**~~>>Second Annual Cinco de Mayo Turkey Hatchathon<<~~**all poultry welcome!

[HEChicken]

Ron I am so thankful for your updates. I'm to tired and hurt to bad to sit for long and read so many posts. I hate that I can't, but I got 2 pages in and had to get up and move, so thank you!

I have a huge huge problem. I calibrated a hygrometer when I realized I had had my vents closed. I was going by that thing. Yesterday I had4 out of 25 quail hatch. For you that know how easy quail are to hatch, you know that is absolutely terrible. So I kept that hydrometer in, but calibrated another one. 12 hours later it was reading 64. Thing is all of them were higher than 72%, before so I knew I had to much moisture then, but now, the newly calibrated one is one % different than the other one. This is driving me crazy!!! This should have been a dry hatch basically. So I was sitting here almost crying because I just hurt to bad to even do math. If the chicks have been in to high humidity, where the heck should those dsrn things be reading now???? I'm so stressed. On top of it all I hear quail peeping and not sure if I'm hearing peeping in the incubator, but I think I do. I have 61 eggs in there and I don't want to lose another hatch. I'm so stressed out. I wonder if anyone has ever turned to drugs trying to hatch chicks. I just don't get it and don't know what to do to make this hatch better. With all the bad hatches I' ve had over the past 2 years, with really great ones also, I'm just .....idk.... I'm so stressed right now. I used to be able to hatch anything with no problem at all and not I hot and miss and lately I'm missed more than I've hit.

I need to go back to crying now.

Wolftracks, this is just my opinion but I think you are focusing too much on humidity. If one reads 1% different than another, that's essentially nothing so don't sweat it.

You mentioned all the vents were closed and I think that is a much bigger issue. I never close any vents in my incubators at any stage - I'd rather they get enough oxygen while hatching than stress over the exact reading of the hygrometer. (For what its worth, when I hatched quail, I got 70-some eggs in the mail from two different sellers and only hatched about 25 of them so I feel your pain. I know shipped eggs are always a gamble but when I egg-topsied the non-hatchers, almost all of them had a full-term chick in it that failed to hatch. This was early in my hatching career and before I understood the importance of ventilation, especially at hatch time. I believe the reason those other eggs failed to hatch was that the first to hatch used up all the available oxygen and the remaining chicks died of carbon dioxide poisoning. After that, I made many, MANY more holes in my styro-bator and my hatch rates improved enormously).

 

[yinepu]

I have a huge huge problem. I calibrated a hygrometer when I realized I had had my vents closed. I was going by that thing. Yesterday I had4 out of 25 quail hatch. For you that know how easy quail are to hatch, you know that is absolutely terrible. So I kept that hydrometer in, but calibrated another one. 12 hours later it was reading 64. Thing is all of them were higher than 72%, before so I knew I had to much moisture then, but now, the newly calibrated one is one % different than the other one. This is driving me crazy!!! This should have been a dry hatch basically. So I was sitting here almost crying because I just hurt to bad to even do math. If the chicks have been in to high humidity, where the heck should those dsrn things be reading now???? I'm so stressed. On top of it all I hear quail peeping and not sure if I'm hearing peeping in the incubator, but I think I do. I have 61 eggs in there and I don't want to lose another hatch. I'm so stressed out. I wonder if anyone has ever turned to drugs trying to hatch chicks. I just don't get it and don't know what to do to make this hatch better. With all the bad hatches I' ve had over the past 2 years, with really great ones also, I'm just .....idk.... I'm so stressed right now. I used to be able to hatch anything with no problem at all and not I hot and miss and lately I'm missed more than I've hit.

I need to go back to crying now.

vents should be open at hatch..

 

[yinepu]

Wolftracks, this is just my opinion but I think you are focusing too much on humidity. If one reads 1% different than another, that's essentially nothing so don't sweat it.

