The Fathers Day Hatch-A-Long!!! The Last Day To Set eggs Is June 3rd!!!!

[yinepu]

Do you follow a similar schedule for chicken eggs? If so, you still mist and cool the eggs after lockdown?

nope.. I get 100% hatch rate with nice strong chicks just by dropping the temp by 1 degree at hatch
chickens don't normally bathe.. which is another reason why waterfowl eggs are misted and chicken eggs usually are not (replicates the momma goose or duck going for a swim)
you could still cool the eggs for a few minutes every day if you wanted to.. but I wouldn't bother misting the chicken eggs if I had just those in a bator

waterfowl tends to have a different metabolism and physiology.. so they benefit more from cooling since they tend to generate more heat during the last stages of incubation. . which results in weaker ducklings and goslings.. so they either fail to hatch.. or die soon after if too much stress has been on them during incubation
during natural incubation, embryo temperature is higher in the beginning (closer to the brood patch)... this is reversed with artificial incubation since the embryos generate their own heat in addition to the incubator.

Now you CAN still have goslings and ducklings hatch without cooling and misting.. however I have always had better hatch rates with stronger babies with the cooling and misting

btw... Misting should only be done with warm or room temperature water (never cold) ..

lol.. I also have turkey eggs in with some goose and duck eggs.. so they are getting misted and cooled every day as well.. however when just hatching turkeys I don't bother to mist or cool them

 

[Arielle]

Quote: Yinepu--If the chicken eggs are in witht he duck eggs, do they BENEFIT from the 10 minutes of cooling? Sounds like I should move the duck eggs to another incubator to leave the top open for a few minutes every day.

 

[yinepu]

Yinepu--If the chicken eggs are in witht he duck eggs, do they BENEFIT from the 10 minutes of cooling? Sounds like I should move the duck eggs to another incubator to leave the top open for a few minutes every day.

Some say yes.. some say no.. there are a few companies now which make cooling timers on their bators.. it may be just a gimmick or they may have come across some info that leads them to believe it's beneficial

personally I never saw a difference on chickens that had a cooling period compared to ones that didn't... hatch rates didn't increase any (or decrease for that matter)...and the chicks didn't seem to be any stronger or healthier for the cooling periods that they encountered while in the egg...
however you may find differently if you try it yourself since incubation techniques vary from person to person and incubator to incubator

 

[Arielle]

Oh, I trust YOU, you've been doing this longer than . . . well let's just say you have more knowledge in your little pinky etc.


I sold a couple chicks today--of course I also had about 8 hatch overnight! All pretty blacks and blues!! Thanks to a blue AMeraucana rooster.

 

[crazypetlady]

just don't worry about misting the chicken eggs too.. if you notice there are 2 chicks in with the ducklings (little silkie and d'uccle mixes).. they were cooled and misted right along with the pekins.. and had 100% hatch rate on those little chicken eggs
the spraying helps with evaporative cooling.. so it helps cool the eggs to help the embryo be stronger and it supposedly helps with moisture loss.. however the moisture loss is minimal.. so I don't really consider it to be as important as the cooling. As an embryo grows it begins to generate it's own heat.. as time goes by the embryos can generate enough heat that they will become overheated and can die in the shell if there are too many eggs in the incubator.. however by cooling them for a few minutes each day it helps lower that .. sort of gives them a break from excess heating. I found an article on it once.. will have to check and see if I can find it again.

here's the cooling & misting schedule I go by:
COOLING WATERFOWL

I start cooling incubating eggs on day 7.of incubation for 5 to 10 minutes

on day 14: I raise the time to 15 minutes and also start misting the eggs at the beginning of the cooling period

on day 21 and til external pipping: it goes to 20 minutes of cooling with the misting at the beginning of the cooling period per day


 

I love muscovys!.. have hatched out bunches of them recently.. all from shipped eggs and in an incubator


lol.. is this better?

Thanks for the duck incubating info. Good to know since my ducks are with my chickens in the giant bator

 

[crazypetlady]

Oh, I trust YOU, you've been doing this longer than . . . well let's just say you have more knowledge in your little pinky etc.


I sold a couple chicks today--of course I also had about 8 hatch overnight!  All pretty blacks and blues!!  Thanks to a blue AMeraucana rooster.

Yeah keep selling those chickies!!!

My Am roo only has black and blue babies too. I wish he were blue, but is handsome anyway.

 

[Arielle]

I like the blue on this boy, lighter than the other blue I also have. The darker blue also has a silver hackle so he is quite handsome, too.

 

[Nsampsel]

I sold all of my Orp babies yesterday, along with my Silkies & turken. Only babies I have left out of the 22 hatched from this batch are1 Mottled , 2 Blue Ameraucanas, 2 Easter Eggers, 1 tiny black banty from my Sarah, 1 Saxony Duck & 1 Black East Indie Duck. The little BEI hatched out today. After it pipped I slipped it under Sarah & she finished hatching it. Then I slipped HER baby under her, the Houdan & the 2 EE's. She didn't like the 2 Ameraucanas & the Saxony...too big I guess. So now she has a brood of 5 counting the duckling. Definitely a strange looking crew

Some of the babies were hatched a week & almost 2 weeks ago & she still took them.

 

[crazypetlady]

I sold all of my Orp babies yesterday, along with my Silkies & turken. Only babies I have left out of the 22 hatched from this batch are1 Mottled , 2 Blue Ameraucanas, 2 Easter Eggers, 1 tiny black banty from my Sarah, 1 Saxony Duck & 1 Black East Indie Duck. The little BEI hatched out today. After it pipped I slipped it under Sarah & she finished hatching it. Then I slipped HER baby under her, the Houdan & the 2 EE's. She didn't like the 2 Ameraucanas & the Saxony...too big I guess. So now she has a brood of 5 counting the duckling. Definitely a strange looking crew   Some of the babies were hatched a week & almost 2 weeks ago & she still took them.

Good broody. When I checked my caged broody who was due to hatch 12 BBS silkies tody, she had pooped on the eggs and they either exploded or were runny and black. I guess I should have been checking on her. I thought she knew what she was doing so I left her alone.


Next time I know better

 

[Arielle]

I sold all of my Orp babies yesterday, along with my Silkies & turken. Only babies I have left out of the 22 hatched from this batch are1 Mottled , 2 Blue Ameraucanas, 2 Easter Eggers, 1 tiny black banty from my Sarah, 1 Saxony Duck & 1 Black East Indie Duck. The little BEI hatched out today. After it pipped I slipped it under Sarah & she finished hatching it. Then I slipped HER baby under her, the Houdan & the 2 EE's. She didn't like the 2 Ameraucanas & the Saxony...too big I guess. So now she has a brood of 5 counting the duckling. Definitely a strange looking crew

Some of the babies were hatched a week & almost 2 weeks ago & she still took them.

Sarah sounds like a very good broody! Motley crew all!