Oh, how I wish I had one more baby. Miss Pretty is not so easy to deal with. She peeps non stop and will not eat or drink unless I give it to her. But wanted to post a picture of my little "Trouble" eating a before bedtime snack.
Mission Control...we have LIFTOFF!!! Ooops, I mean LOCKDOWN!
- Thread starter CALI CHICK
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- #142
Awww, but she's so adorable! You'll probably feel like calling her 'Miss Prissy" instead of Miss Pretty before long.
Oh, how I wish I had one more baby. Miss Pretty is not so easy to deal with. She peeps non stop and will not eat or drink unless I give it to her. But wanted to post a picture of my little "Trouble" eating a before bedtime snack.
Yes, well, notice the time....this little chick does not want to be a little chick by herself and since she hasn't drank properly she is now constipated and has been screaming for hours. We have dunked her beak in the water I don't know how many times and she does not want to get a drink on her own. I have been mixing her chick starter with her vitamin water and hand feeding her so she gets liquid and nutrition, but apparently it is not enough. So tonight I have put olive oil on her bottom several times and tried massaging it in and have been watering her with a syring. I am officially stopping. This is crazy. I mixed up some more chick food and water and put a few drops of olive oil in it and she got quiet for a bit and I tiptoed in and she was feeding herself. I am not going to baby her anymore. I am exhausted!!!! She either learns to eat and drink on her own or......
I have been doing tons of research on our babies that didn't make it and have been writing down a list of what to do. I found a thread and someone had links in their signature and it was such useful info. I will post it soon and maybe it will help us. It won't do any good for my babies in the bator, but some of it I have already been putting to use today to try to give this batch a chance. I've got to at least get one little baby for my baby. I looked around on Craigslist at baby chicks, but have decided not to get one. I feel the danger of buying from someone with disease in their flock is too great to chance. I would rather lose this one little chick than all my sweeties I have hanging around here.
I have been doing tons of research on our babies that didn't make it and have been writing down a list of what to do. I found a thread and someone had links in their signature and it was such useful info. I will post it soon and maybe it will help us. It won't do any good for my babies in the bator, but some of it I have already been putting to use today to try to give this batch a chance. I've got to at least get one little baby for my baby. I looked around on Craigslist at baby chicks, but have decided not to get one. I feel the danger of buying from someone with disease in their flock is too great to chance. I would rather lose this one little chick than all my sweeties I have hanging around here.
Miss Pretty is lucky she's so cute! Otherwise she would be in big trouble! It's nice of you to spoil her, and I'm sure she'll come around on her own. She's made it this far!
I also did a dry incubation and my hatch rate was crummy. It was my first time dry and it completely stressed me out. Like the rest of you, I also did an eggtopsy last night and I felt just awful! I certainly don't want to go through that again. I have a small Brinsea going right now with 8 days left to go, so if this hatch is better then I'm going to spare myself future heartbreak and go for my wallet to buy a bigger one! I already put an ad for my LG on Craigslist & got a zillion responses. Good-bye styrafoam, you made me cry.
I also have some paint silkies that are under a friend's broody silkie due to hatch today! I certainly have Silkie fever so I'm not going to let a bad hatch get me down.
This thread has been really helpful! I'm so glad each of us have chirping babies
I also did a dry incubation and my hatch rate was crummy. It was my first time dry and it completely stressed me out. Like the rest of you, I also did an eggtopsy last night and I felt just awful! I certainly don't want to go through that again. I have a small Brinsea going right now with 8 days left to go, so if this hatch is better then I'm going to spare myself future heartbreak and go for my wallet to buy a bigger one! I already put an ad for my LG on Craigslist & got a zillion responses. Good-bye styrafoam, you made me cry.
I also have some paint silkies that are under a friend's broody silkie due to hatch today! I certainly have Silkie fever so I'm not going to let a bad hatch get me down.
This thread has been really helpful! I'm so glad each of us have chirping babies
Lol, we've had the single chick issue 3 times... its so annoying! First we found a baby duckling who needed a friend. Then a single chicken off CL, then our first hatch seemed like a single egg. Darn flocking animals.
