January 2020 Hatch along

[jolenesdad]

WOW i just went to check on the incubator this morning and i have FOURTEEN chicks! The other 4 eggs all look like they pipped, too. One may just be a shell piece on it and not a pip, but WOW.

My best shipped hatch is from duck eggs, I think I had like 85% from Metzer farms hatch. This will be my best chicken egg hatch even if nothing else hatches!!!!

 

[ShannonsChimkens]

Congrats! I’ll have to go read back in the thread and see what you had everything set at. I’m really trying for more than 50% this time.

 

[FortCluck]

We had 4 Ayam Ketawa (Laughing Chickens) hatch yesterday. Can’t believe I’m saying this out loud, but fingers crossed that a couple are cockerels!

Stats from the hatch:

• 12 eggs shipped from Greenfire
• 8 developed
• 8 looked healthy at lockdown
• 4 hatched
• 4 DIS

The DIS were fully formed, but they had some liquid in with them. Not sure what happened. Maybe our humidity was too low during incubation. Or maybe shipped eggs are just screwy.

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Welcome to the world little fluffs

 

[ShannonsChimkens]

I’m starting dry batches in this incubator. May try to keep humidity at 30%? Anyone had any luck with dry starts? I have a feeling humidity was too high on the last too that hatched 50%.

They’re going in the incubator now! Hatch day is 2/1 for this batch, then 2/4 for the others coming in Tuesday.

 

[jolenesdad]

Congrats! I’ll have to go read back in the thread and see what you had everything set at. I’m really trying for more than 50% this time.

I rest for 24-48 hours (whatever is convenient for me) without any movement at all.

if an eggs air cell is saddled or displaced i don’t worry about it at all. I’ve had saddled eggs more than halfway down hatch fine. If a cell is detached and floating around or there are bubbles in it, I don’t set it. I have a personal theory that scrambled yolks make it all the way to lockdown and die, and that’s the worst for me. Plus, I turn too frequently for those cells to really make it.

i turn every 60 minutes upright from the get go. It seems in all the scientific articles that the first four to five days of turning are the most important so I do not follow the advice of not turning in the bator got shipped eggs. I used to have way more early quitters when I did that. Now, I ask shippers how many eggs they can send me that are 3 days and less old. That’s all I want, so the cells are small for shipping and so that I don’t have to turn them when they sit outside the bator once they get to me. (The scientific articles say you don’t need to rotate eggs under a week old before setting).

also, smaller cells displace way less. A displaced cell is almost always “reattached” by day 14 or 15 and totally normal by lockdown.

My incubator has two wells. I fill one at setting and it sits at 37-40 for the first four days. I candle a few eggs every 3-4 days and judge humidity by air cell growth now that I’m familiar enough with what they should look like.

at lockdown I go to 60 on humidity.

 

[jolenesdad]

I’m starting dry batches in this incubator. May try to keep humidity at 30%? Anyone had any luck with dry starts? I have a feeling humidity was too high on the last too that hatched 50%.

They’re going in the incubator now! Hatch day is 2/1 for this batch, then 2/4 for the others coming in Tuesday.

Dry starts are great. Really, any “start” is fine.... as long as you monitor air cell growth by weighing or visually.

 

[ShannonsChimkens]

With the emu eggs having a few weeks left, I’ve gotten used to 3 day weigh ins. So I’m sure I can try out watching air cell growth every few days.

Thanks for the information. Much appreciated, as these batches might be my last for a bit. Want to get the most out of them. The other half doesn’t know they’re here or going in the incubator. Hehe. He probably won’t care, but I’m being very sneaky anyways.

 

[FortCluck]

I’m starting dry batches in this incubator. May try to keep humidity at 30%? Anyone had any luck with dry starts? I have a feeling humidity was too high on the last too that hatched 50%.

They’re going in the incubator now! Hatch day is 2/1 for this batch, then 2/4 for the others coming in Tuesday.

I'm doing a dry hatch right now and my humidity is staying between 25-38%. Last hatch doing that I had a 90% hatch rate

 

[jolenesdad]

With the emu eggs having a few weeks left, I’ve gotten used to 3 day weigh ins. So I’m sure I can try out watching air cell growth every few days.

Thanks for the information. Much appreciated, as these batches might be my last for a bit. Want to get the most out of them. The other half doesn’t know they’re here or going in the incubator. Hehe. He probably won’t care, but I’m being very sneaky anyways.

Sneaking in chickens is my FAVORITE. I think me and my other half have realized there’s way worse things I could be doing with my spare time.

 

[ShannonsChimkens]

Dry start it is! I am going to closely monitor these to see if I can get closer to 75%. I’m going based off of how many go into lock down. As some may be infertile, or die early on. Which were probably damaged from shipping.

Sneaking in the emu eggs was the hardest. He was like “WTH is this?!” Now he’s kind of looking forward to them if they hatch.

I caught him sneaking in to check on the babies in the brooder last month...