Hey Everyone,
I have a question, well a few. I just hatched out some eggs for the first time in years. I had the eggs shipped and needless to say out of 15 ( 12 Lav Orps and 3 extras she threw in we're BCM) . All eggs were viable accept one LO and one BCM. Well in the end the only 2 viable BCM hatched, and a day early at that.
So I cracked them all to see what was in and stage of development etc. most of them quit at a stage when they were around day 14 I think. The chicks still looked like grey little embryos that started to break down and the everything was watery and smelled . They didn't stink until I cracked them open. All were like that but one.
I dry incubated with humidity and raised it at lock down to 60-65%. Temp was consistent between 99-100. My hygrometer doesn't have a decimal point so it only shows whole numbers. We did have a temp spike at around day 14 give or take a day, to 102. Not sure how long it was at that because we woke up and it was at 102. So it could have been several hours to only a few minutes. Not sure why the spike because temps had been holding steady since 2 days before I set them to that point and no spike since.
So my questions are : any thoughts as to why all but 3 quit. Also of the 3 that fully developed when I cracked open the one that didn't hatch it was curled up in such a way that I could tell it didn't even try to pip but had started to absorb the yolk. It looked like it was half way absorbed. Any thoughts on that ?
All in all I'm thrilled that any of them hatched. It was my first time in years and I hadn't done it many times bak then either. My hens did most of the hatching. The eggs were shipped and it was the first run in a homemade incubator. So like I said I'm thrilled with the out come I'm just curious what you all think so I can maybe improve the next hatch. Which BTW I set the same day I cracked open the others lol. Cleaned it out and put more in. Lol. More BCM and some light brahmas this time. I also bought some Lav Orp and BBS Orp chicks locally to keep my 2 company lol.
Rebekah
I have a question, well a few. I just hatched out some eggs for the first time in years. I had the eggs shipped and needless to say out of 15 ( 12 Lav Orps and 3 extras she threw in we're BCM) . All eggs were viable accept one LO and one BCM. Well in the end the only 2 viable BCM hatched, and a day early at that.
So I cracked them all to see what was in and stage of development etc. most of them quit at a stage when they were around day 14 I think. The chicks still looked like grey little embryos that started to break down and the everything was watery and smelled . They didn't stink until I cracked them open. All were like that but one.
I dry incubated with humidity and raised it at lock down to 60-65%. Temp was consistent between 99-100. My hygrometer doesn't have a decimal point so it only shows whole numbers. We did have a temp spike at around day 14 give or take a day, to 102. Not sure how long it was at that because we woke up and it was at 102. So it could have been several hours to only a few minutes. Not sure why the spike because temps had been holding steady since 2 days before I set them to that point and no spike since.
So my questions are : any thoughts as to why all but 3 quit. Also of the 3 that fully developed when I cracked open the one that didn't hatch it was curled up in such a way that I could tell it didn't even try to pip but had started to absorb the yolk. It looked like it was half way absorbed. Any thoughts on that ?
All in all I'm thrilled that any of them hatched. It was my first time in years and I hadn't done it many times bak then either. My hens did most of the hatching. The eggs were shipped and it was the first run in a homemade incubator. So like I said I'm thrilled with the out come I'm just curious what you all think so I can maybe improve the next hatch. Which BTW I set the same day I cracked open the others lol. Cleaned it out and put more in. Lol. More BCM and some light brahmas this time. I also bought some Lav Orp and BBS Orp chicks locally to keep my 2 company lol.
Rebekah
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