Silkie Holiday Hatch-a-long

[KV Silkies]

I"m getting a Brinsea Octogon 20 Eco. So will do the turning myself. most sites I see recommend 3 times a day, is this enough? Also for colors thinking white, splash, black, blue, and would like a buff also... was gonna dry a dozen eggs and see how it goes... or wondering if I shouldn't try 18..... I am super excited though. my candler and hygrometer shipped yesterday! next week the incubator will be ordered! by end of month hoping to have my eggs in the incubator.

 

[KV Silkies]

Welcome!

We just did the same thing! Please feel free to check out my posts and the other posts for hatching silkie eggs! These folks on byc are the best! I hope you get 100% success!

We had sizzle and silkie eggs, 6 viable and only 1 silkie hatched successfully and 2 sizzles. Our silkie eggs were from ebay too. When we candled the eggs the silkie eggs were very thick and nonporous. We made a big mistake of putting the eggs on day 18 in a Styrofoam container. Another silkie tried to hatch and zipped but the eggshell got stuck, it adhered, to the egg carton. If we do it again and it gets that far we will intervene if it stops peeping. I found that blunt forceps, aka pick ups/tweezers and iris scissors really allowed intricate penetration of the outer shell without compromising the innermost membrane. I utilized the iris scissor to make a small puncture hole in the air sack region and worked the area away from the bird with the pick ups. Unfortunately the birds had expired prior to intervention. I had these instruments around the house but it would seem that any sharp tipped scissor could work as well. Of 3 late deaths 1 should have survived but I failed to intervene in time, and 2 (and a sultan) were late deaths that failed to pip.

How many will you try to hatch? What colors are they most likely going to be? So eggcited for you!

Happy hatching!

Please update as you go! What incubator are you getting?

hi, I am trying to get into how to work things on these forums, so redoing my reply. getting a brinsea octagon 20 eco. going to manually turn my eggs, everything I read says 3 times a day, should I try more? and thinking of white, splash, blue, black, and buff for colors. and thinking also of 12 eggs, but am open to 18.... what type of incubator do you have/use?

 

[why do birds]

hi, I am trying to get into how to work things on these forums, so redoing my reply. getting a brinsea octagon 20 eco. going to manually turn my eggs, everything I read says 3 times a day, should I try more? and thinking of white, splash, blue, black, and buff for colors. and thinking also of 12 eggs, but am open to 18.... what type of incubator do you have/use?

Wow nice! We tried with a Farm Innovators 4400 that has an automatic egg turner. Our ebay eggs traveled over 1100 miles in the winter and 1 egg was 10 days old and 1 was 9 days when it went in to hatch, these 2 were late egg deaths. Our postman hatched eggs for many years and advised that we let sit for only about 8 hours at room temp because of the age of the eggs and lower viability. We put the eggs into the incubator, set at 99.5F and about 30% humidity and put the egg turner on. I read somewhere that it's advisable to leave the egg turner off for the first couple of days, I think to make sure the air sack is in the correct placement. It seems that traveling can disrupt the placement of the air sacks, these are on the big end of the egg, and they go upwards when placing into the egg turner. But we didn't let them sit, we had the turner going from day 1. We started with 9 eggs, 1 was unfertile, 1 was a dud, it didn't progress to veins on candling so idk but it was nonviable. Of the 7 remaining, they all made it to at least day 20. Now the ? is what could we have done differently at day 20?

There's a guideline on hatching shipped eggs, excellent site. It recommended to leave the humidity relatively low until pip's begin or until you can see the beak try to penetrate the air sack on candling. We increased the humidity from 30% to about 50% on day 18 and 1 hatched on end of day 19. It practically flew out of it's little shell. On days 20 and 21, 2 more hatched, and 1 zipped but got stuck. We increased humidity to 65% to try to give the stuck chick an advantage, although I'm not sure if this was correct to do.

We considered the hand turner but were worried about handling the eggs too much. In retrospect, it probably doesn't matter, as long as you're careful with turning. I'll get the site for you that has the info about hatching shipped eggs.

 

[why do birds]

hi, I am trying to get into how to work things on these forums, so redoing my reply. getting a brinsea octagon 20 eco. going to manually turn my eggs, everything I read says 3 times a day, should I try more? and thinking of white, splash, blue, black, and buff for colors. and thinking also of 12 eggs, but am open to 18.... what type of incubator do you have/use?

Ok, found it, type this into the search area:

A guide to humidity weighing and lockdown.

The author is pete and it's a wonderful read, very comprehensive and helpful. It discusses the guidelines for when humidity should be increased, excellent source!

Happy Hatching!

 

[jorey]

Hi everyone. I am waiting on a batch of silkie eggs to arrive. Supposed to be here today. YEA . I ll be using a farmers innovator 4200 so if anyone has helpful hints they would be greatly appreciated. First time incubating. I have poured over the incubating threads trying to gather as much info as I can. Thanks for all advice in advance.

