Setting 80 on 9/8, 10/1, 10/24, and probably 11/16

[NTBugtraq]

Day 19 Update:

Bator
Eggs Set​

Clears​

Suspected Clear​

Pipped​

Hatched​

Early Deaths​

Late Deaths​

Avg Weight Loss​

Ideal Weight Loss
Janoel8-48​

40​

6​

1​

2​

0​

0​

0​

10.85%​

12.14%
Brinsea Octo ADV EX​

40​

5​

4​

2​

0​

1​

0​

13.96%​

12.14%​

So, despite running the Janoel at 12-15% humidity for the last 2 days, I still end up with eggs that have not lost sufficient moisture. Although what is interesting is that I have eggs, in both bators, with weight loss numbers > 20%, and < 9%. I think this is a factor of egg shells somehow. No idea what caused the early death in the Brinsea, when I opened it up today the egg was sitting there will little bubbles of hard egg white on the exterior of the shell, although I couldn't find a crack when candling. Maybe it was a porous shell??

FWIW, the pips in both bators are in eggs that have been lying on their side the whole hatch. Age of pipped eggs are 5, 5, 4, and 0 day-old.

My last hatch are now 3 weeks old so I split them into 2 separate brooders (19 in each). My hope is to keep them in the brooders until they are 4 weeks old so they can help teach the new hatchlings about drinking water and eating, and avoid another significant die-off when I put them outside. We'll see.

I had a 10 week 2-day old female Turkey die in my arms on Friday. It was fine 2 days before, lethargic the day before, and down-right docile when I picked it up yesterday. Its head was shaking from side to side, and then it kept pulling its head back to its back, neck totally exposed on top of its body. It did that several times and then just expired. No signs of harm on the body at all.

So I then decided to move the 2 18 week old BCM cockerels (Steve and Roy) as well as the 10 week old Turkey Tom into the main coop. Lots of running around, but no wounds in the 2 days they have been together with my BCM Rooster Fred. Roy, however, spends most of his time hiding in the lid of the water trough, while Steve just stays "away" from Fred with his speed. Tom is having more issues with chicken hens than Fred, but so far is holding his own.

As always, fingers crossed for lots of reasons...;-]

 

[NTBugtraq]

Day 20 Update:

Bator​

Eggs Set​

Clears​

Suspected Clear​

Hatched​

Early Deaths​

Late Deaths
Janoel8-48​

40​

6​

1​

11​

0​

?
Brinsea Octo ADV EX​

40​

5​

4​

5​

1​

?​

16 chicks so far, lots of pips but I'm not going to try and count them during lockdown.

 

[WVduckchick]

Going good so far!

 

[NTBugtraq]

Day 22 Update:

Bator​

Eggs Set​

Clears​

Fertility Rate​

Hatched​

Early Deaths​

Late Deaths​

Hatch Rate
Janoel8-48​

40​

7​

82.5%​

13​

0​

20​

39.39%
Brinsea Octo ADV EX​

40​

9​

77.5%​

24​

1​

6​

80.00%​

Well, finally some clear evidence that humidity matters (lolz, not that I didn't know that already). The Janoel humidity kept going all over the place, whereas the Brinsea was nice and steady...resulting in twice the hatch rate. FWIW, eggs were distributed to the two bators as; one here, one there...so both bators had eggs of the same ages.

Also, no noticeable difference between standing on end, or lying down. While I didn't document well enough which were in which position, the Brinsea hatches were pretty equal on both sides.

So I moved all but 4 of my 3 week 5 day-old chicks from the brooders into the juvenile run outside yesterday, leaving 2 older birds in each brooder together with the day olds. I hope the older birds will be teachers for the young'uns.

Meanwhile, Steve and Roy (my nearly 19 week-old BCM cockerels) don't look like they are eating with the other mature birds, but there doesn't seem to be any more chasing them around by Fred (my 1.5 year-old BCM rooster)

So, finally 1 great hatch...

80 more eggs going in this morning...

 

[NTBugtraq]

Been quiet lately. I've been dealing with a cocci outbreak in my young bird run, lost 17 of my last hatch at 5+ weeks...they went out at 3-weeks-old and stayed fine for 2+ weeks and then started dying. They were fed non-GMO chick starter, which also meant it was non-medicated...and like the dope I can be...I didn't realize what that meant. So 9 died on the 5th, 2 on the 7th, 4 on the 8th, and 2 more today. The young birds share water with the laying flock, so I am just going to let nature take its course (treatment could cause the layers to stop laying).

Chicks in the brooders have been fed medicated since hatch, so they should be resistant. I still have 2 5-week-olds with each brooder, and its actually nice to see them acting like Moms. When I approach all the little ones huddle behind the big guys, and the big guys don't flinch...nice. These 4 big guys have been eating medicated chick starter for the last 2 weeks, so they should be protected from cocci when they go out.

I've decided this is my last hatch this year. Time to return the incubator to my friend, and the lack of a processing facility for the cockerels led to this decision. But my next setting will be Jan. 22nd 2016, which will give me 16 week olds on May 31st, which is when the processor opens again.

Its the beginning of Day 8 of my final hatch, so some fertilization numbers in a couple of days. I have managed to keep the humidity in the Janoel in check this time. I have a 1.5oz shot glass in there and I keep it filled. Humidity has stayed between 32 and 20%, so if anything a bit on the low side. At least I haven't had humidity alarms in the middle of the night, nor swings into the 70%+ range.

Anyway, hope everyone is doing great.

 

[WVduckchick]

Wow, you sure have some troubles with chicks. Sorry to hear about a cocci outbreak.

