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

[BYC910]

Wow, sounds rough, but I hope it gets better and you get some cuties to hatch

Turk just hatched some BCMs with absolutely no water, even at lockdown. I'm thinking 8 of 9 hatched? @TurksPoultry am I right? Seems many people find much lower humidity works better on them. Might be worth a try for you too?

WV

that's right she did and with no water at all she was at 33% humidity on average . I'm running dry in the cabinets and they are running from 28 to 32 % humidity .and I'm still getting sticky chicks . so I'm thinking heat is to high

. calibrated and reset my thermometers . they were off less than a half a degree.

 

[WVduckchick]

WV  that's right she did and with no water at all she was at 33% humidity on average . I'm running dry in the cabinets and they are  running from 28 to 32 % humidity .and I'm still getting sticky chicks . so I'm thinking heat is to high . calibrated and reset my thermometers . they were  off less than a half a degree.

K!
I've had a couple sticky chicks since I bumped up the temp too, maybe that's it. But so many have been perfect, so its hard to know.
Can't believe you have so many in that cabinet! I hope you have a great hatch and they sell well. I'll send ya a bottle to make up for the $$ you are putting out in feed! night, night brother!

 

[TurksPoultry]

I hope you can get it before it takes any more of your birds.. that's awful.
I killed a possum once with an ice scraper... it was IN the chicken coop. You can do it.. just remember you're saving your chickens.
I'm having the worst time with my BCM eggs. I'm getting about 5 to lockdown out of 20...and maybe 2 hatch. I've divided my pen and put my best roo with the 2 BCM hens to boost fertility. Other than that, I have no clue what's going on. The other cross-breeds are hatching fine. Maybe they're inbred... idk what to think. Out of all the BCM eggs I've set, just 1 has hatched on its own, and I've assisted 2 others that pipped at the wrong end.
I'm about to give up on them.

Wow, sounds rough, but I hope it gets better and you get some cuties to hatch
Turk just hatched some BCMs with absolutely no water, even at lockdown. I'm thinking 8 of 9 hatched? @TurksPoultry am I right? Seems many people find much lower humidity works better on them. Might be worth a try for you too?

I did in fact hatch 8/9 by following a friends advice and not adding any water throughout Any of incubation or hatch. It was the first time I've done that and it was unnerving, until I started seeing healthy hatchers! Living in southern LA though, my local humidity is usually really high, so it's not as concerning as would be in other places.

 

[lazy gardener]

Hi P D

what humidity and temperature are you incubating at ? BCMs do better at 30 to 40 % incubation humidity. temperature I'm thinking would be better at 99 . I'm have awful hatch rates at 100 degrees in my cabinets . trying to let it work around 98 to 100 to see if its any better this hatch

. Last spring when I hatched at 40% In the little Styrofoam incubators at 99.5 degrees they did good and I hatched a bunch . haven't had much luck with them since. last year I fought humidity this year I'm fighting temperature . don't give up figure it out . there is a reason you just have to find it

I've been fighting temp and humidity in both bators. Got up to 3 shipped chicks in the styrobator, and one of my gender selected chicks in the coolerbator this morning. Gave the assisted chick from yesterday a butt bath to try to get vent cleared. Unable to get the fecal plug off, so put her in the styrobator for a bit, and will try again later. She's cheeping up a storm. I have one chick working on absorbing some yolk. Never had that issue before. One chick born with curled toes. 5 or 6 pips in hatched group. They are now 2 days late. My own chicks are now 1 day late. I've ALWAYS had them hatch right on schedule, so this is disconcerting.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I hope you can get it before it takes any more of your birds.. that's awful.
I killed a possum once with an ice scraper... it was IN the chicken coop. You can do it.. just remember you're saving your chickens.
I'm having the worst time with my BCM eggs. I'm getting about 5 to lockdown out of 20...and maybe 2 hatch. I've divided my pen and put my best roo with the 2 BCM hens to boost fertility. Other than that, I have no clue what's going on. The other cross-breeds are hatching fine. Maybe they're inbred... idk what to think. Out of all the BCM eggs I've set, just 1 has hatched on its own, and I've assisted 2 others that pipped at the wrong end.
I'm about to give up on them.

I know a lot of people have trouble with the BCMs. Most find that extra low humidity works better.

Hi Amy

sorry your losing chickens . Phil said hamburger and broken glass for a fox never tried that but I bet it would work

TY BYC I was told hamburger and rat poison, but I don't know how potent rat poison is on bigger animals.

Wow, sounds rough, but I hope it gets better and you get some cuties to hatch

Turk just hatched some BCMs with absolutely no water, even at lockdown. I'm thinking 8 of 9 hatched? @TurksPoultry am I right? Seems many people find much lower humidity works better on them. Might be worth a try for you too?

