Who is getting eggs?

[margaret8]

I've got 8 more eggs in the incubator and they are alive, bit will hatch at different dates. To keep the eggs fresh I set them as soon as I the hen laid them. I guess I'm ready for the peafowl eggs!

 

[margaret8]

I've been trying to keep the humidity between 55-65%, I've had it swing up to 70 and down to 40 a couple times, last night when I candled them it dropped to 30!!! but since the candling went good, I'm hoping its ok. every time it goes above or below I've corrected it very quickly. yesterday it went unnoticed for a while because we were busy all day.... that's why it dropped so low.

this is the first time I've incubated anything. we have a old old old foam incubator, it has windows in the top to see in, and circles in the bottom for water with a metal mesh to hold up eggs. we put in a temp and humidity detector and the eggs are in the top of an egg carton to keep them tipped a little up. turn them 3 times a day 180 degrees. I put 6 in one night and the 7th the next night, the oldest egg was 10 days, the next was 8 days old I believe, the oldest two are the ones that did not develop. in holding they were turned 2x per day kept in our basement at a very steady 50 degrees.

anything else we should do to help hatch rate?

btw our hens are still laying, but its slowing down already, were getting 1 egg a day, back to 1 every two days. but we had a heat lamp when it was cold, now that its above freezing we turned it off. I think the lack of constant light affected their laying... it certainly affected the chickens. do you think they'll start laying more in april? - when they should be laying. oh ya its april now... oh boy.

From what I've learned in using the incubator is don't open the incubator during the hatching process! Keep the humidity at 60-65% during hatching and during the setting keep the humidity 55-60% .

 

[DylansMom]

I've been trying to keep the humidity between 55-65%, I've had it swing up to 70 and down to 40 a couple times, last night when I candled them it dropped to 30!!! but since the candling went good, I'm hoping its ok. every time it goes above or below I've corrected it very quickly. yesterday it went unnoticed for a while because we were busy all day.... that's why it dropped so low.

this is the first time I've incubated anything. we have a old old old foam incubator, it has windows in the top to see in, and circles in the bottom for water with a metal mesh to hold up eggs. we put in a temp and humidity detector and the eggs are in the top of an egg carton to keep them tipped a little up. turn them 3 times a day 180 degrees. I put 6 in one night and the 7th the next night, the oldest egg was 10 days, the next was 8 days old I believe, the oldest two are the ones that did not develop. in holding they were turned 2x per day kept in our basement at a very steady 50 degrees.

anything else we should do to help hatch rate?

btw our hens are still laying, but its slowing down already, were getting 1 egg a day, back to 1 every two days. but we had a heat lamp when it was cold, now that its above freezing we turned it off. I think the lack of constant light affected their laying... it certainly affected the chickens. do you think they'll start laying more in april? - when they should be laying. oh ya its april now... oh boy.

Don't get yourself all nuts over the swings in temp and humidity. I was really nosey last year, candled every night because I was learning. It didn't hurt mine at all. A hen gets off the eggs once or twice a day and when she does the humidity drops to whatever it is outside, temp drops as well. Mine generally stay off for 5-10 mins, so it takes a while to build it back up once they sit again. Last year I accidentally pulled the wrong egg out of the bator. Pulled a developing one and left in the clear I meant to pull. It sat for about 16 hours, in a 70 degree house, when I realized what I'd done I candled and it was still moving so I put it back in. It hatched just fine, 12 hrs after the others, but just fine. I set 12 day old eggs last year and they did fine, those first 2 may have been laid before the male realized what his responsibilities are in all this!

And yes I think your heat lamp caused them to lay early, I don't know if they will lay again or not because they are young(2yo ?)right? Mine still haven't started. During the last 3 days when mine are in the hatcher I raise the humidity more than a lot of folks, I would put wet paper towels in to get it up to 90%, we didn't have any shrink wrapped chicks and this may be why. These were my first 2 from last year, they hatched the end of May.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

I don't know about anyone else here but I'm ready for a Merlot hatch along anyday now!! And the longest distance eggs shipped that hatch contest!!

 

[margaret8]

Here are my babies. About a week old, and wilder than a March hare!

 

[casportpony]

Cute!

