Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[Bulldogma]

ARE SFH typically a couple days late in hatching?

Yes - it is not uncommon for them to be a little late.
Sorry for your bad experience!

 

[CackleJoy]

Yes - it is not uncommon for them to be a little late.
Sorry for your bad experience!

So how long would you leave them in? And the humidity went back to 30% Should I bump it back up or are they really happiest when nearly dry?

I had 5 out of 6 EOBasque hatch
6 out of 9 CLB hatch
and the 3 SFH.

That all happened on Tuesday without a single new pip since. Obviously I caused trouble by taking the eggs out of the incubator (usually no new pips on day 23 means the hatch is done), otherwise what would cause late death in the egg like that?

 

[ki4got]

Quote:
honestly, if they haven't hatched by day 23, I'm not likely to keep them in any longer. if they're that weak they can't hatch on their own, I don't want that blood in my gene pool. that being said, I did have 1 hatch on day 24 once. he did remarkably well but was small and had flaws so got culled anyways.

for future reference, candle the eggs first before eggtopsy. if you see any signs of movement, leave it alone. second step, punch a small hole in the air cell and look inside (helps to hold the flashlight to the side of the air cell so you can see what's going on. if the membrane looks dry, take a q-tip with hot water on it and put it in the hole and touch the membrane. the water will spread and make it more transparent. usually that will also cause a live chick to move some. if it doesn't move, nudge it with the q-tip and see if you get a response. no response means eggtopsy time.

 

[CackleJoy]

honestly, if they haven't hatched by day 23, I'm not likely to keep them in any longer. if they're that weak they can't hatch on their own, I don't want that blood in my gene pool. that being said, I did have 1 hatch on day 24 once. he did remarkably well but was small and had flaws so got culled anyways.

for future reference, candle the eggs first before eggtopsy. if you see any signs of movement, leave it alone. second step, punch a small hole in the air cell and look inside (helps to hold the flashlight to the side of the air cell so you can see what's going on. if the membrane looks dry, take a q-tip with hot water on it and put it in the hole and touch the membrane. the water will spread and make it more transparent. usually that will also cause a live chick to move some. if it doesn't move, nudge it with the q-tip and see if you get a response. no response means eggtopsy time.

I prefer not to have weak chicks too - do you suppose this is from trying to hatch pullet eggs? I let the girls lay for about a month before gathering eggs. The looked plenty big to me. I was hatching MFL and their eggs are small.

This is also a trial incubator run. A cheapo styrafoam that was damaged goods at nasco. We revived it. I'm highly suspicious that its the incubator. One whole side didn't even pip. Two entire rows just sitting there. That is just too weird. Makes me think the incubator has a hot or cold side.

 

[Bulldogma]

I prefer not to have weak chicks too - do you suppose this is from trying to hatch pullet eggs? I let the girls lay for about a month before gathering eggs. The looked plenty big to me. I was hatching MFL and their eggs are small.

This is also a trial incubator run. A cheapo styrafoam that was damaged goods at nasco. We revived it. I'm highly suspicious that its the incubator. One whole side didn't even pip. Two entire rows just sitting there. That is just too weird. Makes me think the incubator has a hot or cold side.

You need to have a thermometer in every quadrant of an incubator like that to be sure. Those Styrofoam pretty much suck when it comes to SFH to begin with, but a damaged one... hmmmm...

 

[CackleJoy]

You need to have a thermometer in every quadrant of an incubator like that to be sure. Those Styrofoam pretty much suck when it comes to SFH to begin with, but a damaged one... hmmmm...

The top part looked perfect but I'm wondering if it wasn't just not enough thermometers. I was only using 2. Silly me. Only 2 thermometers!

 

[Laingcroft]

Two images of Sheldor. One take early this Spring (with a Mottled Houdan) and one taken last November when he was growing his sickle feathers.

 

[Bulldogma]

The top part looked perfect but I'm wondering if it wasn't just not enough thermometers. I was only using 2. Silly me. Only 2 thermometers!

Did you have them at egg level?

 

[ki4got]

Quote:
let me rephrase that for her... MOST styrobators suck IN INEXPERIENCED HANDS... I've hatched hundreds of sfh in my styrobators, but I also had well over 1000 other chicks hatch in them before I started with the sfh.

how was the incubator damaged, what brand and model was it? those are things that would tell us a lot about what you're working with too. I'm also guessing it was probably a still air, which will cause temperature fluctuations from different areas of the incubator, but also it depends on the location in your home too. was one side toward a window, fan or a/c vent? there are a LOT of factors that go into successful hatching. not just having an incubator and fertile eggs.

I will only use Hovabators for my styro ones. the LG and FI ones are cheap and the thermostats twitchy at best. (my opinion, and yes, I've used them and hated them). I've got 4 Hovabators of various model #s, all using a wafer style thermostat, all with computer case fans for air circulation. all the vent plugs were removed and thrown away the day I got them, and 3 of them have automatic turners installed. the 4th is a dedicated hatcher. I may someday graduate to a cabinet style incubator but I will always use a separate hatcher.

 

[my2boysteacher]

I was so bummed.  Out of 20 eggs only 3 hatched.  I've hatched out a LOT of chicks this year and that seemed unnecessarily poor.  So this time I did an eggtopsy.  Last time I had 4 of 8 hatch and those were shipped eggs.  I expected better of farm eggs.

My first ever eggtopsy.     It was breathing! 

ARE SFH typically a couple days late in hatching?  

I should mention that my candler quit right before lock down.  The eggs all looked full as per the regular flashlight but I can't see internal pips or even movement.

Obviously I quickly put all the eggs back in the bator although I'm sure there is little to no hope that any hatch.  I was all set to bury them.

I had the same thing happen- twice. Both batches had 16 eggs, and I only got 3 chicks each hatch. I was floored the first time because we have been hatching our own EE eggs for many months with about a 95% hatch rate. We threw three thermometers and hygrometers in there for the second hatch, but still only got 3 to make it. So frustrating. I am hoping when these 6 start laying we will have a broody.