hatch was easy and successful. Maybe I just got lucky my first hatch. Any help from some experienced hatchers would be super awesome.

I don't think they sat too long at all, since they were detached, it was necessary... you are fine there.

I do not candle or remove detached air cell eggs from the incubator at all til day 15. You could candle directly in the incubator without removing, but its pretty hard to see while they are in their cartons. It takes 2 weeks for the membrane to heal back into place, as you saw it is still wiggling around, so by moving the egg you are sort of separating it again.

I know what you mean, about the embryo sitting right under the air cell... makes it pretty hard to see inside. I would wait til day 15 to toss any, just to be safe.

 

[TwinArrowsFarm]

I don't think they sat too long at all, since they were detached, it was necessary... you are fine there.

I do not candle or remove detached air cell eggs from the incubator at all til day 15. You could candle directly in the incubator without removing, but its pretty hard to see while they are in their cartons. It takes 2 weeks for the membrane to heal back into place, as you saw it is still wiggling around, so by moving the egg you are sort of separating it again.

I know what you mean, about the embryo sitting right under the air cell... makes it pretty hard to see inside. I would wait til day 15 to toss any, just to be safe.

Thank you so much for the advice. I have an issue with not candling. It's like an alcoholic having to walk by a beer every time they go in the kitchen and not being able to touch it. But I will try my very hardest to leave them alone =(

 

[Farmer Viola]

Lol no, I completely understand, I go a little nutso when my incubator is full, I look in every time I walk by - for what? No one knows.

I have had really tough hatch rates with detached eggs, so that is why my methods are so extreme with the non-handling...

I had one batch 14/14 detached all didn't hatch (I candled on the normal times);
I had another batch 9/9 detached, 8/9 were fully developed but only 1 hatched (didn't candle until day 15). After this one, I decided I would do daily cooling of 10-15min, and drop my incubator temp half a degree.

Detached, in my experience, has just been a lot more difficult than those that arrived normal and undamaged. When shipped eggs arrived and none are detached, hatch rates are like 85-90%!

I don't mean to discourage you in any way, just hoping to set realistic expectations, because it really is tough to do!

I can't say my methods are perfect either, since I have not had a good hatch with detached ever. Seeing that they were all developed last time was encouraging; but heartbreaking at the same time.

 

[chickydee64]

I'm sooooo glad you referred me to this thread. Looks like a lot of fun seeing what everyone is doing.
In total (after Sunday) should be around 4 dozen. BUT many are for my fellow peeps.... I hope. It's so hard to give them away.

 

[Cynthia12]

It has passed for now...Sun is out... went out to do morning chores and Chickens all wanted out of the run, stood out in the rain while I cleaned their coop and gave them there scratch .. I think they would stand in a blizzard for that stuff lol.. they love it.. Incubator is doing great, Temps holding steady between 99.5 and 100.7 and Humidity is holding at 44 , Last time I was constantly messing with that temp dial because I thought it had to be a certain temp, I know now just to leave it alone because it self adjust and will go down and up within a degree and a half...as long as it doesn't drop or spike we good..

I almost feel they are in danger because I'm not fussing and stressing

Have a friend that is stressing over her bator changing, just a degree. Should show her your post. It's her first time hatching ever, and she keeps thinking she needs to tweek the knob. I tell her, nope, when it hits that 100 mark they are usually pretty steady by then. Rooms do warm up and cool down. I just have to keep adding a bit of water every couple of days to keep my humidity between the mid 30's and lower 40's. That's what works here.
Ha..no need to fuss and stress..sounds like you are doing great. It's the dog on waiting now. Even after as many times as I have hatched..I get so excited when it's lock down time. Or should I say..stress! lol...never know what's going on in there at that time.

 

[speckledhen]

Humidity is always less important than the temp, the latter of which is really an average of temps, not one exact temperature. Temp goes down and up again, but the temp average should stay around 99.5-100* (ETA: this is for circulated air bators; Still air bators need 101-102* at the top of the eggs)Remember, a broody hen gets off her eggs at least once a day, sometimes for as long as 30-45 minutes. That really puts things into perspective when you think of it that way. Keeps you from stressing so badly. When it comes to humidity, less is better than too much during the first 17-18 days.

One thing I found about the Genesis's built in hygrometer. Before I knew it had one, I had gotten an analog one that had good recommendations to replace one that was smoke damaged in our house fire last spring. I did the calibration with wet salt as I always do to see how much it might be off. It was pretty much right on the money according to the reading after 8 hours. It is in the bator. It reads 10% higher than the Genesis digital hygro. So, I am going to assume that the Genesis hygro is reading a tad high and add my water accordingly, waiting until the digital reading is down to 30% or slightly less before doing that.

 

[Heidisgran]

these were bro/sis the girl ended up frizzle, the boy- brown- was sorta frizzled

but now he is not

he doesn't really look frizzled in either photo....adorable what kind of birds?