Wow, even for hatch? Remind me never to try BCMs....lol

 

[RubyNala97]

Last night when I closed up I noticed one of the young ones  that my bantam hatched last October was gone and tonight it was one of my barred rocks. Thing is I did not let them out today and she is not one of the ones that gets out on her own. She's a good sized bird, round and heavy.  There was no unusual ruckus from the coop and none of the others looked upset anytime. I found the first pile of feathers about 5-6 yards from the run. No blood, no body, just a feather trail. Followed as far as I could up the hill into the trees, but nothing.

I'm so sorry to hear this! Before I had chickens my neighbor did (he moved shortly after I moved here) and they were always in my yard. 4 big fat hens. One day I came outside and found a huge pile of feathers. Nothing else, no blood, no chicken just feathers. There was a fox hanging around all week after that.

These khaki campbell eggs are up in the air. I didn't tell the lady I bought them from that I was hatching them so they have been cleaned and refrigerated. If I don't get any development I'll ask to buy another dozen from her that haven't been refrigerated. But if they do hatch it will be interesting to see the gender ratio, since with chickens if you refrigerate the eggs apparently the male embryos are more likely to die so while you don't have as good a hatch, you get mostly pullets according to a study that was done.

On the humidity front, my Styrofoam 'bator is horrible about holding it too, so I put mason jars in there with sponges sticking out of them and that keeps the humidity up better than filling the wells does and that way I don't have to keep opening it to add water.

That's interesting about getting pullets from refrigerated eggs. I never heard that. I may have to try that next time I hatch for myself.

[COLOR=333333]From first group of eggs, I got 2 chicks, one of which was an assist.  I need to give her a bath tonight to clean all of the shellac off her.  Her butt is particularly glued up, so she needs a good cleaning.  The next group of 12 (also shipped) are pipping, so far about 75% malpositioned.  So, if they make it out of the shell, I expect they will be assists.  I just opened up membranes on all of their pips.  They were upright in cartons for the hatch.  I laid them down with pip up after opening membranes.  One has died already.  The remainder of the eggs that have not yet externally pipped are tapping or cheeping.  So, hoping they fare better than the early pips.  Gonna be a long night.  My own eggs are also in for a difficult hatch.  They were due today.  One or more have internally pipped.  Having a hard time keeping the humidity up in that bator, so expect a lot of difficulty there as well.[/COLOR]

Ugh. I hate difficult hatches. I will say that about 70% of the time my malpositions zip on their own. So

 

[WVduckchick]

Wow, even for hatch? Remind me never to try BCMs....lol

Yea, well remember, they are in Louisiana!

 

[rossfam06]

So I locked down my SLP batch yesterday. It was day 18. When I candled them I already had one drawn down and internally pipped!!! :yiipchick So i should have a chick or at least a pip here in the next 24 hours! The others still looked like they needed to lose more fluid and grow a bit more. :/ I just candled my silkie batch and they are on day 10. I have lost one. The one that was questionable on day 7. However the remaining ing are growing great!!!

 

[WVduckchick]

Awesome Ross! Good luck!

I locked down a day late, on Saturday. Came home yesterday to the Spot Check reading 104.8!

But checked the eggs, and the 3 lavenders were pipped internally. I think the 4 mutt eggs are gone though.

But I woke up to one external pip on a lavender egg. Have the hubby monitoring today, so maybe I'll have some chicks this evening.

 

[rossfam06]

These khaki campbell eggs are up in the air. I didn't tell the lady I bought them from that I was hatching them so they have been cleaned and refrigerated. If I don't get any development I'll ask to buy another dozen from her that haven't been refrigerated. But if they do hatch it will be interesting to see the gender ratio, since with chickens if you refrigerate the eggs apparently the male embryos are more likely to die so while you don't have as good a hatch, you get mostly pullets according to a study that was done.

On the humidity front, my Styrofoam 'bator is horrible about holding it too, so I put mason jars in there with sponges sticking out of them and that keeps the humidity up better than filling the wells does and that way I don't have to keep opening it to add water.

Hhmmm....interesting. let me know how the genders turn put if and when they hatch!!

[COLOR=333333]From first group of eggs, I got 2 chicks, one of which was an assist.  I need to give her a bath tonight to clean all of the shellac off her.  Her butt is particularly glued up, so she needs a good cleaning.  The next group of 12 (also shipped) are pipping, so far about 75% malpositioned.  So, if they make it out of the shell, I expect they will be assists.  I just opened up membranes on all of their pips.  They were upright in cartons for the hatch.  I laid them down with pip up after opening membranes.  One has died already.  The remainder of the eggs that have not yet externally pipped are tapping or cheeping.  So, hoping they fare better than the early pips.  Gonna be a long night.  My own eggs are also in for a difficult hatch.  They were due today.  One or more have internally pipped.  Having a hard time keeping the humidity up in that bator, so expect a lot of difficulty there as well.[/COLOR]

I'm sorry!!! . I hope everything works out and you get some good babies!!!