I have been following this thread from the start. I don' know anything, so can't advise on anything. I put 21 brown eggs and one fresh banty egg in the incubator yesterday. Temps holding at 99/100 and humidity 47%. Don't really hold much hope for a good hatch. Got the eggs from a local rancher. A couple were almost encased it dry, very dry droppings. Some articles said OK to wash them a little and others said, no. So I washed them very carefully in slightly warm water, and scraped off the dung. I marked them to see how it turns out. Have a auto Turner, so just wait and follow directions the best I can. Enjoy the pics and advise
Miss Pretty is finally starting to settle in. Last night about 5:00 she had pooped some and was still constipated and exhausted and still screaming. I quietly slipped her in under my broody hen that's in the house and Maggie was kind enough to let the intruder snuggle under her for a six hour rest. We both needed it. Today I am wearing my furry bathrobe on top of my clothes and she is staying snuggled on my chest under it peeping quietly away. I get her up to eat and drink every hour and she is showing a lot more interest in the food, just not so much the water so she is still on a mix of chick starter mixed with liquid, but she's taking it. A little bit ago she stayed in the brooder long enough for me to do a few things.
So with all this time I have to be still, I have been doing a lot of research and am going to try to be brief in my findings. This list was for me so I'm not trying to imply anyone else on here didn't do this or that what you did wasn't right. I am only trying to fix myself and share what I am learning in case anyone finds any benefit to this. Some of it I knew before I incubated, I just didn't understand fully how to apply the information.
There are threads with all of this info and I will try to figure out how to post that. And then I ran across someone who had great links in their signature and their name is kathyinmo. You have to scroll through the pages because there are links inside the info.
1. Chickens need to lose 12 - 14% total weight.
2. Take all vent stoppers out. There has to be adequate air exchange during incubation. The last 1/3 is most crucial as the chicks are making a high amount of carbon dioxide. (Here I think is confusing)....Allow to dry down 12 - 18 hours before adding more water. I think, from what I'm reading, go from 40% down to 25% back up to 40%. (I started doing this yesterday and my incubator held humidity better and dried down very nicely.)
3. For a homemade bator add four holes size of ice pick 1 - 2 inches from bottom for fresh air exchange, which they need during hatching.
4. Use mesh or crinoline flooring.
5. Clean bator with oxine, if you have it, between hatches and allow to sit in sun to sanitize.
6. The air exchange is the last 1/3 of incubating and I took incubating to be days 1 - 18 because they separated out hatch as days 18 - 21. This I thought was confusing because if you go into lockdown on day 18, this would make the hatch days 1 - 17 and that doesn't divide into thirds evenly. But I think roughly days 13 - 18 are very crucial for fresh air.
7. The temperature should stay as close to 99.5 as possible. The relative humidity should be between 86 degrees F and 88.
8. What is relative humidity you ask???? The article says you need a wet bulb thermometer and here is how you do it:
You need: Bulb thermometer (do they still make theses???) aout 6" piece of shoelace and short piece of dental floss.
A. Stick buld end of thermo (shortened for thermometer) about 1" into hollow of shoelace.
B. Tie piece of dental floss around both the shoelace and thermo above the bulb to keep shoelace from falling off.
C. Place opposite end of shoelace directly in a pan of water room temperature.
D. If the water is the same temp as the air temp, the reading on the thermo is the wet bulb thermo.
E. The temp reading of the wet bulb will be less than a dry thermo because evaporation of water cools the thermo.
So now on to days 18 - 21, hatching:
1. If humidity is above 65% add 1 - 2 Tbs water and if below 65% add 1/2 chamber of water (I don't have chambers because mine is homemade. I would either have to figure out what that relative humidity would be or just go with my hydrometer and get it up to around 65%)
2. Place in one vent cover.
3. On day 20 place in second vent cover.
4. If there is too much condensation at hatching, barely pull one vent cover out and wait one hour. If there is still too much condensation (meaning you can't see in the top of the lid) remove the one vent cover, turn upside down in front of the hole and place upside down directly over the hole.
