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

[AmyLynn2374]

That's a good point but If you have a fan it's going to pass right threw.

I find more problems with any in the vicinity of the fan itself. If I don't have a full bator and I have room, I try to pull them back away from t he fan because that dries them out quicker.

 

[Lacrystol]

I find more problems with any in the vicinity of the fan itself. If I don't have a full bator and I have room, I try to pull them back away from t he fan because that dries them out quicker.

My bator is a homemade bator and I don't have the drying out, it's probably because we set the fan up high towards the top so that the hot air circulates. But I think most bators have the fan at top. I know my hover did and man that thing was GREAT..

 

[Lacrystol]

I'm really starting to think that its heat that causes the chicks to be sticky .I'm trying to hold my temperature down to 99 degrees after two hatches in these old GQF cabinets which were both early . they hatched on day 19 and 20 a little better than 50% hatch rate . the humidity was 28 to 33 percent for incubation and 65 to 75 for hatch . I'm getting to lock down with very large amounts of fluid in the top of the egg and if they hatch they are sticky some pip and can't zip stuck at the pip hole . every thing is calibrated . Mid day heat is giving me fits too. should be at home for most of this set . but have already seen temps go to 101 mid day . You wouldn't that for a brief amount of time it would make that big a difference. I think it does .

There's four factors that causes sticky babies:

1. to high of humidity
2. To low of temp
3. Oxygen
4. bacteria or dirty bator.

BUT there is a thing called HOT/COLD spots. So unless you calibrate every corner plus the middle to see what is reading what, you may not know they exist..

 

[JulesChicks]

I think I'm having similar issues. I think the humidity was too high at hatch, sometimes over 80%. I had to assist 4 today and of those 3 are in sick Bay. They needed cleaning up since the inside membrane was stuck like glue in the areas that were exposed to air. I'll give a better recap tomorrow as I need to go to bed- very long day here. Goodnight...

We have or fair share of rain it has been a very wet winter and spring . I run completely dry and the humidity stays 28% to 35 % there is a lot of close to the surface underground water here and relative humidity is on the average 65%.I live at the head of a valley where the river forms .prevailing winds are from the northwest and that is also the way the river runs . I am sure to high incubation heat is the biggest problem I now have. but it could possibly be hatching heat as well .I say this because of the large fluid content of the eggs at the end of incubation at lockdown also I had pips on the eighteenth day when I went to lock down  High heat they hatch early. These are not small eggs and some are sticky so much so I had to wash them after the assist . only the assisted chicks were sticky others hatched fine. Some were stuck and died at the pip site .I'll see if the lower temperature increases hatch rate .next hatch week after next and it's a bunch .

 

[BlackwoodHollow]

OH GOOD so I'm NOT going crazy...

No one said that.

Hey! I recognize those eyes!

Beautiful.

Thanks. Love you're tiny dancer, btw. That has to be one of the best chick pics I have ever seen. If not THE best.

Oh it doesn't quote me half the time...lol It doesn't want to hear what I say...lol

Good luck!! I love these little silkies! I think we ended up with 3 paints, 4 whites, 3 silver/gray and 2 blackish that maybe partridge.

Partridge silkies RAWK.

I don't have the Advance but I have an Eco and I love it to death. So much so that part of my tax return might be buying me an Eco 40 and my 20 will retire to a hatcher - unless I manage to overstuff the 40 like I have managed to do with the 20 spectacularly this week. Somehow I need to get 29 duck eggs and 12+ chicken eggs in there. Wish me luck because I'm going to need it

It'll thin out once I can do candling in a few days and see what developing but until then I'm gonna have to get really creative since I loaned out my other incubator and have nowhere else to put these.

Red team rocks!!! lol I don't usually have problems with my zippers. This hatch i had two that I had to help after they started zipping down instead of across but both were the silkies with the big ole vaulted heads...lol The first one I couldn't understand whey he couldn't get his head up after I popped the cap off the egg and I had to break some egg below his head, then once I got his head out I said yup I understand...lol This is him: (He happens to be my happy feet dancer that I took the pic of....lol)

That's a pretty strong case for the red team.

 

[WalnutHill]

Whew.... Ok more than halfway into day 20.

I have 7 silkies out, all 7 of the Spitzhaubens, two of the green eggs (one nn one not). 5 pipped silkie eggs, one green egg in hospital -middle of assisting- for not enough moisture loss causeing a very large chick who couldn't turn with excess fluid in the shell. Prognosis=hopeful.

I have to share a pic of one of the silkie chicks. My fav pic thus far:

That's a chicken teddy bear!

 

[RubyNala97]

I'm a call duck mama!! I'm a call duck mama!! Pics when he's dry!!

