Mahonri's 3rd Annual, BYC Easter Hatch-a-long!

[pasunset]

I guess our hatch is over with 12 out of 40 set. I guess thats not terrible for the girls and I's first attempt at hatching.

 

[Cynthia12]

I think the wording DRY hatch is misleading people. I've read posts of many people who never added water in first 18 days. There needs to be a more accurate phrase as people take the word dry literally.

I myself am a huge advocate of dryer or lower incubating humidity. Older resources will say 60% first 18 days and 80% last 3. I believe all can agree that is ridiculously high. I think 50% is too high also. Basically, if your air cells don't develop enough then your humidity is too high. If your chicks take more than 12 hours to dry then your humidity is too high. Yep, huge advocate of a dryer hatch and monitoring air cell growth or weight loss of eggs to adjust humidity if needed.

Running at 40% my air cells were a bit small day 10 so let dry out day and half to 20% then back to 40. Next year I'll try 35%.

I like the lower also..I like it in the lower 40's. I usually do well with it there, didn't with this hatch. I have no idea what in the world happened this time. Worst hatch I've had in over a year. I am truly wondering if it's the breed. Araucanas are supposed to be hard to hatch.

 

[Arielle]

Quote:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Spangled



Quote:
Originally Posted by ChestnutRidge Unfortunately, despite MONTHS of adjustments to try and quelch this, someone in my coop - or several someones - is feather-picking. They have a huge amount of space, free range 4+ hours a day, and eat a ton of high-protein and fiber stuff, but the habit remains. So, 4 girls are missing beards and my rooster is missing neck feathers. They look terrible and it is very embarrassing. I trimmed the very tip of one guilty hen's beak, tried separations, and so on. I don't want to use pinless peepers. Has anyone made a foul-tasting goo to smear on the picked parts? Any other ideas?

I tried everything as you have. They just ate any goo I put on like it was frosting. What finally worked was feeder of free choice oats with the hulls still on plus one or two other grains all together in an additional feeder. They will self regulate how much they eat and egg production went back to normal after a week or two. PLUS I put aprons on them. For us aprons are a must at first sign of trouble.

Have you looked them over for external parasites, like mites and lice??



Um ... if you're asking me, yes, I checked. No lice. No mites. But that was a while ago, and I took the aprons off a while back. The hens look great right now without a recurrence. It was three out of about 22 hens. I throw DE around the coop and nests, and they also dust bathe whenever they like. I do have a tendency to think that mites are more prevalent than a few of us realize, though, so I agree with you that picking can be a sign of mites.

Sorry, I just wanted to check that you had thought of this. Sometimes I forget to check the obvious--think it is something we all do occassionally.

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[dsqard]

50's not so bad. I actually "group" mine so it appears like I have less. For example, I have:

36 adults.
7 older juvies in the coop
15 younger juvies in the basement
23 newly hatched chicks
5 ducks.

Now, see, doesn't that look much better than ... 86?

Holy... 86?? Today was the first day I tallied that. And I sold a bunch on Saturday, too.

See I feel much better now knowing that you are deeper in chicken poo than I am!

 

[gryeyes]

Ya think I would have known better to get the two bags o' feed into the coop before the gravel was delivered in a huge pile in my driveway. In front of the coop. On the opposite side of the pile from the feed.

 

[Arielle]

I posted my numbers earlier and thought it was time to clean out the bator. two devleoped but not hatched. One I had taped over a multi-spidery crack way back when I dropped it at set. I couldn't explain the other--just that it happens sometimes.

So I open the one with the tape. Looks good, made it to the end, just no internal pip. I opened the second, it wiggled and bled!!!!

I thought hard--what am I to do--How to save this one? Try.

I gentle worked the neck and head up, and IT STARTED BREATHING ! ANd kept breathing. THe eyes didn't close completely, so I scrounged through my endless medical supplies and found an opthalimic ointment. I remembered using an ointment on dogs eyes during anethesia 25 years ago. I didn't know what else to do to prevent the eyes from drying.

I left it in its shell, upped the RH. If poults can handle 90%RH maybe this one can benefit from the moist environment.

So my count may go to 26.

ANd I sold all the FBCM today--think I forgot to get a final picture.

Oh well, No.26 messed up the photo count anyway.

26/31 maybe.

Thanks for listening to me rant--I kept hearing a peep, but how could I ? It hadn't internally pipped.

 

[kvmommy]

I have another chick! Its realllly wet in there. I can't get the hovabator to lower the humidity. The LG has a problem keeping the humidity up and the hovabator has a problems keeping it down. The other pip is pretty big now.

So...do we count every chick that hatches regardless if it lives or dies right?

 

[mstricer]

I'm done 4 hatched out of 9. 4 is better then 0, so I'm happy.

 

[mbleily]

I got a digital temp/hygrometer this past weekend at a pet store. I do not know the maker off hand (I am at work right now and can't check). It is for reptiles. I talked to one of the guys working at the store and he said they are very reliable. I know the temperature sensor is accurate, I checked it against my Brinsea Spot Check. I think the hygrometer is pretty accurate as well. The sensors are very small and are attached to the meter by very thin wires. I put the sensors in my styrobator (I am doing the turkey hatch now) and ran the wires out the same hole that the power cord for the auto turner runs out. They don't interfere with the cover closing tighly this way. So far I have been happy with the set up and it cost about $30. Just another suggestion. If you want the maker, let me know and I will post it in another response.

Thanks. I am trying to calabrate mine right now so I will see how far it is off. I will let you know if I want to know what kind it is.
Micki

 

[mallory2013]

My hatch is officially done. 8 chicks hatched out of 14, but I'm not going to officially enter that number until my last chick either dies (

) or lives (

). He is VERY sickly looking. Right now I have him in a flowerpot with shavings for cushion and he is lying on top of a soft washcloth under the heatlamp. I fed him 2 or 3 drops of NutriDrench (I LOVE this stuff, its the best thing I ever bought for my chickens, it has saved at least 4 chicks for me), put one drop of VetRx under each wing, and put some ointment in his bellybutton where it had been bleeding. I'm not sure if I could do much more but pray. If he makes it his name will be Champ, I don't care if he comes out a boy or girl. I'm not sure if I will hatch again for a while. It's so stressful and sad, but rewarding at the same time. Thank you to everyone who has helped, congratulated, and encouraged me along this hatch, it helped more than you can know.