5. DO NOT OPEN THE INCUBATOR UNTIL DAY 23.
6. There is no need for concern on a chick that is hatching unless it has been hatching for more than 20 hours.
7. When 90% of chicks have hatched and are dry, remove them from the hatcher.
The article says here any chicks that haven't hatched in whatever amount of time you should take out and discard. I didn't write that down on my list because I wasn't really ready for it. If you look at the articles, you can find that information. It is in the info that kathyinmo has in her signature, just don't remember which one.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=48726 I haven't looked at this link yet, but it was in with the article I'm talking about and I just never realized it was there.
I don't know how to put up the link for the thread I was reading, but I am subscribed to it, if you look in my profile it's humidity setting and if you do a search it is dry incubation by Bill Worrell. I gave you the member's ID, but the thread I subscribed to that I found her in is fully formed chicks, dead in their shell.
Everything I have read about these chicks that made it to the end and just died is it's a humidity problem. Now, trying to figure out humidity is some people say they incubated on the dry method and kept it here or there and some incubated higher. So if low is no good and high is no good and the middle is no good what do you do? So I think it makes sense to leave the vents open (which I didn't do....probably suffocated some of them) and boost the humidity and let it sink down for a while? It's a thought. Please let me know what you guys think: agree or disagree or anything else or anything you have come up with. Also, I still think weighing the egg is a good idea to know for sure if the egg is losing too much moisture or not enough.
I'm not sure why I'm trying to figure this out because I think a broody hen is the way to go......no worries...
So with all this time I have to be still, I have been doing a lot of research and am going to try to be brief in my findings. This list was for me so I'm not trying to imply anyone else on here didn't do this or that what you did wasn't right. I am only trying to fix myself and share what I am learning in case anyone finds any benefit to this. Some of it I knew before I incubated, I just didn't understand fully how to apply the information.
There are threads with all of this info and I will try to figure out how to post that. And then I ran across someone who had great links in their signature and their name is kathyinmo. You have to scroll through the pages because there are links inside the info.
1. Chickens need to lose 12 - 14% total weight.
2. Take all vent stoppers out. There has to be adequate air exchange during incubation. The last 1/3 is most crucial as the chicks are making a high amount of carbon dioxide. (Here I think is confusing)....Allow to dry down 12 - 18 hours before adding more water. I think, from what I'm reading, go from 40% down to 25% back up to 40%. (I started doing this yesterday and my incubator held humidity better and dried down very nicely.)
3. For a homemade bator add four holes size of ice pick 1 - 2 inches from bottom for fresh air exchange, which they need during hatching.
4. Use mesh or crinoline flooring.
5. Clean bator with oxine, if you have it, between hatches and allow to sit in sun to sanitize.
6. The air exchange is the last 1/3 of incubating and I took incubating to be days 1 - 18 because they separated out hatch as days 18 - 21. This I thought was confusing because if you go into lockdown on day 18, this would make the hatch days 1 - 17 and that doesn't divide into thirds evenly. But I think roughly days 13 - 18 are very crucial for fresh air.
7. The temperature should stay as close to 99.5 as possible. The relative humidity should be between 86 degrees F and 88.
8. What is relative humidity you ask???? The article says you need a wet bulb thermometer and here is how you do it:
You need: Bulb thermometer (do they still make theses???) aout 6" piece of shoelace and short piece of dental floss.
A. Stick buld end of thermo (shortened for thermometer) about 1" into hollow of shoelace.
B. Tie piece of dental floss around both the shoelace and thermo above the bulb to keep shoelace from falling off.
C. Place opposite end of shoelace directly in a pan of water room temperature.
D. If the water is the same temp as the air temp, the reading on the thermo is the wet bulb thermo.
E. The temp reading of the wet bulb will be less than a dry thermo because evaporation of water cools the thermo.
So now on to days 18 - 21, hatching:
1. If humidity is above 65% add 1 - 2 Tbs water and if below 65% add 1/2 chamber of water (I don't have chambers because mine is homemade. I would either have to figure out what that relative humidity would be or just go with my hydrometer and get it up to around 65%)
2. Place in one vent cover.
3. On day 20 place in second vent cover.
4. If there is too much condensation at hatching, barely pull one vent cover out and wait one hour. If there is still too much condensation (meaning you can't see in the top of the lid) remove the one vent cover, turn upside down in front of the hole and place upside down directly over the hole.