Okay folks, I need some insight on what is going wrong, what to do now and what to do better next time.  I ran a low humidity until lockdown and since then it's been high, maybe too high for too long.  I have chicks zipping and then stopping.  I assisted one this morning and 30 mins ago another one.  Glad I did on both.  This last one was pushing but was stuck - the membrane was attached in several places still and on one side it has pushed its foot through it and it was stuck, so it was stuck and had no leverage.  I cut the membrane  a little, and especially around the foot and it looks good.  I was afraid it would be gluey so I gave it a quick bath and put it back to dry and fluff out.  The two that I took out a couple of hours ago look ok, but they were a bit matted, I gave them wipe downs and a gentle blow dry before putting in the brooder.  Can anyone tell me why this is happening and what to do about it?  I still have 7-8 eggs to go.  
TIA!

ps:  I think it's clear I'm on Amy Lynn's team, though I forget at the moment what color that is.   I can't see me not helping a fully formed chick who is trying to survive, to get out of the shell- especially if it's something I did to cause it.

Hmmm, sticky chicks that stop zipping...my first zipper on my last hatch did this. None of the others did. What incubator are you using? Is it possible the fan is to strong and drying them out as they are trying to zip? How have your air cells been? You said your temps have been high, this is just a maybe but maybe the high temps is causing early pippers/zippers and they need an extra day or two to loose the excess fluid? Combined with the fan...sticky chicks?? Just guessing here.

I'm really starting to think that its heat that causes the chicks to be sticky .I'm trying to hold my temperature down to 99 degrees after two hatches in these old  GQF cabinets which were both early . they hatched on day 19 and 20 a little better than 50% hatch rate . the humidity was 28 to 33 percent for incubation and 65 to 75 for hatch . I'm getting to lock down with very large amounts of fluid in the top of the egg and if they hatch they are sticky some pip and can't zip stuck at the pip hole . every thing is calibrated . Mid day heat is giving me fits too.  should be at home for most of this set . but have already seen temps go to 101 mid day . You wouldn't that for a brief amount of time  it would make that big a difference.   I think it does .

We always talk about humidity when we hear sticky but I think you're on to something with the temps!

There's four factors that causes sticky babies:

1. to high of humidity
2. To low of temp
3. Oxygen
4. bacteria or dirty bator.

BUT there is a thing called HOT/COLD spots.  So unless you calibrate every corner plus the middle to see what is reading what, you may not know they exist.. 

I think to low humidity can be a factor too.

 

[tracyjg]

Having trouble- we have several methods. 1. Ducks 2. Little giant incubator 3. Pro series incubator . Both have the upgrade air/heat. Both have turners circulated air both. We have a male gene backwards in chicken eggs. One problem. Humidity is never stable. We have nebulizers attached to both. We have a fan and air conditioning on. We have a vaporizer going.just to stable. We just got the bigger ducks in February they had laid before but we tried them hatching both chicken and duck eggs. We haven't had much luck. I gave up on the ducks and put them in incubator at the end. We keep getting goo and rot and explosions . Room air 80 at moment.we don't want to deal with these issue on eggs ducks have nesting brooding for next hatch. Last hatch ended

 

[tracyjg]

One issue chicken eggs need to be 60-65 humidity not to go over 70. 99.5 temp not to go over 100.00. And duck eggs 99.5 temp not to exceed 100.00 and at 50-55 on good day. At lockdown. Some say open incubator and spay with water. I have found it kills chicken eggs very quickly. Leaving it alone works better. But we have tryed a number of it last batch. And struggled. Need a better way to hatch all together and mixed between incubators. Let alone trying to deal with emergency. And at the end of last hatch we all got sick so it didn't help much.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

One issue chicken eggs need to be 60-65 humidity not to go over 70. 99.5 temp not to go over 100.00. And duck eggs 99.5 temp not to exceed 100.00 and at 50-55 on good day. At lockdown. Some say open incubator and spay with water. I have found it kills chicken eggs very quickly. Leaving it alone works better. But we have tryed a number of it last batch. And struggled. Need a better way to hatch all together and mixed between incubators. Let alone trying to deal with emergency. And at the end of last hatch we all got sick so it didn't help much.

During incubation many have found that low humidity works better. As for hatch humidity I use 75%. Again, there's things to take into consideration such as the habits of the hatcher. Temps are going to depend on the bator. I have only seen a couple people that actually mist chicken eggs and I was like "what?" the first time heard this. Usually my hatches pop like pop corn, no problems pipping zipping, no deaths during pipping zipping, almost non existent post hatch deaths. I don't usually have leg problems or navel issues.

Now, with that being said, this last hatch I just finished I noticed that a good share of my Spitz were hatching with a tiny...I mean like hair width size of ubilicus attatched. That is never an issue with my hatches-BUT this hatch I had to run with higher humidity for the Silkies. I couldn't run at my normally low humidity. I noticed small differences in this hatch that I can only attribute to the difference in the method that I ran with.