You mentioned all the vents were closed and I think that is a much bigger issue. I never close any vents in my incubators at any stage - I'd rather they get enough oxygen while hatching than stress over the exact reading of the hygrometer. (For what its worth, when I hatched quail, I got 70-some eggs in the mail from two different sellers and only hatched about 25 of them so I feel your pain. I know shipped eggs are always a gamble but when I egg-topsied the non-hatchers, almost all of them had a full-term chick in it that failed to hatch. This was early in my hatching career and before I understood the importance of ventilation, especially at hatch time. I believe the reason those other eggs failed to hatch was that the first to hatch used up all the available oxygen and the remaining chicks died of carbon dioxide poisoning. After that, I made many, MANY more holes in my styro-bator and my hatch rates improved enormously).

 

[karimw]

My screen name is boring. Just my first name and hyphenated last name initials M-W. Yes, I'm one of those wives. But hey - I'm the last of the McKay line in my family so I felt entitled to keep it. Stubborn Scot and all that

 

[cmfarm]

I don't know what I am doing wrong with these duck eggs. Yesterday I noticed that several had pipped already so I candled them all and only the 4 that pipped where still alive. I started with 12 eggs and only 4 look like they are going to hatch (2 have hatched already). At least it is better than last weeks 3 out 18 eggs, but still disapointing. I haven't cracked them open yet to see how they look. But for some reason they are hatching 3 days early. They were not due until Saturday (and I don't think the incubator is running hot or anything like that, and I don't think my dates are off). I'm not sure what is going on. I did candle all my chicken eggs again and got them set up for hatching (they are due Friday). So I am left with 3 dozen BR, 8 dozen plus 4 RIR, 8 dozen plus 2 sex links, 2 dozen plus 4 BO, 2 dozen plus 8 BCM, and 2 mixed. So that comes to 318 eggs left to hatch. I hope they do well, because I could really use the money. I have about half of them presold, so hopefully the rest sell fast.

 

[Wax Myrtle]

Haaalp! Would some kind soul with a connection speed better than my piddly 2G phone help me find a chart or thread showing what % weight loss I should be seeing at 10, 15, etc days for mallard-descent ducks, pretty please?

Thanks so very much!

 

[cuppycake]

Haven't had much chance to check in. been busy with the garden and dogs and everything else. I officially gave up on all on my hatch-a-long eggs. They were starting to smell and all were either clear or had HUGE bloodrings. eggs that had been looking good with nice veins and moving embryos a very days prior were now all dead. I blame my stupid LG, which I will never ever use again. Luckily SCG is the kindest person on the planet and is egg bombing me. I guess this whole hatching thing is a learning curve and I'm gaining valuable experience along the way. I just feel bummed that we won't have any turkeys hatch

DH told me he'd like me to go buy some turkey poults before it's too late, but the feed store only sells broad broasted whites and bronze, and I really would prefer heritage turkeys. I guess mainly because I want a naturally mating turkey breed. Are the mating problems in BBs more because of the tom? Could a BB hen be "serviced" by a heritage tom alright?

 

[yinepu]

Haaalp!

Would some kind soul with a connection speed better than my piddly 2G phone help me find a chart or thread showing what % weight loss I should be seeing at 10, 15, etc days for mallard-descent ducks, pretty please?

Thanks so very much!

they need to lose about 14% of their total weight by day 25.. so you would just need to do the math based on the weight of the eggs in grams to figure out weekly or daily weight loss (can't do that for you since I don't know their weights)

 

[yinepu]

Haven't had much chance to check in. been busy with the garden and dogs and everything else. I officially gave up on all on my hatch-a-long eggs. They were starting to smell and all were either clear or had HUGE bloodrings. eggs that had been looking good with nice veins and moving embryos a very days prior were now all dead. I blame my stupid LG, which I will never ever use again. Luckily SCG is the kindest person on the planet and is egg bombing me. I guess this whole hatching thing is a learning curve and I'm gaining valuable experience along the way. I just feel bummed that we won't have any turkeys hatch

DH told me he'd like me to go buy some turkey poults before it's too late, but the feed store only sells broad broasted whites and bronze, and I really would prefer heritage turkeys. I guess mainly because I want a naturally mating turkey breed. Are the mating problems in BBs more because of the tom? Could a BB hen be "serviced" by a heritage tom alright?

