Simulated Natural Nest Incubation~Experiment #1 So it begins....

[fisherlady]

The only other 'food on the table' hobby I have is even more expensive.... fishing! Don't ask what a pound of walleye costs!! I'm not too good at picking hobbies!

 

[theawesomechick]

The only other 'food on the table' hobby I have is even more expensive.... fishing! Don't ask what a pound of walleye costs!! I'm not too good at picking hobbies!

Hey, at least you've got the guts! You're not afraid to clean that chicken poop or gut that fish... heck, most Americans hardly know the fish at their supermarket have heads! Oh, if they walked into an Asian supermarket...

 

[Lacy Blues]

Hi everyone!! Quick question

My broody was sitting on five eggs (all set on the same day) its her first time hatching, one egg hatched day 20 it is now day 24 and nobody else has hatched. I am moving the broody and chick tomorro and will candle the remaning eggs.

Is there any hope? anyone else have this happen?

There's probably not much hope if they were all started on the same day. Be sure to candle. Also, make sure that chick that DID hatch gets some water and food immediately!

That is me also Bee... and my candling is usually done in the coop under the not so greatest conditions, but my only goal is to pull sloshy or clear eggs, if it has a solid air cell I put it back in the nest.
I messaged a couple of folks on here who raise heritage cornish and one sent a very snooty response about how 'real breeders would never sell hatching eggs, they only sell breeding trios'. At that point I was pretty disgusted when considering that the heritage breeds were developed to be hardy and efficient back yard animals, and for a breeder to look down on someone who was interested in back yard animals (and hatching via broody) was not encouraging to say the least.

Since then I have decided I will work with people who still remember what the breeds were intended to be to begin with and who are willing to sell hatching eggs. I am slowly working on getting the breeds I have wanted. Once I have a handful of each 'on the ground' so to speak I will decide which I would like to place into breeding pens based on the 'breed standard' guides my plus my own grading scales for eggs, hardiness and broodiness ...I don't care how gorgeous a bird is, if it can't breed naturally, lay eggs or raise some babies the breed wouldn't be self sustaining for very long, would it?

Your birds are already beautiful though! I imagine it has been even more difficult for you if the breeders are farther apart than they are here in the states... hopefully you will find a network person to help you find good stock to work with... one of the best sources of information and breeder sources I found was a fellow who is actually a judge at shows. He talks to the breeders and sees their stock and after telling him what I wanted for my flock he was able to put me in contact with a couple of good sources to get me started.
Find a pamphlet or show guide from one of the bigger shows around you and check to see who the judges are... see if you can get a chance to meet or chat with one of them and pick their brain a bit.

In defense of breeders, let me say this. A lot of times people will declare they have no interest in showing, just want nice looking birds for the back yard.... after searching out who has the best of such and such breed. What happens is the breeder will sell hatching eggs because the person doesn't really care about the quality so much and they get burned doing this. Breeders know that every egg does not yield a show stopper, however, to the inexperienced eye these culls look like fantastic birds and they decide to show them and tell everybody they meet that they have so and so's line and aren't they magnificent? The people who they are showing them to may have a better eye for the bird on display and they remember that bird and the breeder's name. What do you suppose happens to the breeder's reputation as a top notch breeder?

The other side of the coin in regard to selling hatching eggs is if they have to be shipped. Hatchability goes way down and in my case, I don't like to sell hatching eggs because in my opinion it isn't worth the money invested. I've made that investment twice. I got one chick out of it (just the other day) but I'm done throwing money down the toilet... and I still won't sell hatching eggs.

That makes a lot of sense, Pete. My flock is very small right now and I'm culling in June when I kill the CX, so it will be even smaller....that will leave a couple of Aussies, one Del, and one old NH, along with the two WR hens I currently have which will turn 1 yr in a week or so. I currently have 8 hens...would that be too many birds for a young WR cockerel(11 mo.) to cover if I wanted to leave them to open breeding and just collect those WR eggs for a hatch next month? Do you think I'd still get clears on that?

If you still have Mr. Fancy Pants when your white rock shows up, you may not be hatching pure WR eggs. If you will be getting your WR in a couple of weeks, I'd get rid of the other influence and let the girls lay out his likeness so that when your rock gets there, you can be sure that he is the daddy.

 

[pogmobum]

Well.. Out of five one egg hatched, one didnt develop at all, one made it to day 18 then stopped developing, another made it to day 18 then got crushed by the mother and the last one hatched and fluffed up perfectly then got crushed by the mother.

This is what i discovered after taking her off the nest and candling the two eggs i found. She is officially the worst broody i have ever had. I never knew how bad a rotten egg smelled until now im going to go have a shower now :/

 

[ocap]

The only other 'food on the table' hobby I have is even more expensive.... fishing! Don't ask what a pound of walleye costs!! I'm not too good at picking hobbies!