5. DO NOT OPEN THE INCUBATOR UNTIL DAY 23.
6. There is no need for concern on a chick that is hatching unless it has been hatching for more than 20 hours.
7. When 90% of chicks have hatched and are dry, remove them from the hatcher.
The article says here any chicks that haven't hatched in whatever amount of time you should take out and discard. I didn't write that down on my list because I wasn't really ready for it. If you look at the articles, you can find that information. It is in the info that kathyinmo has in her signature, just don't remember which one.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=48726 I haven't looked at this link yet, but it was in with the article I'm talking about and I just never realized it was there.
I don't know how to put up the link for the thread I was reading, but I am subscribed to it, if you look in my profile it's humidity setting and if you do a search it is dry incubation by Bill Worrell. I gave you the member's ID, but the thread I subscribed to that I found her in is fully formed chicks, dead in their shell.
Everything I have read about these chicks that made it to the end and just died is it's a humidity problem. Now, trying to figure out humidity is some people say they incubated on the dry method and kept it here or there and some incubated higher. So if low is no good and high is no good and the middle is no good what do you do? So I think it makes sense to leave the vents open (which I didn't do....probably suffocated some of them) and boost the humidity and let it sink down for a while? It's a thought. Please let me know what you guys think: agree or disagree or anything else or anything you have come up with. Also, I still think weighing the egg is a good idea to know for sure if the egg is losing too much moisture or not enough.
I'm not sure why I'm trying to figure this out because I think a broody hen is the way to go......no worries...
- Thread starter
- #148
WWC-Just so you know - I agree!
I've done SO much reading and researching as well and I think a good versus bad hatch rate is mainly because of humidity issues (among a meriad of other problems-LOL). But, like you, I can't decide what is "THE" exact humidity. Personally I think it is different for each incubator, different for each location (CA vs AZ vs FL, for example) and I even think humidity needs might be different for each 'egg'! Why else would SOME of my chicks (4 to be exact) hatch out just perfectly and others have problems? I also am totally convinced that shipped eggs will have less chance of hatching because the aircells respond to the humidity and temperature differently than a fresh, fertilized egg just laid in the backyard. Thank you for posting this information. Keep us updated if you get a scale and follow your next hatch by weighing the eggs! I will probably watch aircells again.
Oh-and I'm so excited! I located a breeder within an hour that has Silkies and Plymouth Barred Rocks...which I would like "more" of both!
So, no shipping charges and no scrambled aircells! And, they charge $8 a dozen!!!!!!!
I think I may join the league of incubators sooner than later.
I've done SO much reading and researching as well and I think a good versus bad hatch rate is mainly because of humidity issues (among a meriad of other problems-LOL). But, like you, I can't decide what is "THE" exact humidity. Personally I think it is different for each incubator, different for each location (CA vs AZ vs FL, for example) and I even think humidity needs might be different for each 'egg'! Why else would SOME of my chicks (4 to be exact) hatch out just perfectly and others have problems? I also am totally convinced that shipped eggs will have less chance of hatching because the aircells respond to the humidity and temperature differently than a fresh, fertilized egg just laid in the backyard. Thank you for posting this information. Keep us updated if you get a scale and follow your next hatch by weighing the eggs! I will probably watch aircells again.
Oh-and I'm so excited! I located a breeder within an hour that has Silkies and Plymouth Barred Rocks...which I would like "more" of both!
