Poultry Breeds of Spanish Ancestry

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Lacy Blues said:
That would be nice to see. Did you invite them to the thread? We need more participants.

Well, my hatch that was scheduled for Wednesday night was almost a complete failure. I had two chicks hatch. So, I got to talking to someone about the dry incubation method because when I cracked those eggs open, most of them were awfully wet. Others had upside down chicks and still others had chicks that were somewhere in between, but most really wet. So, I made some changes to my hatcher and put my newest batch of eggs in there last night so that today I could take my incubator apart and clean and sterilize the whole thing. Got it all back together and it is warming up. Once it reaches temps, I'll be transferring my eggs back to that so it will be easier to turn them. Not adding any water at all, I'll be weighing my eggs to monitor weight loss and hopefully this hatch will yield more chicks than the last one... by a long shot!
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No he was not a bycer

hmm. what was the humidity? No humidity scares me . Especially where you are being so dry there. With my Genesis I add a about 1 cup of water every 2 days maybe a little less. just to get it to about 40% I wait 2 days to add more. this gets it down to about 25% at day 19 I up it to about 60%

I would personally only do a dry hatch if I lived in a humid part of the country but I know many swear by it.
 
The person I've been talking to lives in Texas. It is pretty dry where she lives. I checked our weather forecast and it said our humidity would be in the 20s and 30s for the next week and a half. The humidity in my house right now is 30%. The way I have been doing it for quite a while now is filling up the one place in the water tray that Hovabator recommends and not refilling it after that at all until the last 3 days. It has been difficult to get the hatcher to 60% and then I only have one or two, maybe a half dozen chicks hatch. I will be watching the weight loss carefully, weighing every 3 days. I haven't done this before and it makes me a little bit nervous too but tell me, what more damage can it do than 2 chicks out of 33 eggs that went into lock down? As I said, this is not the first time hatch rates have been so low so I'm looking for what might be the problem. If I get 21 chicks this time, I'll know it was those three things... humidity, bacteria and gasses. I'll keep you posted.
 
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Hangtown Farms said:
No he was not a bycer
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You could invite him to become a BYCer...?
big_smile.png
 
Lacy Blues said:
The person I've been talking to lives in Texas. It is pretty dry where she lives. I checked our weather forecast and it said our humidity would be in the 20s and 30s for the next week and a half. The humidity in my house right now is 30%. The way I have been doing it for quite a while now is filling up the one place in the water tray that Hovabator recommends and not refilling it after that at all until the last 3 days. It has been difficult to get the hatcher to 60% and then I only have one or two, maybe a half dozen chicks hatch. I will be watching the weight loss carefully, weighing every 3 days. I haven't done this before and it makes me a little bit nervous too but tell me, what more damage can it do than 2 chicks out of 33 eggs that went into lock down? As I said, this is not the first time hatch rates have been so low so I'm looking for what might be the problem. If I get 21 chicks this time, I'll know it was those three things... humidity, bacteria and gasses. I'll keep you posted.
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yeah it doesn't hurt to try. I noticed when I lowered the humidity the first 19 days my hatches went up but I haven't made the plunge to dry hatch. The genesis had a real good hatch on the crele and empordanesa last hatch . none of the black penedesenca or olive eggers hatched.
I set some in the Rcom to hatch 3 days after the genesis and most the eggs hatched. Olive eggers and Empordanesa.
Now I have black penedesenca , olive eggers and some crele in the Genesis again that should hatch 3/18
 
Hangtown Farms said:
yeah it doesn't hurt to try. I noticed when I lowered the humidity the first 19 days my hatches went up but I haven't made the plunge to dry hatch. The genesis had a real good hatch on the crele and empordanesa last hatch . none of the black penedesenca or olive eggers hatched.
I set some in the Rcom to hatch 3 days after the genesis and most the eggs hatched. Olive eggers and Empordanesa.
Now I have black penedesenca , olive eggers and some crele in the Genesis again that should hatch 3/18
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Mine are due on the 23rd (Sunday night) so wish me luck!
 
Lacy Blues said:
Mine are due on the 23rd (Sunday night) so wish me luck!
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@ronott1 is the real expert on hatching. I just play one on tv.
lol no I hatch my fair share I just don't think about it enough probably.
I went out and bought a R-com for shipped eggs do to all the money I wasted.

Especially if we can do a Import I may have to get a big Rcom but am so glad I have the Rcom 20 as its night and day over my old one. Though the new genesis I bought has worked great so far for my eggs


good luck with the hatch
 
Lacy Blues said:
That would be nice to see. Did you invite them to the thread? We need more participants.

Well, my hatch that was scheduled for Wednesday night was almost a complete failure. I had two chicks hatch. So, I got to talking to someone about the dry incubation method because when I cracked those eggs open, most of them were awfully wet. Others had upside down chicks and still others had chicks that were somewhere in between, but most really wet. So, I made some changes to my hatcher and put my newest batch of eggs in there last night so that today I could take my incubator apart and clean and sterilize the whole thing. Got it all back together and it is warming up. Once it reaches temps, I'll be transferring my eggs back to that so it will be easier to turn them. Not adding any water at all, I'll be weighing my eggs to monitor weight loss and hopefully this hatch will yield more chicks than the last one... by a long shot!
Click to expand...

Wet chicks are almost always a result of too low temps during the first 18 days. Raise the temperature on your incubator by .5 of a degree for the next hatch.

Many think it is humidity but they are usually wrong.
 
ronott1 said:
Wet chicks are almost always a result of too low temps during the first 18 days. Raise the temperature on your incubator by .5 of a degree for the next hatch.

Many think it is humidity but they are usually wrong.
Click to expand...
especially this time of year Jan-Feb into March when the temperature in the house is more likely to fluctuate .
 
Lacy Blues said:
The person I've been talking to lives in Texas. It is pretty dry where she lives. I checked our weather forecast and it said our humidity would be in the 20s and 30s for the next week and a half. The humidity in my house right now is 30%. The way I have been doing it for quite a while now is filling up the one place in the water tray that Hovabator recommends and not refilling it after that at all until the last 3 days. It has been difficult to get the hatcher to 60% and then I only have one or two, maybe a half dozen chicks hatch. I will be watching the weight loss carefully, weighing every 3 days. I haven't done this before and it makes me a little bit nervous too but tell me, what more damage can it do than 2 chicks out of 33 eggs that went into lock down? As I said, this is not the first time hatch rates have been so low so I'm looking for what might be the problem. If I get 21 chicks this time, I'll know it was those three things... humidity, bacteria and gasses. I'll keep you posted.
Click to expand...

Humidity in the incubator goes down with heat. You will not keep good humidity with no water if it is 30% at your place.

Incubate at 35% according to a verified hygrometer. Going lower than 25% will ruing the hatch. I have been hatching at 35% for two years now with great results.

Dry hatching is defined as hatching at a humidity that is less than the traditional 55%. You still have to have humidity in the incubator.

Causes of wet chicks and late term death are

1. Temperature
2. humidity
3. ventilation

Temperature is by far the most common cause.
 

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