Setting 100 on 1/6/16 in new Ova Easy 100...hatch along

[WVduckchick]

Glad to hear that Brinsea is communicating with you, it sounds like you will get it worked out.

My hatch is over. Final tally:

8 duck eggs set... 1 infertile, 7 locked down, 3 hatched. (4 DIS after internal pip)
7 lavender orpington eggs set... 1 infertile, 6 hatched!
5 silkie x cochin locked down, 4 hatched, 1 DIS very late
4 mutts - only 1 hatched, 3 DIS very late. Very large chicks.

Very happy with the results, except that I think humidity was more favorable to the chicks than it was to the ducks, so I don't plan to mix them again, unless I use a separate hatcher.

I also noticed part way through incubation that I had accidentally brushed the vent partially closed. I'm not sure how long it was that way, but I do think the restricted ventilation caused some questions. The other thing that happened was that lockdown should have happened on Saturday, but I was gone for the entire weekend. So I took the eggs off the turner and laid them down on Friday evening, but waited until Sunday to raise humidity. I think that caused more issue with the ducks, as they drew down very quickly. I'm still very happy with the results.

 

[NTBugtraq]

Glad to hear that Brinsea is communicating with you, it sounds like you will get it worked out.

My hatch is over. Final tally:

8 duck eggs set... 1 infertile, 7 locked down, 3 hatched. (4 DIS after internal pip)
7 lavender orpington eggs set... 1 infertile, 6 hatched!
5 silkie x cochin locked down, 4 hatched, 1 DIS very late
4 mutts - only 1 hatched, 3 DIS very late. Very large chicks.

Very happy with the results, except that I think humidity was more favorable to the chicks than it was to the ducks, so I don't plan to mix them again, unless I use a separate hatcher.

I also noticed part way through incubation that I had accidentally brushed the vent partially closed. I'm not sure how long it was that way, but I do think the restricted ventilation caused some questions. The other thing that happened was that lockdown should have happened on Saturday, but I was gone for the entire weekend. So I took the eggs off the turner and laid them down on Friday evening, but waited until Sunday to raise humidity. I think that caused more issue with the ducks, as they drew down very quickly. I'm still very happy with the results.

From Brinsea's page on Humidity in Incubation;

"If the incubation humidity has been too high the egg will have lost too little moisture and the chick will be rather large. In this case the air space will be too small, the chick’s respiration will be affected and the young bird will have difficulty breaking out of the shell because of the lack of space. Commonly with excessive incubation humidity the chicks will die having broken through the shell in one place (‘pipped’) either through weakness because of the lack of air to breathe in the shell or because of lack of space to turn and cut around the shell with their bill. Often, because of pressure within the egg, the bill protrudes too far out of the initial hole preventing the normal anti-clockwise progress of the bill chipping the shell from inside. The bill becomes gummed up with drying mucus."

Sounds like it may relate to your results.

 

[WVduckchick]

From Brinsea's page on Humidity in Incubation;

"If the incubation humidity has been too high the egg will have lost too little moisture and the chick will be rather large. In this case the air space will be too small, the chick’s respiration will be affected and the young bird will have difficulty breaking out of the shell because of the lack of space. Commonly with excessive incubation humidity the chicks will die having broken through the shell in one place (‘pipped’) either through weakness because of the lack of air to breathe in the shell or because of lack of space to turn and cut around the shell with their bill. Often, because of pressure within the egg, the bill protrudes too far out of the initial hole preventing the normal anti-clockwise progress of the bill chipping the shell from inside. The bill becomes gummed up with drying mucus."

Sounds like it may relate to your results.

I knew some of the air cells were a bit on the small side, I couldn't get humidity to go below 30ish, but I ran dry, well into day 19!! The mutts were the darkest, most dense shells, (and I also chose very round eggs, except for the one that survived) so I think that's why they didn't do well. The lavenders sure loved it though. They all busted right out.

 

[NTBugtraq]

Well, setting in 3 days and right now I have 86 eggs which will be 11 days or younger on my setting date (1/6/16). Still haven't gotten a resolution from Brinsea on how to use the Ova Easy 100 without the humidity pump, but I have confirmed I can achieve pretty much whatever RH I want in it when using the humidity pump.

My eggs are all over the place, big, small, dark, light...kinda what I thought was going to happen. On the upside, I am getting an average of 10 eggs a day from ~20 layers. I haven't confirmed 20 laying, only 14 so far, but some are laying before I can wake up to check on them...;-] I take every bird that's in a nest and weigh it, it then falls into 1 of 3 categories (3 different settings). However, I get eggs on the ground (1-2 per day), and I only weigh if they are caught in a nesting box. This is my plan to keep tagging different settings (using zip ties).

Anyone else setting?

 

[NTBugtraq]

Well, we're off. 96 Eggs set, only 14 older than 7 days with the oldest being 9 days.


Tray #1


Tray #2


Loaded

There's a nice feature with the Ova 100, press two buttons on the front and the trays level. Otoh, there's an annoying alarm that signals just before the trays turn, presumably to ensure nobody gets their finger lopped off. It means, though, that every 45 minutes 24 hours a day that alarm goes off...sheesh. All of that could have been avoided by simply putting a sensor on the door...if the door's opened, automatically level and don't move till its closed...

I'm going to write a full review of the Ova 100 after this first hatch. One thing is that it was impossible to get the RH% low enough to satisfy me. I wanted it to be 40% without eggs in as that would suggest I can keep it low enough to get the right weight loss. The water tray and tray cover that comes with it won't get me lower than 65%. If they made the lid so it actually sealed on the tray, I could get down to 55%. If I had a container that had, say, a 1" opening...that would get me 40%...but things that have that small an opening tend not to hold much water...so multiple refills a day.

Luckily, things work fine with the Humidity Pump...but that's typically a $100 optional extra.

For the record, I'm running at 99.6F, RH 35%, egg turning every 45 minutes. I'll start a cooling period of 60 minutes every 24 hours on day 8...and lockdown at RH 65% on day 19.

My biggest concern is the dang room temperature alarm. It goes off even if the bator temperature hasn't dropped...the bator decides it will be too much work to maintain the temperature or something...