Self Blue (Lavender) Silkie Thread

[Gordonhillfarm]

Ok I have to ask why would it matter what color they are ?? I know this has been a really wierd year for hatching any kind of egg . I've herd on many different threads on a couple different sites . I had really great hatches in the earliest part of the year but as spring came on my personal hatches of a variety of breeds began to become poor . I thought the same thing clean bator, check humidity more offten , but no change . So I figured it was weather planets what ever but I know it's not just me , there are others . So I guess I would talk to others that have gotten eggs from this breeder and see how there hatches are going . I can tell you I have had the very exact things happening here , and it's been happening with seramas -- RIR -- Spec. susex and I know of others with thier turkeys and frizzle cochins ... None of this probably helps you -- but just thought maybe it's something we cann't fix and just need to wait out what ever is going on .

 

[BetsyOK]

The Moms hatched another LAVENDER SHOWGIRL a couple of hours ago (I've been watching them closely since they slightly injured Uno and put him out from under them). It is also bearded, has a high vaulted skull and perfect toes. Uno has two toes slightly fused, and is crying about this foreign lump in with him. I'm soooo excited!

 

[CheshieChick13]

Okay I am stoked! I recieved my black/lav split eggs today, and switched out my broodies duds for those. She is sitting very well on the new eggs. Crossing fingers!!

~Steph

 

[geosheets]

Dylan's Silkies :

Hi, I just hatched out 2 batches of lavender eggs two weeks apart and had the hardest time to get them to hatch or even survive once they hatched. I have no problems hatching blues, splashes, whites so I know my technique is good. I think I've hatched over 200 chicks so far this year so I'm not a novice with my incubation techniques. I get about 90% hatch rate on my own eggs and 75% on a recent batch of shipped white silkie eggs.

So with the lavenders, on day 21, my eggs start to get shrink wrapped at 80% humidity. I actually had to crack open each egg, locate the beak and popped a small hole in the membrane so the chick could breathe, otherwise, it would have suffocated.

In my first batch, I lost 8 chicks because they suffocated in the egg. I left them to hatch on their own and realized they were dead on day 22.

So in the second batch (yesterday), I cracked open 11 eggs and was able to save 8 chicks. It's been a stressful 24 hour period for them and me.

I was wondering if anyone else is experiencing the same thing. I've never had such a hard time hatching before. Any ideas about what's going? Is it with just lavender genetics?

What kind of humidity are you running for the first 18 days? Shrink wrapped typically means too low humidity and usually the membrane starts to dry out and separate from the shell before lockdown. If you candle at lockdown you will more than likely notice larger than normal air cells and they may appear to travel part way down the side of the egg. When you see this, the membrane has already dried too much and started to peel away from the shell and shrink wrap the chick.​

 

[Dylan's Silkies]

What kind of humidity are you running for the first 18 days? Shrink wrapped typically means too low humidity and usually the membrane starts to dry out and separate from the shell before lockdown. If you candle at lockdown you will more than likely notice larger than normal air cells and they may appear to travel part way down the side of the egg. When you see this, the membrane has already dried too much and started to peel away from the shell and shrink wrap the chick.

My humidity for the first 18 days is at 50% but maybe that's still too low????? If the membrane starts to dry out before lockdown, then that might be the answer..... hmmmm, thanks for the idea!​

 

[Elite Silkies]

I run about 50% humidity on mine, so I don't think that is too low. On lockdown I put the humidity at about 65% and when they start hatching it raises the humidity up to about 75-80%, due the moisture from the chicks. I have more trouble hatching Lavender chicks than any other color for some reason.

 

[robin416]

Quote:
My guess is that the color is so new a lot of inbreeding had to be done to bring back the Silkie characteristics. So we're still dealing with some weakness genetically where hatching is concerned. I can not remember who told me this but when the problem kept happening they were told to use a black bird in the pairing to build some hardiness back in to them. Black because it completely different from lavender which made it easier to identify lavender chicks.

 

[jen5680]

Is this a funky color lav chick or what????

 

[brendapa]

Jen,

He looks blue to me. Maybe he's a split?

Brenda

 

[Elite Silkies]

Quote:
Jen,

I'm sorry but that chick is Blue. It might be split/lavender, but it is not a Lavender bird.