Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[Bulldogma]

Leigh: Here are some pictures of my little white chick. One chick is clearly showing red but this little one is showing very very faint grey.

Opinions please!

Thanks

The one showing red will probably be a red/white at maturity, but the white/gray is definitely an Ali baby! All her chicks tend to have outgoing, very friendly personalities, and the ones that start out mostly white look more like Dalmatians when they get older. (She does throw some standard blue mille fleur chicks too). Lovely babies!

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

So, I've only randomly been able to keep up with this thread, so I'm sorry if this has been discussed already before. But, has anyone had trouble with a LOT of "dead in egg" chicks? We thought it might be a humidity problem, but most in our last hatch didn't even internally pip, so they couldn't have drowned. Our hatches are coming out about 50/50. Is there something special this breed needs? Our Basque chicks pop out just fine in the same incubator at the same time. 

That was my experience this last hatch. I didn't incubate, a friend did. The ones that didn't make it were close to hatching. One had it's beak in the air cell. I was wondering myself if this is common or not.

 

[KYTinpusher]

Quote: I have wondered if it may have something to do with the crested-to-crested breedings.

But yes, this is more common than we would like in this breed.

Just went in to lockdown with some tonight!

 

[ki4got]

Quote:
if they're dying late during incubation, it's usually because of too much humidity. the excess liquid in the egg is absorbed and causes problems when they internally pip. excess fluid builds up in the blood stream and can leak into the lungs. that excess fluid can cause problems in a number of ways, including fluid buildup in the lungs and heart failure.

 

[puglady]

if they're dying late during incubation, it's usually because of too much humidity. the excess liquid in the egg is absorbed and causes problems when they internally pip. excess fluid builds up in the blood stream and can leak into the lungs. that excess fluid can cause problems in a number of ways, including fluid buildup in the lungs and heart failure.

I have a question about this as well....I had about a 50% hatch over the weekend. These were SFH, RBs and OE's. Most of the ones that didn't make it were fully developed but didn't have pip holes. I incubated at 20-30% and bumped it to 60-65% for hatch. As most didn't pip do you think it was drowning or perhaps shrink wrap. I don't dry incubate as (I think) it gets too low, @10%

 

[ki4got]

Quote:
shrink wrapping only happens AFTER external pip... prior to that there's plenty of moisture in the shell. and I incubate every day (currently) at roughly 10% humidity. during the winter it drops down to about 5% in the summer rarely goes over 15%

my last two hatches were 33/35 and 12/12

 

[puglady]

shrink wrapping only happens AFTER external pip... prior to that there's plenty of moisture in the shell. and I incubate every day (currently) at roughly 10% humidity. during the winter it drops down to about 5% in the summer rarely goes over 15%

my last two hatches were 33/35 and 12/12

Thanks for the reply. I should then try an incubation with no water then. Are you thinking they may have drown then? Maybe I should decrease the humidity to the 50's for LD?

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

shrink wrapping only happens AFTER external pip... prior to that there's plenty of moisture in the shell.  and I incubate every day (currently) at roughly 10% humidity. during the winter it drops down to about 5%  in the summer rarely goes over 15%

my last two hatches were 33/35 and 12/12

I incubated eggs once myself. I opened up all the eggs that didn't hatch. They were all shrink wrapped, pipped or not. I was out of town..long story...but got back the day they were to start hatching. The humidity was 40%. I was told to increase it so I opened it and added water. Brought it up to 60-65% if I can remember right. I figured they got shrink wrapped because I opened it. I now have someone else incubate eggs for me. The next time someone incubates for me I'll be sure to tell them to do a dry run.

I noticed that they go a little longer than other breeds, sometimes 23 days. What's the longest a person should wait before turning off the incubator?

 

[puglady]

Not sure what the longest should be. I typically wait until 23 days and then take a peek. I just read another thread on BYC regarding an Emu egg going to full term and not pipping. All of the yolk had not been absorbed. I had a couple of issues last hatch with this and its making more sense. I'm thinking that maybe the chicks are getting too big for the shells. I'm hatching 3 breeds though, SFHs included so its not just specific to the one.

 

[KYTinpusher]

 

 


if they're dying late during incubation, it's usually because of too much humidity.  the excess liquid in the egg is absorbed and causes problems when they internally pip. excess fluid builds up in the blood stream and can leak into the lungs. that excess fluid can cause problems in a number of ways, including fluid buildup in the lungs and heart failure.

shrink wrapping only happens AFTER external pip... prior to that there's plenty of moisture in the shell.  and I incubate every day (currently) at roughly 10% humidity. during the winter it drops down to about 5%  in the summer rarely goes over 15%

my last two hatches were 33/35 and 12/12

Karen, great hatch rates! I'm curious... we're any of the chicks you hatched a result of crested-to-crested breeding? My hatch rate on my own eggs is nearly 100% when I have no crested roo in the flock. I incubate with 30% humidity and go to 65% at lockdown, though I wait until day 19 to lockdown. When I had a crested roo in there, the rate dropped a little. Some of those chicks developed fully, but didn't seem to fill the shell as fully before lockdown. I think the crested-to-crested chicks can hatch, but may not be as vigorous resulting in a greater chance of drowning in the shell. If I had an extra breeding coop available, I would be tempted to put in only crested birds just to see what the hatch rate might be.