I was talking to a fishing guide in Juneau, Alaska (35 years ago) who said that tourists spend $600 per King Salmon

I agree with you completely on the cost of my eggs and the chicken hobby !!

 

[Tomtommom]

My first kiddo was induced, one day after due date. My OB was rather induction happy, started suggesting it at 36 or 38 weeks (can't remember which).. after she suggested my son might be 11 lbs, I was like... OK, let's do this, I do NOT want a C-section.

He turned out to be 9 lbs even

The induction was awful, but I made it through. I did not want an epidural, I'm sorry.. the thought of a big needle in my back and the idea of losing feeling in my legs sounded worse than anything nature could throw at me. I was right, it really wasn't *that* bad. But, I sadly was a hero on the floor that week

Incredible how American woman are being made to fear childbirth... In Holland epidurals are pretty rare and home childbirth still common.

That said, if the ultrasound actually shows she's a whopper, I am not gonna let her stew too long

I gained 3 lbs in the last week and she went from measuring 38 weeks to measuring 40 weeks, in one week time. I wanted to avoid induction at all cost, but I am not going to risk C-section or harm to the baby.. I've got my home remedies lined up through! 3rd trimester tea with raspberry leaf, been eating dates for weeks (supposed to make things smoother), got two big fresh pineapples ready to munch on, brewers yeast and ground flax seed for milk cookies.. pressure point chart.. walking and gardening a lot still and my husband can't wait for the other methods of natural induction (Men...). I really expected to have made some progress the last week, but no change in dilation.... figures.

If she's really not all that big, my happy self is going to wait it all out and be patient. I much prefer natural over intervention.


*phew* that was a much longer story than intended.

ANYHOO.

I did the math on our eggs, between the bedding and food and upkeep I spend $25 a month on 9 hens.. on average I get 7 eggs a day in summer, 4 eggs in winter. So eggs cost me $0.12-$0.20 a piece, which is a bargain for freerange antibiotic free eggs. A few pennies per egg for the cost of coop and run... and ofcourse they pay in fertilizer, and meat.. at some point. I think we're doing well

My ex-husband fishes for crappy a lot, pretty decent eating, when fried up. He shares his haul every once in a while. I think occasionally he gets some bass or breem. It's all fish to me once it's fried

When I lived in Holland we had an abundance of cheap fish.. Mmmm. Cod, herring, mackerel, trout, flounder, salmon... you name it.

 

[Beekissed]

Well.. Out of five one egg hatched, one didnt develop at all, one made it to day 18 then stopped developing, another made it to day 18 then got crushed by the mother and the last one hatched and fluffed up perfectly then got crushed by the mother.

This is what i discovered after taking her off the nest and candling the two eggs i found. She is officially the worst broody i have ever had. I never knew how bad a rotten egg smelled until now im going to go have a shower now

You are not alone and I know how you feel...I candled some of my eggs last night and several of my most visual and active chicks died sometime yesterday and since I had candled the night before. I was heartbroken...AM heartbroken. No temp spikes of which I am aware, nothing was done wrong on my part that I can figure. They were all my WR eggs...there are only two of those left that still have chicks in them and I had to do a float to even find movement in the one, the other is still visual and I can see it move. Doesn't mean they will make it to the end, though. I also floated several of the BA eggs and some still show movement, but all in all I think I'll have half, or even less, of what I thought was going to hatch. I'll do a final float tonight and eliminate all the dead ones....I can't stand to even think of them lying there dead without removing them.

I don't know how you experienced hatchers do this over and over but I think I'm about done with incubating. This is just heartrending to wait all that time, track progress and watch them move and have your heart jump with joy inside you so that it brings a smile to your lips.....then check them again and they are dead. No explanation, nothing one can do to prevent it, being so careful on temps that I checked them many, many times a day and several times each night when I would awaken. All for nothing and all to watch healthy chicks die in the shell.

I may just be too fresh on the disappointment of it all, but right now I don't care if I ever incubate another chick at all. I've just never killed a baby life like that and I don't even know if we are supposed to be messing with trying to create a life outside natural ways of doing so, if this is the result. I've not had too many stellar broodies but at least they produce live chicks in the end and I've never found an egg at the end of a hatch with a dead chick inside of it.

Something is just not right here.

I'm leaving the nest for the day to go to town and for the first time I won't be leaving all anxious about something happening to the temps or the electric going out while I'm gone....there's really no point in getting worried about such things any longer. If they live, they live, if they die, they die because there simply isn't a thing I can do about it at all, is there?

