Author Topic: Hatching season?  (Read 16411 times)

greeneggsandham

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Hatching season?
« Reply #15 on: January 07, 2012, 07:21:20 PM »
Quote from: Sharon Yorks
I set 21 eggs on Dec 31st. There were 7 each from 3 hens. I candled them last night and found that one of my hens must have said, \"No way, buddy!\" to my cockerel because all of her eggs were clear. I think the rest all look pretty good, although two of them appear very dark inside. What does that mean? I can\'t see inside of them. I can see the air sack, but the rest is dark. I\'m going to try to find me a better light and candle again in a few days. I\'m really bummed about those 7 eggs. I was expecting some really good chicks out of that combo. Well, you know the saying, if at first you don\'t succeed, um... give your rooster an ultimatum!!!

Sharon


In my experience, if you can see the air sack but the rest is dark, you have a chick in there.
Sharon
Hubby rues the day he brought the chicks home...

jerryse

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Hatching season?
« Reply #16 on: January 10, 2012, 11:09:20 AM »
Just candled some week old eggs today.Even with this mild weather there were some that must have been chilled too much.I have 19 LF lav splits that show developement.Hope to make some improvements with these.I have not looked for the slow feathering gene in the past but will watch for it this year.I don\'t think I have it but there may be a few.

ParadiseFoundFarm

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Hatching season?
« Reply #17 on: January 12, 2012, 10:29:37 AM »
Quote from: greeneggs&ham
Quote from: Sharon Yorks
I set 21 eggs on Dec 31st. There were 7 each from 3 hens. I candled them last night and found that one of my hens must have said, \"No way, buddy!\" to my cockerel because all of her eggs were clear. I think the rest all look pretty good, although two of them appear very dark inside. What does that mean? I can\'t see inside of them. I can see the air sack, but the rest is dark. I\'m going to try to find me a better light and candle again in a few days. I\'m really bummed about those 7 eggs. I was expecting some really good chicks out of that combo. Well, you know the saying, if at first you don\'t succeed, um... give your rooster an ultimatum!!!

Sharon


In my experience, if you can see the air sack but the rest is dark, you have a chick in there.

Our girls are laying very well without added light or heat.  They stopped on August 31st, and started on Christmas morning all by themselves.  Nice gift.  I won\'t be hatching for a while until a do a harder culling and I just don\'t have the time right now.

I have the hardest time candling my eggs.  I use a 2 million candle light under a tube that narrows at the top to see.  A few times, when I thought there was nothing in there, a fully developed , but dead, chick was in it, other times it was either orange or a green icky stinky mess.  BTW, what is the reason it\'s green and icky?
Denise Baker
Paradise Found Farm
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Mike Gilbert

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Hatching season?
« Reply #18 on: January 12, 2012, 11:57:40 AM »
Are you disinfecting your eggs before setting them?   I use a solution of Oxine.  

Sharon Yorks

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Hatching season?
« Reply #19 on: January 12, 2012, 01:22:12 PM »
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BTW, what is the reason it\'s green and icky?


So you can have green eggs with your ham!

Just kidding. Here is a link that may help answer some of those questions: http://animalscience.ucdavis.edu/Avian/pfs33.htm

--Sharon
Sharon Yorks
Mark 11:23

(Don't tell God how big your problem is, tell your problem how big your God is!)

ParadiseFoundFarm

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Hatching season?
« Reply #20 on: January 12, 2012, 03:49:09 PM »
Mike:   I wash them but do not disinfect them - I will do oxine from now on.  Thank you

Sharon:  Nothing in there about green - at least that I saw.  Thank you for he referral to that chart though.
Denise Baker
Paradise Found Farm
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John

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Hatching season?
« Reply #21 on: January 12, 2012, 04:25:53 PM »
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disinfecting your eggs before setting them

Oxine may be fine, but just to give you another option I use Tek-Trol.  I use it in a spray bottle, mixed with water, in the incubators and I mist the eggs with it before putting them in the setters.
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TEK-TROL DISINFECTANT-CLEANER -M-91
For sanitizing eggs, incubators, incubator rooms, spraying pens. Proven effective against E.coli,Klebsiella, Salmonella, Pseudomonas, Aspergillus, Mycoplasma and many more. Highly concentrated-use only 1/2 oz. per gallon of water vs. 1 oz. For many other disinfectants. 1 gallon (makes 256 gal.)

http://www.cutlersupply.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3_82&products_id=386

Sharon Yorks

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Hatching season?
« Reply #22 on: January 12, 2012, 05:16:57 PM »
I also use Oxine. It is a wonderful product for hatching eggs and fogging the coop. If you are rubbing your eggs when you wash them, instead of just dipping them, that may be part of the problem. Here is another link that explains that an eggs natural defense and bacteria penetrating the shell.

http://msucares.com/poultry/reproductions/poultry_wash.html

Sharon
Sharon Yorks
Mark 11:23

(Don't tell God how big your problem is, tell your problem how big your God is!)