 

[why do birds]

Hi everyone. I am waiting on a batch of silkie eggs to arrive. Supposed to be here today. YEA

. I ll be using a farmers innovator 4200 so if anyone has helpful hints they would be greatly appreciated. First time incubating. I have poured over the incubating threads trying to gather as much info as I can. Thanks for all advice in advance.

Very nice!

We used that one. There's a thread on the farm innovators 4400 and I wrote about our one experience with this incubator. Worked well.
Hopefully your eggs will all be at the same stage on day 18. We also followed the guide for humidity and lockdown, I posted where to find in my last post. On end of day 18 we put humidity from about 30% to about 55% and got 2 of 3 sizzles to hatch. But please, check the rules for silkies and humidity because it would appear that they have a harder time hatching, idk, jmo.
Helpful hint: We couldn't get the humidity up enough, it kept dropping, here in NY with the heater on it's very dry inside. Ultimately, we cracked open the bator, day 20, grabbed a chick and plopped in a cup with a sponge. We put the small cup with sponge in a manner that we could drop a straw close to it and using a child's Walgreen oral syringe, free from the pharmacy, would plunger in 5 cc (5 ml) of warm distilled water over about 5 minute increments.
We used an Accu Rite hygrometer/thermometer that we placed into the lid of a Chinese food container on the opposite side of the eggs, so it didn't interfere with any mechanism of the incubator. It did take humidity levels about 15 minutes to stabilize from point of adding water. The Farm Innovator 4400 reads were not accurate, ever, on humidity. F.I. would read 85% humidity and it would be about 55% so grab an accu rite or similar.
If we do silkie eggs again we would place them onto the grate and let them hatch that way, no egg carton attempts for these guys!

Best of luck hatching!.

 

[jorey]

@ why do birds. Thanks so much. I ll definately read that thread. I bought the accu rite from walmart also. I finally got temp settled just need to up the humidity. Its at 15 percent with no eggs and no water. I figure ill put eggs in wait a few hours to see if it goes up by itself if not then I ll handle it. Im just happy they made it here ( michigan) before the real cold hits this weekend. Thanks so much

 

[why do birds]

@ why do birds. Thanks so much. I ll definately read that thread. I bought the accu rite from walmart also. I finally got temp settled just need to up the humidity. Its at 15 percent with no eggs and no water. I figure ill put eggs in wait a few hours to see if it goes up by itself if not then I ll handle it. Im just happy they made it here ( michigan) before the real cold hits this weekend. Thanks so much

Yes, that's good. TG they got to you before the storm hits!

Hopefully they are young enough that they will all hatch! Did you let the eggs sit out at room temp for at least 8 hours? Some recommend 24 hours. If you candle the eggs you could see the air sack and see if they are round or saddle shaped. I don't know how to tell if they are attached but that's something else you can look for. From what I understand if the air sacks don't look good from shipped eggs let the eggs sit in the incubator without the turner on for a couple days. I didn't know a healthy from an unhealthy air sack so we put them into the incubator with the egg turner working from day 1.

Some people do a "dry" hatch but idk exactly how "dry" that would be. 15% seems low. Here in NY we are at about 18% indoor humidity so we did add a little bit of water every day but tried to keep it around 25-30% because we read that the air sacks need to breathe and the egg needs to loose moisture. I really hope you have a successful hatch!

Are you ready with food for when they hatch? The silkie chick, not the sizzles, seemed to be having sticky poo. I wouldn't call it pasty butt but it didn't look great. I washed her in the sink by placing her butt under warm gently running water and patted her dry. Put a little Vaseline around her butt area so it doesn't get sticky and she seems to be fine now. Some said to try probiotics, apple cider vinegar, plain yogurt, and scrambled egg.

We added 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to 1 gallon of distilled water. I did use a probiotic into the water but others on byc recommend a powdered probiotic. I looked for it and didn't find it at our tractor supply store so I used the probiotic in water and the vinegar. They are eating Dumor chick starter. I don't know what else may be better. I made them a scrambled egg and yogurt but they just walk through it, right on to the crumbles....

So far so good. If you don't have it, pick up an apple cider vinegar, Walmart has it for 98 cents.

Happy hatching!

 

[jorey]

Im already for the chicks. I have a flock of silkies already but wanted some different blood lines than what I raised from day olds. I haven't put the eggs in yet. Going to let them sit till around noon tomorrow then put them in after I check air cells. Hopefully I ll be able to tell the difference between the air cells.

 

[jorey]

Put eggs in 5 hrs ago. Avrrage temp between three thermometers is 99.5 and humidity is up to 30 percent so I'm happy. I ll start turner in another 36 hrs and away we go.