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

[Wax Myrtle]

Thank you, thank you, thank you! Y'all are so kind to dig that up for me!! Off to go weigh some eggs...

 

[Wax Myrtle]

" 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."

What an amazingly simple solution! Especially for visual me.

 

[wolftracks]

Oh NOOOO! I hatch quail at 40% in still air, so that would be about 50% for forced air. Just drop it as low as you can as quick as you can. That's all you can really do at this point. Now that you caught it things will improve.

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).

I wish I could blame it on shipped eggs. Every egg in there is from my birds. I may lose a couple of other hatches since those vents were closed. I sure hope not, but that's how it's looking. The other thing is I see vienng in the eggs I can see into and it's like they are at day 19 and 20 and not on 21 and 22. The digital thermometers read low, but I have aquarium thermometers in there and there Sportsman is cranked up all the way and reading 99.5, so I'm at a lose there too. I have other eggs where I don't see movement and the whole area is dark, so it's like they aren't all developing at the same rate, but this is a Sportsman so that shouldn't be an issue.

 

[chiques chicks]

Wow, I put way too little thought into hatching. My Tempe are +/- a degree fluctuation and humidity in Bator between 19 and 27, if I believe my gauges. I don't weigh, and lockdown is between 45 and 60. I use a couple gauges and rough estimate where I think it is in my head. Some hatches are good, some bad, some mixed.

Of course I only do this for fun, not business. I suppose I need to take this all more seriously.

 

[dsqard]

chiques chicks that is about how I work it too. I try to keep the temps between 99 and 101 (forced air) and do dry hatches. I never worry about what the humidity is. Once they are in lockdown, I add water and just try to keep it from going dry. I also only do this for fun (some good hatches, some bad just like you) so instead of running myself ragged over every little change I just don't sweat it. I probably would feel a lot different if I was doing this for money though. Wolfie, you need to at least get one of the hygrometers out of there so you aren't driving yourself nuts (well more nuts

)

ETA - I also never use the vent plugs for the one styrobator I have. I get the temps set with the vents open and incubate the whole time with open vents.

 

[Wax Myrtle]

Wolftracks, I bet you you'll figure it out!

 

[Wax Myrtle]

Yay, so I made myself a nifty little graph chart for my average starting weight sloping down to my goal average weight at lockdown. Actual average two-thirds of the way til lockdown is half a gram off from goal. :yes

This is my first time ever incubating ducks, and only my second go round incubating poultry, so I'm chuffed it's doing so well. Not changing a thing!

I did toss one early quitter that I've been watching for the last week, so I'm 30/31 so far.

The breeder gave me several extras that had gotten somewhat muddy, and they look great, too, but... One of them seems terribly dark inside nearer the air cell. There's a live duckling in there - he nodded and waved a foot at me - but it's almost like he's wearing a cloak. (He is the terror that walks in the night, maybe?) I fear bacteria from the mud. I did not clean the muddy eggs at all. Thoughts?

 

[wolftracks]

Wow, I put way too little thought into hatching. My Tempe are +/- a degree fluctuation and humidity in Bator between 19 and 27, if I believe my gauges. I don't weigh, and lockdown is between 45 and 60. I use a couple gauges and rough estimate where I think it is in my head. Some hatches are good, some bad, some mixed.

Of course I only do this for fun, not business. I suppose I need to take this all more seriously.

chiques chicks that is about how I work it too. I try to keep the temps between 99 and 101 (forced air) and do dry hatches. I never worry about what the humidity is. Once they are in lockdown, I add water and just try to keep it from going dry. I also only do this for fun (some good hatches, some bad just like you) so instead of running myself ragged over every little change I just don't sweat it. I probably would feel a lot different if I was doing this for money though. Wolfie, you need to at least get one of the hygrometers out of there so you aren't driving yourself nuts (well more nuts

)

ETA - I also never use the vent plugs for the one styrobator I have. I get the temps set with the vents open and incubate the whole time with open vents.

I only have one in there now. I'm calibrating one of them. I only left 2 in over night to see how far off from eachother they seemed to be. I'm just hoping since I found that the vents were closed, that I'm just anicing and that they got enough oxygen after I opened it all up. I had scrubbed that thing inside and out and I had left them closed while it dried, so it wouldn't be wet under the plate. I just didn't think about it later when I went back and set it up. I never close my vents, so I just wasn't hinking about it. Everyone in there has air now though.

 

[Wax Myrtle]

Wow, I put way too little thought into hatching. My Tempe are +/- a degree fluctuation and humidity in Bator between 19 and 27, if I believe my gauges. I don't weigh, and lockdown is between 45 and 60. I use a couple gauges and rough estimate where I think it is in my head. Some hatches are good, some bad, some mixed.

Of course I only do this for fun, not business. I suppose I need to take this all more seriously.

Lol, guilty of micromanaging somewhat, here. I imagine I'll eventually get to know my incubator and methods well enough that I can ease up on the science. But I enjoy the science

And... Um.... DH has hinted that my hobby may need to start to support more of it's own weight, if not possibly break even.

 

[HEChicken]

I wish I could blame it on shipped eggs. Every egg in there is from my birds. I may lose a couple of other hatches since those vents were closed. I sure hope not, but that's how it's looking. The other thing is I see vienng in the eggs I can see into and it's like they are at day 19 and 20 and not on 21 and 22. The digital thermometers read low, but I have aquarium thermometers in there and there Sportsman is cranked up all the way and reading 99.5, so I'm at a lose there too. I have other eggs where I don't see movement and the whole area is dark, so it's like they aren't all developing at the same rate, but this is a Sportsman so that shouldn't be an issue.

So these are not Coturnix then. Bob White?

Of course I only do this for fun, not business. I suppose I need to take this all more seriously.