She said/He said Who's right? Who's wrong? No one!

[WVduckchick]

Congratulations on the hatchers! Sorry about the no hatchers, and I hope you are able to correct the leg and toe issues on the others. That polish is adorable!
Did the yellow chested one wake you up with his crowing this morning? That little fellow should have a mustache and be smoking a cigar

I've got a bread-tie on the splay leg and tape on his foot (hoping I don't rip out the foot feathers when I remove it.... OUCH!) He's pretty good at balancing already, so I think it will be fine. Will check it this evening.

And actually, they have all been fairly quiet. A few good peeps to let me know they are there, but nothing like my LO's!! Good gravy, they were loud.

...and then there were three...

...still can't catch the 3 Stooges eating from the food dish. I sprinkled some dry chick feed around the dish, see if that helps.

Meanwhile, the bator said 97.3F, spot checks on eggs say 99.5F, so I bumped the bator thermo up 1F. Humidity is 29% today.

So sorry that you are having such a rough time....

 

[scflock]

I decided I was going to get caught up before I posted, and now I can't remember what I was going to post

But seriously, you guys've been chatty today! Sheesh!

Picked my eggs up at the post office this morning. One advantage of them sitting there since Saturday--the air cells that I could see were nice and solid.

Were they packed fat end up? If so, that was the perfect scenario for you. That's great!
Can't wait to see the baby BCM

Amy, just to be clear and to refresh my memory, that 13-14% is measured at time of lockdown and last candling, right? Another three days in the incubator should yield an additional slight loss, which we can see with drawdown, but with increased humidity it should not be dramatic.

I think total weight loss at time of hatch (shell chips are pretty small, but the chick and shell together should be in the expected range) would show if humidity is dramatically low despite indicated humidity. Maybe I am going a little too far with diagnostics, but that's just me...and it definitely improved my last two hatches.

Weighing eggs... sheesh. I understand why it is done, but my goodness, it really shouldn't have to be this hard

And lets be honest, making adjustments during lockdown is hard. That's why I said earlier that having 2 bators at lockdown might be a good idea. Those that are on target go into one, those that are under, another thing. Keeping eggs that haven't lost enough weight at low humidity, assuming no pips, makes sense. Putting all other pips into another bator with high humidity, makes sense.

Bugtraq, please, do me a favor. Don't transfer pre incubated eggs to the Brinsea when it gets here. I want you to see how much more simple it really is than the Hovabator. There's a reason that thing costs $800. Let Amy coach you through a full set in the Hovabator, then put a brand new set in the Brinsea when it arrives. Set your humidity pump at 40% for the first 18 days, then bump it up to 65% at lockdown. Other than that, don't touch it except to double check temps or add water if needed. If you set 40 eggs, I will be shocked if you don't get at least 30 healthy chicks. It would be a waste of the incubator to use it just to hatch eggs that may have already been comprimised by the other incubator

That'd be 'cause so many of you guys are in the same timezone! (There are outliers--Yorkshire (and other Brits) and myself being the farthest... Well, actually, Alaskan's farther west than I am, so I guess I'm not the "westest"* any more...)







* Yes I'm fully aware that's not a word

Guess you won't get mentioned in the next parade, either

I may throw the Alice quote in there, though

 

[scflock]

tape on his foot (hoping I don't rip out the foot feathers when I remove it.... OUCH!)

Olive oil or mineral oil. I put a little in a small bowl, then let their foot soak in it until the tape or bandaid is saturated. It helps if your husband can hold it still while you work the tape off

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Many people don't. I was just offering a suggestion since NTBugtraq's chicks weren't eating the wet soaked food. I think the decision was already made to let them starve if they couldn't find the food, so my suggestion was probably irrelevant.

I can't see doing that. I'm just stumped at people having problems with the chicks eating. It's so natural that they find their food and go at it.

I'm very doubtful of blobby. Very doubtful of the rest of them, except hope for maybe one more to pip today. Last polish is about ready to zip. I'm watching remotely, so I'll let ya know!

Oops, forgot... my 2nd polish hatched just before midnight. So I have 3 cochin and 2 polish, and 1 polish on the way. Quickly candled when I removed the last one this morning, so I'm doubtful on the rest. Looks like my parade will get rained out!

I do have one splay leg and curled foot -- on the fella that pipped on the wrong side of the egg. And the first polish had a little pasty butt, but looks good this morning.

And since I take a million pictures, I'm going to share a few...

Adorable!!!

 

[cppeace]

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Weighing eggs... sheesh. I understand why it is done, but my goodness, it really shouldn't have to be this hard


Bugtraq, please, do me a favor. Don't transfer pre incubated eggs to the Brinsea when it gets here. I want you to see how much more simple it really is than the Hovabator. There's a reason that thing costs $800. Let Amy coach you through a full set in the Hovabator, then put a brand new set in the Brinsea when it arrives. Set your humidity pump at 40% for the first 18 days, then bump it up to 65% at lockdown. Other than that, don't touch it except to double check temps or add water if needed. If you set 40 eggs, I will be shocked if you don't get at least 30 healthy chicks. It would be a waste of the incubator to use it just to hatch eggs that may have already been comprimised by the other incubator

I agree. Like I said, I think we make hatching harder than it is.

Well, if he uses the Brinsea with the same results then you can pretty mark off incubation error and start looking at eggs/breeder flock and environment.

 

[scflock]

Thanks, I figured things were a tad muddled...;-]

The run uses my house wall as one wall. I could turn it into a T-shaped affair. Alternatively, the layers don't have all of the structure on the house wall, there's a 2nd pen in there with no nesting boxes that I am using for the young ones, and, will keep the roos in there till they go to processing. If I took the wall separating those two coops, I'd have 340 sq.ft. of space. Then I'd have to build another structure to keep the roos and young ones in. At what age do you let young layer chicks mingle with your laying flock?

I've had bad luck introducing any new birds younger than 3-4 months. They need to be big enough to defend themselves, or have enough room to escape. It sounds like space is going to be an issue, so they need to be big enough. I have had yound chicks literally pecked to death by older hens. Chicks hatched by broodies are generally accepted, but it's tough with birds they've never seen before. I try not to flat out tell anyone they are wrong, but 340sqft is really, really pushing it for 100 birds. You will definitely have to watch for pecking issus, or other bad behavior. They get pretty distressed when they are crowded

 

[scflock]

I agree. Like I said, I think we make hatching harder than it is.

Well, if he uses the Brinsea with the same results then you can pretty mark off incubation error and start looking at eggs/breeder flock and environment.

I started to say that, but didn't, because I know you get sick of hearing me talk about the wonders of Brinsea. If he has the same results in the Brinsea as his last two batches, I would definitely start turning my attention to the breeders

 

[WVduckchick]

I can't see doing that. I'm just stumped at people having problems with the chicks eating. It's so natural that they find their food and go at it.


Adorable!!!

Wow! #1 on my hatch day. And I wasn't at work posting all day lol!!
I agree though, great group of folks and I'm happy to be a part!

I'm going to cry over blobby too. I still have a tingle of hope for him, but not much.... Waaaaah!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Wow! #1 on my hatch day. And I wasn't at work posting all day lol!!
I agree though, great group of folks and I'm happy to be a part!

I'm going to cry over blobby too. I still have a tingle of hope for him, but not much.... Waaaaah!

I've been anticipating his hatching so much!