-Kathy

 

[Alex150o]

I have 3 Peahen laying eggs right now (2 IB, 1 White), Or at least I think they are. I let my peafowl freerange and around this season when they "dissapear" I know its because they are laying. I found one of my IB hen's nest and sadly so did some dogs :C They crushed all the eggs. I lost 6 eggs :C My other IB hen and my White one are probably laying too because I havent seen them around. My white peacock has being doing "the dance" but I havent seen him aroung the peahens which means the eggs are probably not fertile. By the way, Im from Mexico, This is my third year with peafowl and so far I have only had 4 peachicks survive out of the at least 20 that have hatched throught these years. Any clue what could be the problem? they all seem to die when their crest starts coming out.

 

[DylansMom]

I have 3 Peahen laying eggs right now (2 IB, 1 White), Or at least I think they are. I let my peafowl freerange and around this season when they "dissapear" I know its because they are laying. I found one of my IB hen's nest and sadly so did some dogs :C They crushed all the eggs. I lost 6 eggs :C My other IB hen and my White one are probably laying too because I havent seen them around. My white peacock has being doing "the dance" but I havent seen him aroung the peahens which means the eggs are probably not fertile. By the way, Im from Mexico, This is my third year with peafowl and so far I have only had 4 peachicks survive out of the at least 20 that have hatched throught these years. Any clue what could be the problem? they all seem to die when their crest starts coming out.

Hello Alex150o, welcome to BYC and the Peafowl section! Everybody who lets their Peas free range knows how they like to disappear and hide their eggs. Did you see the dogs that crushed the eggs in the IB's nest? I have seen opossums do that before, just wondering if that could be your culprit? Dogs would have tried to harm the hen as well, opossums probably would have just chased her away. As for your Peachicks, there are many things that could be causing their death. I assume they are becoming ill and dying as opposed to just disappearing right? If so, are you feeding chick starter medicated with amprollium or are you just letting the hens feed them? Peachicks are very susceptible to coccidia, the amprollium helps them cope with that until they are old enough to tolerate it, you can't really avoid coccidia...it's everywhere, so you just try to help them get thru it until they build up some tolerance. You can also treat with sulmet or corid in the water, but either way you must make sure they are eating and drinking enough of the medicated food or water. Most people will catch and pen their hens who have hatched chicks, this makes it easier to get the babies past those perilous first 3 months. Are you worming any of your adults or any of the babies, they may be dying from cappilaria worms and a couple doses
of safeguard cattle drench will take care those as well as many other types of parasites they may be picking up. Black head is another possibility, but I think that hits adults as well as chicks, it sounds like your adults are well established and doing okay, so I am not sure if that is a concern or not. castportpony is another member on here and she is much more familiar with blackhead and it's treatment than I am, hopefully she can wade in and give you some advice on that, as well as correct any errors I may have made, it's very early here in PA!

 

[Alex150o]

Thanks for the info Dylansmom, I forgot to mention that my peafowl are surronded by turkeys and cows ( it's pretty much a farm here) domt know if they can catch any disease from them. Also we have had weird weather changes here in Mexico, soemtimes its really cold and usually its very hot, since it always happens when the chicks are little im thinking it affects them in some way. I buy their food in a vet store and there are only two different options chick starter and a mix of grains for older birds. Will definitely look for the things you recommended. Its really sad to see so many peachicks die knowing how beautiful they could end up looking.

 

[DylansMom]

Thanks for the info Dylansmom, I forgot to mention that my peafowl are surronded by turkeys and cows ( it's pretty much a farm here) domt know if they can catch any disease from them. Also we have had weird weather changes here in Mexico, soemtimes its really cold and usually its very hot, since it always happens when the chicks are little im thinking it affects them in some way. I buy their food in a vet store and there are only two different options chick starter and a mix of grains for older birds. Will definitely look for the things you recommended. Its really sad to see so many peachicks die knowing how beautiful they could end up looking.

You are very welcome. It is sad, I hatched 45 in my incubator last year and I had one broody hen who hatched 5. We lost 2 when they were 5 weeks old, found out it was coccidia, even though they were eating the medicated starter. Our vet checked the poo and said they had very bad case of coccidia. We then got the corid and treated the water as well as using the medicated feed, we did not lose any more. We keep a medication box on hand so we hopefully have whatever we need handy. A broad spectrum antibiotic is also good to keep on hand, I have used it many times when I just had no idea what was ailing them. With turkeys present Black head could be an issue, it is a common problem for turkeys. Cows probably would not cause a problem, I think most problems are species specific, meaning cows and birds can both get coccidia, but they do not get the same type, cows would get bovine cocci and birds would get avian cocci, I do not think they cross-infect each other.