Nutrition and gender, and inducing broodiness

[lazy gardener]

6 PM: 4 out. One malpositioned chick partially out of shell, and resting in coffee cup. There's no way that chick, who was the first one to pip could have made any progress. His beak was stuck under his leg. That one may not be viable. 7:15 PM 11 more pips. Humidity 65%. Membranes look a bit dryer than I'd like to see them.

 

[lazy gardener]

10:15 PM. An other just hatched. All the dry ones have been moved to a heating pad brooder. If any readers have used a HP to brood, please PM me. I'm full of questions, and would love to talk to someone who's experienced with this. The chicks are currently quiet, a not so accurate thermometer at the side, against the pad says 90* with it on setting #2. There is one chick partially hatched in a coffee cup in the incubator. It was the first one to pip, ma-lpositioned, so I peeled a bit of shell away. It's from a big egg, still some bleeding from the inner membrane. It never would have made it out, b/c it's beak was stuck under it's leg. So, if it survives, fine. I'll have saved it from certain death. If it dies, it's fate will be the same.

 

[lazy gardener]

Rachel, it's people like you who revolutionize current status quo. When we hear... do it this way because that's just the way it should be done... it's time to ask if it really makes sense! Keep us posted.

I guess it's time for an update: The first pip was a malposition. I did a partial assist, but the little one never exited the egg and died in the wee hours of this morning. I've had a lot of difficulty with humidity regulation, and as a result, have had more chicks who were stuck, needed assistance. Several of them have done ok. One was even glued to the wire at the bottom of the bator. I have one right now that is resting after getting stuck, and having me peel the membranes back from it's face. A bit of blood, so, I'm doing nothing at this point. The last 2 required a hot tub treatment to release enough glue to allow them to move. One looked like it was a goner. It was laying on it's back, and every time I rolled it over, it flipped back onto it's back. Seemed to have a lot of edema, so, I assume that it had peritonitis. However, that one has now righted it'self, and is no longer sounding distressed. There was one who made it out of the egg successfully, but dragged the egg shell around by the umbilical cord for quite a while. I went back to bed, assuming that it would detatch on it's own. When I got up this morning, the little acrobat had dived through the handle of the coffee cup that I had the first assisted chick in (the one who didn't survive) I found it upside down, dangling by the umbilical cord, with it's feet sticking through the handle. Used scissors to free it, dabbed some betadine on the umbilical hernia, and I believe it will be ok. It's been a very difficult hatch, with too much humidity variation, several assisted hatches.

Final percentage will be poor. I've noted that eggs from certain hens seem to do well, and the large eggs are making a very poor showing. Currently: 1 death, 1 egglet mid assist, doesn't look good. 10 eggs without action. 2 assisted chicks still in incubator, and improving. 16 chicks doing well and under Mama heating pad.

 

[lazy gardener]

Morning update: Eggtopsy completed. 1 clear. Several quitters, probably around day 14 - 17. Several mal-positions, were not able to get their beaks into position to pip. Several had their beaks against air cell, but did not pierce through. (So close, but so far!)

Last assisted hatch chick was helped out of the shell this morning with benefit of a hot tub treatment. He was so stuck, I didn't know where to begin. He's resting comfortably in the bator on a thick pad of paper towels, umbilical stump liberally coated with betadine.

Total: 19 chicks, 2 - 3 on watch. one death. 1 clear, 9 died in shell. Will post assessment later.

 

[lazy gardener]

When I did the eggtopsy, I made a grave mistake by not writing down the numbers on the eggs. I had them all numbered, and it seems that all the smaller eggs which were in one tray had a better hatch rate. I meant to do an analysis of the location in the trays in relation to hatch rate, but... b/c I wanted to get the eggtopsy done before work, I forgot to do that. I also had all of the Dom eggs marked with my prediction of whether they were male or female, but in the rush of the hatch, I lost track. But, in the beginning, it seemed that I was very accurate.

My last assisted chick has moved out of NICU and into the broody cave. Still a little unsteady on his feet, but fluffed up nicely, and on his feet.

I believe that my hatch rate was negatively affected by the bator being over-crowded, so there was not good heat circulation. I did not do much in the way of moving eggs through all the temp zones, and unfortunately, did not keep good records. So, next hatch will have all eggs numbered, be smaller, there will be some adjustments made in bator set up, and I'll hope to have better records and location of Dom eggs which are sex linked.

When the surviving chicks are positively identified regarding gender, I'll post the results to close out this experiment. Of course numbers will be skewed by poor hatch rate. (19 survivors out of 30 eggs.) One clear, one death, 9 dead in shell.

 

[lazy gardener]

I started a new batch on 4/14.

Did some candling in the bator last night. Didn't even need to pick any of them up. Excellent little spiders in most of them. A few clears. This batch did not have the vitamin supplementation, and I was able to see inside the shells of the green eggs, while I could not do so with the last batch.

I'm wondering if the shells in the experimental batch were so thick, and the chicks so large that they couldn't hatch.

 

[Honey B]

Interesting thread. Looking forward to your updates.

 

[lazy gardener]

I'll post gender stats when I get them.

 

[lazy gardener]

FINAL RESULTS ARE IN!!! My gender selection experiment was a success. Per initial post, eggs were selected according to shape, with the eggs having the most rounded profile when comparing length to width. 19 chicks were hatched. Of those eggs that hatched, there were 7 males and 12 females. Resulting in 37 % male, 63% female. My typical hatch is at least 60% male to 40% or less female.

Of further interest is that 6 of those males were sex links (EE x Dominique). Those eggs were NOT selected according to shape, as they were destined to be my control group in this hatch. However, in the excitement of the hatch, I failed to make note of which of those control eggs had the "male" profile, and which had the "female" profile. There were 6 males, and 6 females in the EE x Dom group, giving a 50/50 ratio.

So, taking the EE x Doms out of the picture, the other chicks produced a ratio of 6 females to 1 males.

Factors that may have had an effect on these results: My hens may have been throwing more "female" eggs at the time. I had a few eggs that didn't hatch. They may have carried male chicks. They were on a high protein feed and that feed was fermented. Could it be that, just as in a year when food is abundant, animals have larger litters/broods, a higher protein diet would favor production of more female offspring?

Given the results of this experiment, it bears repetition. I may do a repeat on this experiment later in the summer/early fall. I'd urge others who are incubating, and who have an abundance of eggs available to duplicate the experiment to see if they have similar results.

ETA correction on Dom male numbers, and addition of stats.

 

[Beekissed]

I find this experiment fascinating! I have a handful of chicks all hatched from decidedly round BA eggs this season and will let you know how many girls to guys I get out of that bunch...right now it looks to be more females to males but time will tell for sure.

Please keep posting results of these experiments here as anything I can find that produces more females to males in a consistent fashion would be handy for future hatches.