My babies are 4-1/2 weeks and doing great. I lost 6 of the 18 hatched the first weekend because my brooder light burned out while I was gone for the weekend, and they trampled each other. But the 12 remaining are doing fine now.
SC has been super busy with the flooding in his area, and Walnut was out of town alot of the last week or so. I think Friday has just been working too hard

Sounds like your current hatch is going good though. Best of luck with it! I used a shot glass too, much easier to control than filling those silly channels.

 

[NTBugtraq]

Wow, you sure have some troubles with chicks. Sorry to hear about a cocci outbreak.

My babies are 4-1/2 weeks and doing great. I lost 6 of the 18 hatched the first weekend because my brooder light burned out while I was gone for the weekend, and they trampled each other. But the 12 remaining are doing fine now.
SC has been super busy with the flooding in his area, and Walnut was out of town alot of the last week or so. I think Friday has just been working too hard

Sounds like your current hatch is going good though. Best of luck with it! I used a shot glass too, much easier to control than filling those silly channels.

I'm just making every mistake that can be made...to get them behind me...

I never thought about light helping to prevent trampling. Most of the 17 had been sat on (e.g. they were very flat), and I thought initially it was the colder weather, but then I found one dead that was just sitting there, looking alive...away from the corner they typically congregated at...so clearly it wasn't trampling.

@scflock , hope you and yours are doing well, I haven't paid enough attention to the weather turmoil.

Anyway, thanks @WVduckchick , for the update on everyone.

 

[WVduckchick]

I think it was trampling because the smallest ones were the ones that died, and the brooder light was on one end of the tote tub, and the dead ones were on the other end, nearest a small night light, which was the only light in the room. I think they congregated to that end toward the light. 3 were dead, and 3 were nearly dead, when I peeled them out of the shavings. They died within hours of me finding them. It was a sad day. But I will not leave little ones without some sort of light again. After that, I left a lamp on in the room overnight and until I moved them outside, just in case. I also bought a Brinsea brooder plate.

 

[NTBugtraq]

Day 11 Update:

Bator​

Eggs Set​

Clears​

Suspected Clear​

Fertility Rate​

Early Deaths​

Oldest Egg​

Avg Weight Loss​

Ideal Weight Loss
Janoel 8-48​

42​

5​

1​

85.71%​

0​

10 Days​

8.33%​

8.15%
Brinsea Octo 40 ADV EX​

40​

3​

0​

92.50%​

0​

11 Days​

8.15%​

8.15%​

So, much higher fertility rate that usual, but I also have to say there were a larger number of eggs that I could not see an air sac in, but equally did not appear clear. Not sure what's up with those eggs, but when an egg is infertile, even a dark shelled egg, I can usually tell. So these other eggs are different somehow, I just don't how yet. Anyway, I put them back in the bator.

Notice I managed to get the weight loss roughly equal between the two bators, and amazingly close to ideal in both. The Brinsea has been running steady at 40%, and has barely used any water from the humidity pump (also, I started it dry). The Janoel has been going up and down daily between 25% and 35%, by refilling the shot glass every day.

The cocci epidemic seems to have abated. No deaths yesterday or so far today. I've lost 18/34 of that hatch.

Anyway, I hope you all are doing fine.

 

[WalnutHill]

On the other hand, I've had disappointing reports from customers of my meat birds. They got processed at 15 weeks 5 days, not ideal, and as I mentioned before they came in at less than ideal weights (1.3kg to 1.9kg) 2 people have reported them tough and stringy. However, a nice "old lady" who bought one told me she cut the breasts and legs off, then put the rest into a stock pot. She said the smell was amazingly good, and her hubby came in and proclaimed the smell to be "awesome!". She hasn't tried the meat yet, but in her opinion the bird is great. After the first report I contacted everyone and told them they were getting their money back (no questions, no refusals) to avoid being labeled. I can't sell 16 week old soup chickens for the price I charged, so I am re-evaluating things in that respect. I plan on taking the next batch to 18 weeks...that batch have been fed grower their entire life after 4 weeks, so they should definitely be larger. The better question is will they still be tough and stringy.

If anyone has a recipe for testing a chicken's meat, I'd love hearing it. For me it should be something like a broil or roast...and if it turns out good then the meat is good. I mean how can you spoil slow cooking chicken, right? I'm tempted to smoke the one I have left, but then that's not really a good test.

Sorry I am so late to this thread.

It is very hard to get tender meat out of any bird that has reached sexual maturity. That's why capons were once so popular.

We are now conditioned that chicken is supposed to be textureless and nearly tasteless, with little value even in making broth. Chickens were traditionally moist cooked to make it tender, and that includes pressure frying, which uses the steam released from the meat to help soften the fibers. Soup, stew, casserole, covered roaster, dutch oven...slow and long cooking brings out the flavor and helps with tenderness, but it can't fix stringy. My grandma always browned her chicken in butter before poaching or baking. Brining is also a valuable technique.

If you want to sell birds suitable for frying in a conventional fryer, or for broiling or grilling, it has to be young. When I let my Cornish crosses go to 10 1/2 weeks they already start getting stringy.

I cooked an old Ameraucana hen once, slow roasted with lots of basting. It was like chewing on a ball of rubber bands.

You can dry age the birds also, not so long as beef, but enough to start breaking down the cells. However, there are mixed opinions on whether dry aging poultry for up to 72 hours is even safe. Rubbing the entire bird in salt (essentially dry-curing) makes the process a bit safer. Freezing and thawing helps too.

http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/2015/03/09/introducing-dry-aged-chicken-the-ultimate-roasting-trick