Eight bucks a dozen is a bargain. I'm glad to hear you found some. So when is the big road trip? I did read in my research that shipped eggs are a tough one to deal with. Makes me wonder about the people who post and say they go 100% or 99% what is different. I did read somewhere that the x-ray machines and if the eggs arrived by airplane made a difference. So maybe if a person buys eggs, it should be close enough to home, but a little too far to warrant a car drive.
I have been watching my humidity drop and it is going to be about 12 hours to get it down to around 25%. It might be too late to get a good hatch on this batch, but I am going to give myself a tiny break and get down to business again and tackle the Humidity Monster
I want to eventually buy silkie eggs from those that have the beautiful show quality stock.
Good to hear from you and see you are bouncing back. If this thread dies out, I would love to keep in touch and compare notes on hatches and see if we've worked the wrinkles out.
Kim
And P.S. Don't you love how when you look up fully formed chick dead in shell that it says it's a humidity issue: too high of humidity and too low of humidity. Really? That certainly narrowed it down for me
I have been watching my humidity drop and it is going to be about 12 hours to get it down to around 25%. It might be too late to get a good hatch on this batch, but I am going to give myself a tiny break and get down to business again and tackle the Humidity Monster
Good to hear from you and see you are bouncing back. If this thread dies out, I would love to keep in touch and compare notes on hatches and see if we've worked the wrinkles out.
Kim
And P.S. Don't you love how when you look up fully formed chick dead in shell that it says it's a humidity issue: too high of humidity and too low of humidity. Really? That certainly narrowed it down for me
WWC: I wish you were closer so we could give you one of our chicks 
The single chicks drive me batty with their crying. Vonnie (think that is who is in BBGG's sig pic) used to do a little dance on my keybord with her wings up yelling PAY ATTENETION TO MEEEE!
She never did learn to leave the keybord alone. She DID however learn to whisper people in world of warcraft random numbers... I got some interesting replies to those. She also taught the buff orphie we got to calm her down to do the same thing... DANCE CHICKENS DANCE!!
But, you have a hatch soon, right? so she will have some friends soon. deep breaths. Also, have you tried a mirror? I have an old makeup mirror that props up so they see a fake friend,and a socks to snuggle with. Might work to keep her occupied for a while.
We can't do the eggtopsys till tomorrow morning, that means bbgg is going to have to do em, as I will be onsite.. ( honey, btw....) HE can post what he sees then. My theory, besides some just are not meant to be born, is we had a humidity spike ( were using the bator for 2 different hatches) when the quail chicks hatched, and some got to big to turn at that point and we lost them then. However, my candling SUCKS so I cant tell you if they were gone before that or not ( all I could tell was chick or no chick).
I think in general with eggs hat have gone very far in shipping, the hatch rate is likely to be low unless you are lucky with your post office. Ours is Ok but not great, so i am going to try and see if i can get eggs close enough to pick up!
The single chicks drive me batty with their crying. Vonnie (think that is who is in BBGG's sig pic) used to do a little dance on my keybord with her wings up yelling PAY ATTENETION TO MEEEE!She never did learn to leave the keybord alone. She DID however learn to whisper people in world of warcraft random numbers... I got some interesting replies to those. She also taught the buff orphie we got to calm her down to do the same thing... DANCE CHICKENS DANCE!!
But, you have a hatch soon, right? so she will have some friends soon. deep breaths. Also, have you tried a mirror? I have an old makeup mirror that props up so they see a fake friend,and a socks to snuggle with. Might work to keep her occupied for a while.
We can't do the eggtopsys till tomorrow morning, that means bbgg is going to have to do em, as I will be onsite.. ( honey, btw....) HE can post what he sees then. My theory, besides some just are not meant to be born, is we had a humidity spike ( were using the bator for 2 different hatches) when the quail chicks hatched, and some got to big to turn at that point and we lost them then. However, my candling SUCKS so I cant tell you if they were gone before that or not ( all I could tell was chick or no chick).
I think in general with eggs hat have gone very far in shipping, the hatch rate is likely to be low unless you are lucky with your post office. Ours is Ok but not great, so i am going to try and see if i can get eggs close enough to pick up!
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