Mike Gilbert

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Hatching season?
« Reply #23 on: January 12, 2012, 06:06:43 PM »
Commercial hatcheries disinfect their hatching eggs.   I would rather rub a little dirt off, even if it means the egg might not hatch, than take a chance on an explosion of bacteria growth in the warm, humid environment of the incubator.  It\'s a lot easier to replace an egg than to disinfect an entire incubator.

Beth C

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Hatching season?
« Reply #24 on: January 12, 2012, 08:15:10 PM »
I\'ve been using a mild bleach solution on the eggs. I use Tek-Trol to disinfect the incubators & brooders but didn\'t know that it could be sprayed onto the eggs.  I\'ve heard great things about Oxine, too, but haven\'t gotten around to ordering any.

John

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Hatching season?
« Reply #25 on: January 12, 2012, 09:13:12 PM »
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I use Tek-Trol to disinfect the incubators & brooders but didn\'t know that it could be sprayed onto the eggs.

After I place the eggs into the plastic trays that go into the setters (incubators) and just before setting them I liberally spray the eggs with the Tek-Trol solution.  It completely covers the eggs and is much quicker then dipping them.  When I first tried it a few years ago I started with just a little mist and was afraid of overdoing it, but I haven\'t noticed any negative results and it only takes a few seconds to do.  I especially feel very comfortable using it because it includes hatcheries, setters and hatchers in the list of many uses on the label.
PS...like Mike I rub or scrape dirt off the eggs.  I\'ve never washed or dipped hatching eggs.  Seldom do I get a rotten/stinky egg and I hatched over 4,000 chicks last year.

Paul

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Hatching season?
« Reply #26 on: January 12, 2012, 10:03:36 PM »
We use 6 1/2 oz. of Oxine to 1 gal. of water to disinfect our incubators.  The eggs are also washed in the Oxine/water solution.  A tip I learned last year was to put 2 tablespoons of bleach in 1 gal. of water to be placed in the water pans inside the incubator during incubation and hatching.
I like using it!
Paul Smith

Chicklover

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Hatching season?
« Reply #27 on: January 13, 2012, 12:39:54 AM »
Just set the second batch of eggs. Candle the first batch looking good just 2 more weeks.

John

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Hatching season?
« Reply #28 on: January 13, 2012, 11:03:24 AM »
Quote
A tip I learned last year was to put 2 tablespoons of bleach in 1 gal. of water to be placed in the water pans inside the incubator during incubation and hatching.

I use city water in the incubators which is chlorinated, so adding bleach isn\'t needed here.  If you have a choice between using city water and well water (with a lot of minerals like mine) in your incubators I would recommend the city, distilled or filtered water.

FLFAmeraucanas

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Hatching season?
« Reply #29 on: January 13, 2012, 12:27:44 PM »
I\'ve never done anything to disinfect my eggs before setting them in my incubator.  Don\'t I feel like a country bumpkin! Good advice here, I\'ll have to give it a try.  I also never gave a second thought to using our well water, might have to try some distilled as well and see what my results are like.

I\'ve been hatching like a fiend since October.  \'Course that\'s when my lavenders were finally giving me eggs.  This is my first year raising my own lavs and splits, so I really want to have lots of birds to choose from as breeders and hopefully to show.  I also only have 7 hens laying, so we aren\'t talking the huge amount of eggs some of you guys have :)  I have 2 good black hens, 4 lavender pullets, 1 lavender hen, 1 lavender roo and 1 split roo in that pen.  I put 2 new lavender hens in that pen only to have them everybody stop laying a couple weeks ago.  Now my Blue/Splash pen is kicking up, so I\'ve been setting eggs from them.  I have a Splash rooster, Splash hen, Black Hen, Blue Hen, 2 Splash Pullets and 2 black pullets in there. I lost my blue rooster last year and was lucky enough to find this splash rooster (from a very generous individual) so these are the first chicks from him. Excited to see what sort of quality they are!

I also just purchased a Silver flock and they came with a blue silver hen, 2 blue silver pullets and a blue silver cockrel.  They are still in quarentine and no one is laying yet, but I\'m sure I\'ll be having lots of questions for you all.  I\'ve always loved the silver color but the genetics of it are still abit intimidating to me.