 

[Kassaundra]

I'd like to put my .02 in about assisted hatching. If I listened to the conventional hands off wisdom I would have hatched less then 10 chicks instead of well over 100. My incubator shrink wraps eggs bad, no matter what adjustments I make to water / heat. Every hatch I have had I have had to assist the vast majority (all but one or two each hatch that make it out on their own). Shrink wrapping is a 100% fatal condition the chick cannot hatch on their own no matter what. Shrink wrapping is a 100% non-genetic, 100% artificial hatching problem. In my first hatch I lost all but one, when I opened the eggs (after they all died in lock down) and saw all viable completely formed, internally and externally pipped shrink wrapped chicks, I decided next hatch wasn't going to be like that, what's the worst that could happen if I broke the sanctity of lockdown??? They'd "all die"???? Well guess what they all did in lock down so I didn't figure I could do any worse then near 100% fatal. My next hatched and every one since then I eagle eye watch the pip progress if it stalls for much over 8-12 hours I assume shrink wrap and go in and assist. Of the ones I assist that are alive when I assist I have only lost a handful (less then 10-15) This past hatch I would have only had 2 chicks of the 30 eggs if I had not assisted, instead I had 20, but one died at 3 days so I have 19. Of the ones I assisted this time only 3 died at hatch after assisting, one was in breech position and I couldn't find his beak in time, one was to weak from shrink wrapping, one was a tad too early (but already shrink wrapped).

 

[aart]

You are not alone and I know how you feel...I candled some of my eggs last night and several of my most visual and active chicks died sometime yesterday and since I had candled the night before. I was heartbroken...AM heartbroken. No temp spikes of which I am aware, nothing was done wrong on my part that I can figure. They were all my WR eggs...there are only two of those left that still have chicks in them and I had to do a float to even find movement in the one, the other is still visual and I can see it move. Doesn't mean they will make it to the end, though. I also floated several of the BA eggs and some still show movement, but all in all I think I'll have half, or even less, of what I thought was going to hatch. I'll do a final float tonight and eliminate all the dead ones....I can't stand to even think of them lying there dead without removing them.

I don't know how you experienced hatchers do this over and over but I think I'm about done with incubating. This is just heartrending to wait all that time, track progress and watch them move and have your heart jump with joy inside you so that it brings a smile to your lips.....then check them again and they are dead. No explanation, nothing one can do to prevent it, being so careful on temps that I checked them many, many times a day and several times each night when I would awaken. All for nothing and all to watch healthy chicks die in the shell.

I may just be too fresh on the disappointment of it all, but right now I don't care if I ever incubate another chick at all. I've just never killed a baby life like that and I don't even know if we are supposed to be messing with trying to create a life outside natural ways of doing so, if this is the result. I've not had too many stellar broodies but at least they produce live chicks in the end and I've never found an egg at the end of a hatch with a dead chick inside of it.

Something is just not right here.

I'm leaving the nest for the day to go to town and for the first time I won't be leaving all anxious about something happening to the temps or the electric going out while I'm gone....there's really no point in getting worried about such things any longer. If they live, they live, if they die, they die because there simply isn't a thing I can do about it at all, is there?

Ya gotta wait and see......said it before, they aren't always moving when you candle(or probably even float) especially day 18.
Incubation is a science experiment, you observe, interfere as little as possible, don't jump to conclusions and see what happens.
Incubation takes patience ........and faith.

 

[LindaB220]

There's probably not much hope if they were all started on the same day. Be sure to candle. Also, make sure that chick that DID hatch gets some water and food immediately!


In defense of breeders, let me say this. A lot of times people will declare they have no interest in showing, just want nice looking birds for the back yard.... after searching out who has the best of such and such breed. What happens is the breeder will sell hatching eggs because the person doesn't really care about the quality so much and they get burned doing this. Breeders know that every egg does not yield a show stopper, however, to the inexperienced eye these culls look like fantastic birds and they decide to show them and tell everybody they meet that they have so and so's line and aren't they magnificent? The people who they are showing them to may have a better eye for the bird on display and they remember that bird and the breeder's name. What do you suppose happens to the breeder's reputation as a top notch breeder?

The other side of the coin in regard to selling hatching eggs is if they have to be shipped. Hatchability goes way down and in my case, I don't like to sell hatching eggs because in my opinion it isn't worth the money invested. I've made that investment twice. I got one chick out of it (just the other day) but I'm done throwing money down the toilet... and I still won't sell hatching eggs.


If you still have Mr. Fancy Pants when your white rock shows up, you may not be hatching pure WR eggs. If you will be getting your WR in a couple of weeks, I'd get rid of the other influence and let the girls lay out his likeness so that when your rock gets there, you can be sure that he is the daddy.

Yes, Lacy, that puts a whole new outlook on the idea of shipping hatching eggs. I never thought that it would impact the reputation of the breeder. Good to know. I had the opportunity to buy Lt Sussex fairly close to me but they were $175 shipped for 6 babies. I think I would do better to buy a trio. I've decided to go with White Rocks. A better fit for me. Have to be later down the road. I've spent too much money on coop, fencing, store house. etc.