THE Brinsea Octagon 20 Eco Thread; Hatches, etc. (PICS)

[dekel18042]

I have a still air hovabator and no egg turner (that be me) and I had 3 chicks this hatch who pipped out of the small end instead of big air cell end. My eggs were on their side not in cradeles at all so I can imagine if they were in those upright egg turners they would have died

Even when you incubate in an upright position, you are supposed to lay the eggs on their side at lockdown with the air cell up. That is what I always do. That is supposed to give the chick time to get in the correct hatching position. (not that all do.)

 

[rottlady]

ah! that sounds better. My friend has a cabinet incubator and even when not turning the eggs stay in trays big end up

 

[RubyNala97]

Hope you all might have some advice for me. I have an octagon 20 advance, no humidity pump. I have had good hatches, including my last one during which I had three long power outages and was going on/off generator and even driving to neighbor's houses when we ran out of fuel. But I just finished up a hatch that I am puzzled by. Humidity was good all through. I normally run in the mid-high 30%s until lockdown, then 65-70% during lockdown. My air cells were good. I candled at 7 and 17 days. All looked good to me. I had a mix of Welsummer and OE eggs. All from my birds. All the OE eggs hatched on time and without problem. Of the 11 Wellie eggs, 4 hatched normally. Two pipped at the wrong end, with one getting out by itself without problem. The other sat for over 24 hours without further pipping, so I assisted. While he made it out, he had severe spraddle legs, seemed to have very labored breathing and I suspect from the little rattle he had inhaled fluid in his lungs. I euthanized him this morning as he seemed in distress, even after 24 hours out of the egg. The remaining 5 eggs, at eggtopsy, all had chicks which had failed to turn themselves and were dead. When I opened the air cell end all I saw were butts and ankles. My question is why did seven of 11 eggs have chicks that didn't turn? The only thing I did different this time was use the "cooling" option for the first time. I had it set from days 8-18 at the shortest time frame (30 minutes). Was this the cause? Or something else? Curious if the experienced hatchers can help me figure this one out. And to help dispell my depression, here is a pic of some of those who did hatch......

I'm sorry you lost so many. If I were you I would do some research on why chicks don't position correctly toward hatch time. A couple things that came across my mind. With the power outages did you loose power at all late in incubation for longer then the 30 minute cooling period? I know the eggs getting chilled late in incubation can cause all kinds of problems. But the other eggs hatched fine. The only other thing I can think of is if you were using the rails, were these eggs a little smaller and maybe the didn't stay upright in the rails? I have this problem with my bantam eggs. They end up slouching over and I wasn't happy with my last hatch. I'm thinking because a few of them weren't getting turned properly. That's all I can think of. Congrats on the ones that did hatch and good job with the assist!

 

[FridayYet]

Since it was only your wellies and not your OEs, I'd do an all-wellie hatch next time to help determine what was going on. Any illnesses, feed differences, age differences between the two groups?

Just some things to think about besides the good advice Ruby gave you above.

 

[UrbanMamaHen]

In my last three hatches, about a third of the chicks piped on the small end, but they all hatched out okay. I set the eggs on their sides, and turned until the last day (because I forgot when I set them). It could be because they were laid flat, and turned until the last day that they positioned incorrectly. I was afraid that they wouldn't hatch, those that piped on the small end, but surprisingly they all hatched just fine.

I've had chicks that died without hatching before when piped in the small end, so I don't know what's different other than the fact that the last three hatches were from my own eggs. Maybe they were just strong and vigorous chicks.

 

[SeattleSelkie]

I really appreciate all the ideas. I will need to really think through what might have happened.
I believe it is something in the last three days, although what that is yet hasn't come to light in my mind.

They were large eggs.....all large or extra large in size......so i can understand why the chicks had a hard time even getting a pip on the small end. Several seemed quite wet inside the membrane when opened, so makes sense they may have drowned. I do use the rails, and they seemed to stay in them well. When I put them on their sides on day 18 I always mark the lowest point of the air cell and position that on top and can normally almost predict where the pip will be. The Wellies do seem to always hatch after the hybrids.....which are a Wellie-Blue Wheaten Ameraucana cross. Those little buggers practically shoot out of the eggs and all hatch within a couple of hours of each other, then grow leaps and bounds faster than anyone else. They are a delightful cross which lays a nice light olive green egg, sometimes with speckles. I do have two lines of Wellies and these eggs were mostly from one of them......the others are a more broody line and I have a few of them sitting on eggs, so will see how those turn out.....but the line I hatched from do produce a large, chunkier chick (and bird) which makes me wonder if that brings some aspect to this.

I will follow Ruby's advice and research more about reasons for not positioning correctly. And watch my next hatch like a hawk.......maybe I was just too complacent with this one and missed something....I have gotten kinda spoiled with this incubator.

Thanks again for the input.

 

[OHfarmerswife]

Good morning. I have 2 Brinsea Eco 20 advanced with the humidity pump. Recently I am having a problem with eggs that pip but dry out and the chicks become shrink wrapped. I have intervened with all & the chicks were healthy and doing fine. I set my humidity at 65% at hatch. Any suggestions?

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Have you recalibrated it? Maybe it's showing 65% but not actually running at 65%.

Is it pumping a lot of water to get to 65% percent?

 

[OHfarmerswife]

Have you recalibrated it? Maybe it's showing 65% but not actually running at 65%.

Is it pumping a lot of water to get to 65% percent?

Yes the pump seems to run a lot at time. How do I recalibrate?

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Yes the pump seems to run a lot at time. How do I recalibrate?

If you don't have your instruction booklet here is a download with a section on calibration ~ http://www.brinsea.co.uk/downloads34

If you have a known to be correct hygrometer I would pop that in too and see what it's reading.

Did you prime the pump tubing with water before wrapping it round and connecting to the rigid tube?