Problem about brooding hatching Effective

[dulichviet]

Hello friends.
I have a question I want to consult with you.

My next hatch is happing late this week.

My last hatch gave me a couple chicks with mushy chick disease and on top of that, the air just becomes very stinky in there, since the droppings fall into the water troughs.

The problem I'm doing is: its those yellow top incubators. It came with a plastic hole-y mesh for the chicks to stand/walk on, and right underneath is the water troughs.

When the chicks hatch, they of course have their first poops. Usually it falls through into the water and gets really stinky. I suppose I was just wondering some ideas to remedy that a bit, while still trying to keep the chicks belly from touching poop as well...

Would it be wise to try lining the mesh with paper towel? Or use other methods of retaining water for the humidity?
Thanks for your help.
author: du lich viet

 

[Ridgerunner]

Welcome to the forum, glad you joined.

Mushy chicks can be a sign or high humidity during incubation. Not during hatch, but during the entire incubation period. It may be too late for this batch but you might try lowering the humidity during what is left of incubation for them and for the entire incubation for your next effort. Even professionals that hatch 1,000,000 a week in incubators that might hold 60,000 eggs each have to go through a few hatches to tweak their methods and settings to maximize hatches.

How well is your incubator ventilated? Developing chicks need fresh air to breathe through that porous shell or after they hatch. You need enough ventilation to replace the stale air inside the incubator, especially later in the incubation.

How long did your first hath last? Chicks are going to poop after they hatch and the humidity in the incubator during hatch is high enough to encourage bacterial growth. The slime from them hatching can also cause this problem. Usually it takes two or more full days for it to start stinking so how long after the first one hatched was it before the hatch was over and you removed the incubator? I have had hatches totally finished within 24 hours of the first one hatching but I've also had some last into the third day. Those started to stink. You can try using paper towels or similar in there to catch the poops and keep them out of the water, it might help, but I think it will still be moist enough in there to eventually cause it to stink.

That's one of the problems I have with a staggered hatch, where all the eggs are not started at the same time. By the time the later ones hatch the incubator can stink. Hopefully you are starting all the eggs at the same time.