Quote:
Hey Keyt,
There may be several issues going on. What was your humidity,temp during incubation. Being slightly off on those could get you to hatch weak chicks. Was the incubator 100% clean throughout incubation? What are you feeding the chicks? Did they hatch prematurely? Did you offer egg yolks to them for extra strenght? It is normal to have a runt in each hatch but your situation makes me a bit suspicious. What temp do you have the heat lamp set on? What is your badding? What do you feed? Do you use electrolytes in your water?
Jen
Thanks for answering Jen!
Since you mention all of that, now I'm suspicious.
I have learned a very tough lesson. Despite two people asking for more, I'm not incubating anymore this year because I have at least one thing to figure out: humidity. We live in a 60 yr old all block house. It was meant to be a garage when it was built and gradually it's become a house to live in. Our other house next door is over 100 yrs old but not finished to live in...and probably never will be. Anyway, because this house is all block and very small, it holds heat even with one a/c on. Let's just say I couldn't keep up with the water in the incubator it's that bad in here! Next year I will have a place at the other house to have incubators so I won't have that problem!
Yes, chicks always hatch prematurely because despite having an a/c on almost 24/7, the temps don't stay the same.
I don't use a heat lamp (at least not lately) because it's just too warm for one.
The bedding is just layers (not shredded) newspaper.
I feed non-medicated chick food and used drops of Pedialyte because I couldn't find that stuff Opa mentioned recently.
So, now it all makes sense. I'm done hatching. If anyone asks me to do it again I'll just have to tell them to wait til next year when I can use the other house which is a lot more stable temperature wise. Because it's an old house, there are very few outlets there, but Aric is going to install a couple more.
Thanks again for your help!
Hey Keyt,
There may be several issues going on. What was your humidity,temp during incubation. Being slightly off on those could get you to hatch weak chicks. Was the incubator 100% clean throughout incubation? What are you feeding the chicks? Did they hatch prematurely? Did you offer egg yolks to them for extra strenght? It is normal to have a runt in each hatch but your situation makes me a bit suspicious. What temp do you have the heat lamp set on? What is your badding? What do you feed? Do you use electrolytes in your water?
Jen
Thanks for answering Jen!
Since you mention all of that, now I'm suspicious.
I have learned a very tough lesson. Despite two people asking for more, I'm not incubating anymore this year because I have at least one thing to figure out: humidity. We live in a 60 yr old all block house. It was meant to be a garage when it was built and gradually it's become a house to live in. Our other house next door is over 100 yrs old but not finished to live in...and probably never will be. Anyway, because this house is all block and very small, it holds heat even with one a/c on. Let's just say I couldn't keep up with the water in the incubator it's that bad in here! Next year I will have a place at the other house to have incubators so I won't have that problem!
Yes, chicks always hatch prematurely because despite having an a/c on almost 24/7, the temps don't stay the same.
I don't use a heat lamp (at least not lately) because it's just too warm for one.
The bedding is just layers (not shredded) newspaper.
I feed non-medicated chick food and used drops of Pedialyte because I couldn't find that stuff Opa mentioned recently.
So, now it all makes sense. I'm done hatching. If anyone asks me to do it again I'll just have to tell them to wait til next year when I can use the other house which is a lot more stable temperature wise. Because it's an old house, there are very few outlets there, but Aric is going to install a couple more.
Thanks again for your help!
