Silkie thread!

[jen5680]

Quote:
He is jsut BEAUTIFUL!!!

 

[SilkieTime]

Thanks, I love your BBS.

 

[jen5680]

Quote:
We need to do some swapin

 

[SilkieTime]

We will for sure!

 

[jen5680]

Quote:
Are you coming to Crossraods or Nationals?

 

[SilkieTime]

I'm thinking about it. I have orders for 4 white cockerels there. You have any black pullets for white pullets? Maybe e-mail would be better.

 

[jen5680]

Quote:
Yea, sent you a email.

 

[Debbi]

Good morning!

I awoke to FOURTEEN SILKIE CHICKS this morning!

Still have 3 eggs in the bator, one I think quit, but the other two I think may hatch. Will candle them later today (day 22). Not a bad start for my first Silkie hatch, with shipped eggs no less. Got 20, hatched 14, my best hatch EVER!! Now...if my Marans hatches would just be this good! Here is a quick pic; they weren't impressed with me looking for a photo shoot at 7am.

Six Partridge, 2 Whites, 1 Black, 1 Blue, 1 Splash, two Buffs, and one ???. Will take more pics in a few days. All are eating, drinking, pooping, and active!

 

[kfchickenlady]

Quote:
that is a fantastic hatch! Congrats to you

Now, how did you do it? LOL details, please!

 

[Debbi]

Thanks. I've come to the conclusion after much reading, and failed hatches, that the drier method works the best. I kind of modified it for myself. I set the temp at 99.5 for the whole incubation and hatch. Humidity, I set at 35% for the first 18 days, then bump it to 52% for lockdown. I'll let the humidity flucuate from 50-55%. I leave the vent wide open for the entire incubation. Now, that said, I have a "plug 'n play" type of incubater, an R-Com, King Suro 20. Set it and forget it! It has an automatic humidity pump. I have found with my Marans eggs this works too, but my last hatch drowned in the lockdown because I, at that point, still had the humidity set at 60-65%. So next time I will lower it to 50% for them too. So glad I finally found my "hatching groove"!!

ETA - Keep in mind, this hatch also had a 3 1/2 power outage too! Temps dropped down to 83* and the humidity rose to 50%. I think it was on day 16 or so, so I guess they had evaporated enough to be ok with the higher humidity for that amount of time. All hatched on days 20 and 21.