Operation Dry Hatch

[ChickensInMyYard]

Did you candle at 10 days? And were they doing alright then? I havent tried Bantams but my Buttercups have hatched better than ever so I dont know what happened there, so sorry to hear. Were these 2 hatches at the same time in different incubators? And what are you using styros? How long were youreggs in lock down? And yes try it again and stay here with us so we can help you along.

 

[OkChickens]

I use Dry Incubation and it works great! I don't have to worry about having a certain humidity in my incubator it stays around 16-18% and then in my hatcher I have the humidity around 25-27%. I haven't had hardly any problems with the chicks hatching!

Nate

 

[wholewheatchicken]

Quote:

Did you candle at 10 days? And were they doing alright then? I havent tried Bantams but my Buttercups have hatched better than ever so I dont know what happened there, so sorry to hear. Were these 2 hatches at the same time in different incubators? And what are you using styros? How long were youreggs in lock down? And yes try it again and stay here with us so we can help you along.

I did, although on the second batch I could really tell what I was looking for after having two broody hens and then my first batch I had in the incubator. My first batch I didn't keep good records from the eggtopsy as I was a little freaked out. There were several dead chicks and they had absorbed the egg sac, but did not pip. I had one hatch and two more pip. I think what might have happened, at least to the two pippers, was I didn't have the right kind of floor and the one that hatched was getting very weak because it couldn't get its footing. I opened the incubator to get it out and I think that may be been my troubles on this one. Not sure why the others didn't pip, but they were not shrink wrapped. The humidity was higher for my first batch than the second.
The second hatch was a little dryer, but not terribly so. I had nine for sure alive on day 18, one that didn't look alive but kept it in and two was worried about because I took them from a broody who didn't appear to be turning them very well and they looked odd at day 5 so I put them in the incubator with the others since they were all set on the same day.
I kept my humidity roughly between 20 - 30% for the first 15 days. Then after my unsuccessful hatch, I thought maybe the humidity was too low and used the Bill Worrell dry hatch method on BYC and pushed it to 40 - 45% and let it dry down to 25% and pushed it back up.
On day 18 for both batches I went into lockdown and bumped the humidity to 60 -65%.
Both batches attempted to hatch on day 21 so I feel like the temps are on spot.
Now, the first batch I did not open the air vents - didn't know I should - but I do hand turn 3X a day so they were vented. I did not vent during hatch time on hatch 1. Does anyone know if this could be a factor? Please don't ask what the humidity spiked to! The chick was born around 5:00 a.m. and I dragged myself out of bed to see it just after it popped out of the shell. Perhaps if the humidity got too high it harmed the others that were alive?
****** would like to know how others vent during days 1- 18 and then on lockdown and hatch time. Since this experience I have read differing ways to vent, not that that comes as a shock!!!!!
On the second batch, my babies started rocken this past Sunday afternoon, but never pipped. Monday morning I got up and just knew something had gone very wrong because they were very still. I even opened a vent hole and stuck a pencil inside to push the biggest wiggly egg and it didn't make any noise. There was no peeping at all. So I got the eggs out and decided to candle to see if I could tell anything. The inside of the egg was like shrunk way, way down. It hadn't been like that when I candled before lockdown. I did see movement in one egg and decided to gently pip into it. That baby and almost every other one was barely alive still. Some of them you could barely hear peeping inside the egg when I got them out of the incubator. I think I had two or three that I heard and one that I saw moving.
On eggtopsy there were two that didn't make it to lockdown. The rest were severely shrink wrapped, but alive. The egg sac had been absorbed. None of them made it. By the time I intervened, it was roughly 10:00 Monday morning and I saw them shaking maybe around 2:00 Sunday afternoon.
When I peeled the shell and outer membrane back, the inner membrane was very dry and white and shriveled. Now that I'm writing this I should have taken pictures, but didn't think of it at the time. When I used some warm water to wet the inner membrane it was very bloody. There was no way to help the baby out without it bleeding to death, although it probably had brain damage due to lack of oxygen.
I do use a styro incubator. It is homemade. I have no problem holding temps and humidity. It has a fan. I hand turn the eggs 3X a day.
Let me know what info I'm not thinking to say. I would love some help as I'm getting ready to try it again. Thought I would set a few silkie eggs and some RIR eggs and see if I have the same/different results for both or would I be more/less successful with banty vs. LF or vice versa.
It is confusing since there seems to be such a wide range of humidity that works for different people, different locations.
Oh, one last thing. Since I had the air vents open this time, I did turn off the dehumidifier. I have my incubator in the basement so we have to pump out a lot of moisture to keep it dry so the air had to have had enough moisture in it to have helped. I keep the dehumidifier at 45% and it didn't run for over a week. The temps in the house are 68 F, but it is much cooler in the basement. No temperature spikes or humidity spikes during either hatch time.
Thanks for any input you can provide. Would love to figure this out.

OKCHICKENS - I grew up in Owasso. I have family that still lives nearby there. I think it's a great town and have very fond memories of being a child there!

 

[OkChickens]

Wholewheatchicken- you would be surprised how many people I have met that live in Owasso or Collinsville on BYC!

Nate

 

[wholewheatchicken]

That's really interesting, considering how small they are. Actually, Owasso isn't really that small anymore. When I was just a kid.......you know how that story goes!!!!! There wasn't anything there. Now it's almost a thriving metropolis. You don't even need to go to Tulsa to do most of your shopping.
Did you have any bad weather this winter?

 

[ChickensInMyYard]

I have heard that the chicks can have a hard time pipping using the dry hatch method. I don't use the plugs at all through out the 21 days. And when I put the eggs into the styro hatcher at lock-up stage I fill the bottom grooves about half full. I also (very quickly!) spray the eggs with a very fine mist of warm distilled water once a day the last three days in the hatcher. Do you candle your eggs before the lock-up stage and are you still turning your eggs then also? I candle them quickly just to make sure that when I lay them in thehatcher that the air sac is slightly up not down. And you must not turn them in lock-up stage because they use this time to get into the right position. I'm just telling you this in case you were turning them.

What else did you say....just sec I'll take a quik look at your last long post....

......Ok and yes if you see blood when you're trying to help STOP and put it back into the bator.
I Love My Chickens

 

[ChickensInMyYard]

I heard that some people do not add any water to their bators at all until lockdown. Amazing!

 

[ChickensInMyYard]

This picture is a Buttercup Chick I hatched yesterday (dry hatch).

 

[ChickensInMyYard]

Hey Nate

Glad to see you on this thread! We can use any advice you may have.

What do you think of my new profile pic?????

 

[wholewheatchicken]

Is this your Buttercup chick?
No, I didn't turn them any more after day 18. Locked 'em down and sat back for the fireworks.
And yes, I was seriously worried about helping them out, even if they did live, because they had to have been out of oxygen and I wondered if they would be brain damaged. They had been in there for a long time by that point.
I think I did everything right except for the humidity level. My DH now calls me Dr. Frankenstein, so I was getting the bator ready to try another hatch. We have tons of eggs around here to experiment on, it's just not a real good feeling to give them life and the kill them like this. I thought maybe this time I would just put in five or six. I had planned to hatch along with a broody hen so if things didn't go right and I only got one chick like I did last time, I was going to slip it in with her and be done with it. That one little chick thing is no fun. I had a loner for a week and a half and it ran me ragged. Finally found some bantam friends to go with her last Tuesday and life is so much more peaceful now! Only I sat eggs under the hen two days ago and didn't get mine in the bator yet. Oooooppppsss!!!!
Are Buttercups a rare breed?