the hens can be.. but the problem with the broad breasted birds is that they USUALLY die at a young age because of their weight.. some people have been lucky to have some survive.. but it's usually do to restricted feeding and lots and lots of free ranging to help keep them "trim" and healthy

edited to add.. in the commercial hatcheries where they breed the BB birds they do restrict the feed (to prolong their lives) plus they have to resort to AI in order to get the eggs fertilized.. the tom's breast is just too large to properly allow clearance over the hen.. plus the excess weight of the tom is hard on the hens

 

[cmfarm]

Species

Incubation Period (Days)​

Ideal Weight Loss Over Incubation Period​

Approximate

Humidity
Incubation Temperature​

Turn Angle​

Chicken

21​

13%​

40 to 50%​

37.5°C​

90°​

Runner Duck

28.5​

14-15%​

35 to 40%​

37.3°C​

90°​

Call Duck

26​

13%​

35 to 40%​

37.3°C​

90°​

Geese

28 to 35
Depending on breed
13%​

35 to 40%​

37.2°C​

180°​

Ostrich

40-43​

12-15%​

20 to 40%​

36.4°C​

90°​

Table 1 – Hatching conditions showing weight loss for different species.
An Example Weight Loss Calculation.

The following example shows how this method can be put into practice when hatching chickens. Chickens have a 21 day incubation period and an ideal weight loss at the point of pipping of 13%.
Set the incubator to the correct temperature (in this case 37.5°C), and allow it to settle for a few hours, then, set it to the correct humidity for the species (in this case 45%).
Allow 24 hours for everything to settle. During this time, if eggs have travelled through the post, leave them to rest and to reach room temperature. Store them pointed end facing downwards.
On day 1, number the eggs with a soft pencil to identify them. Weigh all eggs before putting them into the incubator with a digital scale. Record the results:

Egg Number​

Weight(Grammes)
1​

62.5
2​

65
3​

64.5
4​

60
5​

59
6​

65.5​

Calculate the average batch weight, to do this, add up all of the weights, then divide this number by the total number of eggs so for the example eggs above this is:
(62.5 + 65 + 64.5 + 60 + 59 + 65.5) / 6 eggs = 62.75g Average
Next, allow the eggs to come up to temperature in the incubator. This can take up to 24 hours, now, check and make fine adjustments to the humidity again.

After 3 to 4 days, weigh the eggs again and record the results, taking the average weight of the eggs again.
There are now two ways of calculating the weight loss. The first is to draw a graph which shows the ideal weight loss line, plotted from Day 1 (62.75g) to Day 21 (62.75g – 13% = 54.6g) then whenever you weigh the eggs at 3 to 4 day intervals in between, plot the average weight to see how close it is to the ideal weight loss line.
The second method is to calculate what the average weight loss should be on the day that you weigh the eggs so if you weigh the eggs on Day 4, the ideal weight loss will be: 13% / 21 Days = 0.62% loss from the original weight on day 1, 1.24% of the original weight loss on day 2 and so on.
Take the average weight of your eggs every 3 to 4 days and make fine humidity adjustments as necessary until the last couple of days before the hatch when the humidity should be increased to the recommended level (greater than 65% for chicken eggs) to help soften the egg shells before piping.
Remember: If the actual weight loss is greater than ideal, the humidity level has been too low and it needs to be increased to compensate. If the weight loss is less than ideal then the air has been too humid and the humidity will need to be reduced to compensate.
After candling, it can be necessary to remove eggs that are infertile. This has little effect on the average weight calculation if all of the eggs are of a similar weight. Be cautious though, if you are only incubating a few eggs at a time or the eggs are different in weight (different breeds of chicken eggs for example) as there can be a noticeable shift in the average weight of the eggs that causes unnecessary humidity corrections. The only sure way to avoid this is to go back and re-calculate the start and end average weights using only the fertile eggs. In this situation, method 2 becomes easier to re-visit than the graphed method 1.
One final remark is that you should ideally weigh the eggs at roughly the same time every day to get the most accurate results if you are using whole days in the calculation, although I suppose there would be nothing stopping you including a part day in the calculation.