~ Silkie Hatch-a-Long August 2015 (SHIPPED EGGS GONE WRONG!!) ~

[RubyNala97]

oh good luck Gita, lockdown is so exciting and scary. Yes the eggs were all bar 1 a bit porous, some worse than others, although the wt loss wasn't biggest in the most porous eggs???

Ruby They were incubated flat the whole time (werent shipped), had great air cells, all attached and lovely sapes, dipped down on the last day (18), the 2 that lost most wt had big cells, they both needed help. wt loss at day 18 was 12-13%, except the 2 which were 16-17%. average humidity would have been 30-35, but they were under broody for 4 days, and she kept their wt loss in the perfect range. The malpositions were in 2 eggs that lost 12% and 12.5% wt. the one who made it had its head under it wing but was back towards the dip in air cell, the one who died was also back towards air cell, but its head was pressed beside the shell.

my incubator isnt very big, and I am wondering if radiant heat from the light to the shell could be the issue. they were closer to the heat source than the thermometer. the shrink wrapping was the inner membrane, it went brown and stuck to the chicks in patches, the outer stayed white. do i have this wrong is it the outer membrane that becomes stuck to the chick in shrink wrapping?

The 8 chicks are now out with the broody hen, who was a bit shocked that her eggs started moving, she stood up a bit fluffed up, hissed and growled when anyone moved. an hour later they are in and out under her, pecking at her face, and shes clucking happily to them.

thank you again for the imput.

Lea

I looked into it a little bit. Here's some questions I came up with. What's your altitude? Do you have vent holes or any gaps in the incubator that could be letting out too much humidity during lockdown? Were you opening the incubator a lot during lockdown? It can be ok to open during lockdown IF your incubator recovers and holds humidity well. Most people having issues with shrink wrap are at higher altitudes, aren't getting high enough humidity during lockdown, or inconsistent humidity at lockdown. What you are describing sounds like shrink wrap. Maybe the eggs that were closer to the heat source got dried out because they didn't have enough humidity. I don't know if I already asked you this but is your hygrometer calibrated?

 

[darkbluespace]

Wow! But that makes sense for the breed. So sad.

That is great!! And they are local eggs, so I bet you will get a high hatch rate! Better make room for babies!

Sorry to hear about your chick. I remember that hatch of yours. Anyway to correct that? Can it still eat & drink?

~~~~~
Candling is contagious! Just candled mine as it is almost officially day 4. 11/14 developing. Air cells still look TERRIBLE. The 3 that aren't developing look clear. But I was reading an article about shipped eggs that said if they don't develop that does not always mean they are infertile. They could have been fertile but the DNA was too scrambled for the embryos to start developing. The breeder said she has 6 girls to each boy. So that's probably what it is. I'm doing all I can for these eggs, all I can do now is wait & hope!

11/14 developing doesn't seem too bad for shipped eggs! I am going to think about them all hatching for you ; )

 

[silkienrescues]

Thank you Ruby, you obviously care a lot about helping people on this forum.
Sorry I did Calibrate the hygrometer with salt and it read right on, that and the fact there was some condensation on the window before i warmed the room more makes me think it was reading ok, The time from pip to zip with the 2 who hatched fine was about 5-7 hours, all the others were much longer, yet apart from 1 they all had no blood and absorbed yolks, that makes me wonder why they were still for so long.
I'm in Adelaide, flat as where we are, must be close to sea level. holes yes good ventilation, interestingly the monitor I use also measured Co2, and whenever the eggs were doing something, like when I played them chick noise and a pip would happen soon after the CO2 would spike then drop again to normal, makes sense with activity. the drop took about a minute to happen so i dont think there is excessive ventilation.The hygrometer is electronic and updates every 10 seconds, the shrink wrapping was occurring when I was not opening the incubator it was stable then. Because its winter here and the heating is very drying I had an electric frypan with water bubbling in it in the room, it kept the room warm and moist. when I did open the lid the humidity would go drop about 15% but quickly rebound, within 60-90 seconds.
my inkling is the radiant heat from the lights was too warming as the shrink wrapping was happening when they only had a tiny pip, and humidity was stable. the eggs are closer to the lights than the monitor, so maybe there is variance there.
we are so reliant on or meters being correct, and there are so many variables, like pockets of still air, warmer and cooler zones.

how many chickens do you have Ruby, you sound very experienced.

Lea

 

[RubyNala97]

11/14 developing doesn't seem too bad for shipped eggs!   I am going to think about them all hatching for you ; ) 

Thank you! They need it! Getting them to develop is the easy part. Getting them to hatch is the hard part!

Thank you Ruby, you obviously care a lot about helping people on this forum.
Sorry I did Calibrate the hygrometer with salt and it read right on, that and the fact there was some condensation on the window before i warmed the room more makes me think it was reading ok, The time from pip to zip with the 2 who hatched fine was about 5-7 hours, all the others were much longer, yet apart from 1 they all had no blood and absorbed yolks, that makes me wonder why they were still for so long.
I'm in Adelaide, flat as where we are, must be close to sea level. holes yes good ventilation, interestingly the monitor I use also measured Co2, and whenever the eggs were doing something, like when I played them chick noise and a pip would happen soon after the CO2 would spike then drop again to normal, makes sense with activity. the drop took about a minute to happen so i dont think there is excessive ventilation.The hygrometer is electronic and updates every 10 seconds, the shrink wrapping was occurring when I was not opening the incubator it was stable then. Because its winter here and the heating is very drying I had an electric frypan with water bubbling in it in the room, it kept the room warm and moist. when I did open the lid the humidity would go drop about 15% but quickly rebound, within 60-90 seconds.
my inkling is the radiant heat from the lights was too warming as the shrink wrapping was happening when they only had a tiny pip, and humidity was stable. the eggs are closer to the lights than the monitor, so maybe there is variance there.
we are so reliant on or meters being correct, and there are so many variables, like pockets of still air, warmer and cooler zones.

how many chickens do you have Ruby, you sound very experienced.

Lea

Thank you for the compliment! That means a lot. I really enjoy hatching, so I want everyone else to enjoy it too, that's why I like helping. I haven't been hatching too long and I only have a small backyard flock. But I've grown up around animals my whole life. My mom was a wild life rehabilitator and I took over when see got sick. Working with animals (and eggs) takes a lot of guess work since they don't have a human voice. So I just try to be intuitive as possible and lots of reading and learning!
The most obvious conclusion I would come to in regards to your shrink-wrapping would be cooler, dry air entering the incubator whenever it was opened, since you mentioned that its winter for you. But it sounds like you took precautions against that. Can you keep the eggs you have in there now away from the lights and the heat they are giving off? That would be the easiest test to see if that's the issue. Also, is your incubator still air or forced air? And I wanted to mention that I've had chicks go a full 24 hrs after pip and hatch out fine. (Don't you love the ones that manage to pip and zip in just a couple hours)! What day are your current eggs on? And what are you keeping humidity at?

 

[silkienrescues]

its fan forced...sounds like an oven! i'm going to try to rig something up to stop the light and heat going directly on the eggs. Currently on Day 11, with terrible air cells. i should try taking a few pics and posting. 2 eggs havent got too bad air cells, but the contents are really jiggly. if you move the egg at all the contents all move like jelly. I am thinking to stop tilting them at Day13 as AmyLynn does.

You and your Mum must have seen some wonder recoveries, very rewarding and sad at times I guess.

Thanks again

Lea

 

[silkienrescues]

oh humidity set ay 40%

 

[littlemissbatam]

Well I'm on day nine with silkies and a sizzle and a frizzle

 

[littlemissbatam]

And after this batch I'm going to incubate cuckoo silkies

 

[darkbluespace]

And after this batch I'm going to incubate cuckoo silkies

oooh, I LOVE cuckoo Silkies!!

 

[littlemissbatam]

I know right i love barred rocks and silkies and when I see a cuckoo silkie it's like aww mine