Dry Hatching

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Jaye
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Re: Dry Hatching

Post by Jaye » Fri Mar 20, 2020 8:48 pm

Me too, because it's what would happen if they were under under a broody hen.
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Kbr42
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Re: Dry Hatching

Post by Kbr42 » Sun Mar 22, 2020 8:53 am

Thanks! I'll give it a try..What do I have to loose. I will post my results at the end of this week!
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Killerbunny
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Re: Dry Hatching

Post by Killerbunny » Sun Mar 22, 2020 9:19 am

I put in the bobbly drawer liner ($) too so they have something better to grip as they hatch.
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KimChick
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Re: Dry Hatching

Post by KimChick » Thu May 07, 2020 7:21 pm

That is the kind of liner I use to cover the metal screen, too.
Interesting topic, but still feeling new at this being on my fourth time using an incubator.
I have noticed this year that, given the type of weather, it seems that the incubator is behaving a bit differently. It reads humidity at 48 - about 51% and the hygrometer (from the pet store) that is on the turner reads about 53%. So I add water if both of them get lower. And it seems to be holding steady within that range.
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windwalkingwolf
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Re: Dry Hatching

Post by windwalkingwolf » Fri May 15, 2020 2:11 am

Kbr42 wrote:
Fri Mar 20, 2020 10:43 am


My last hatch, I had a little one unzip 3/4 of the way around then stop..it got shrink wrapped cause it not be able to move. I thought it was ok, and did act soon enough. The humidity was 60% . Probably too close to the fan...still. i had a couple of chicks, fail to internally pip. They seemed not too wet. they did have saddle bag air sacs. I should mention they were upright in egg cartons. Anyway, I left 5 in the shell, sadly,. Hatched 6. Still trying to figure out the best way to hatch shipped eggs.
Were they shrink-wrapped, or were they glued in and stuck? Shrinkwrapping happens in too low humidity, after a chick pips a hole in the shell, and then while the chick is resting, the membrane quickly shrinks around the chick and it suffocates because the dry membrane locks down tight and the chick cannot expand to breathe. If you open these eggs and pull back the tight membrane, the dead dry chick pretty much falls out in a squished ball.
Glueing happens when there is too much humidity...there is wet goop like thick snot in the egg at hatch time (there should never be any fluid of any kind in an egg at hatch day), the chick pips the shell, starts to unzip but the goop then dehydrates and glues the chick in place before it can hatch.
If you open these eggs, you have to soak or peel stuck membrane off the chick, and chick down pulls out with it.
Saddlebag air cells (shook during shipping) very rarely end well either way. If there was a jolt or a temperature differential great enough to dislodge the air cell, it likely also impacted the blastoderm, and any chick that hatches will probably be damaged in some way and have a truncated life. Shipped eggs are always a huge gamble. Even under natural conditions under a setting hen, if developing eggs are bumped too hard during a fight for the nest spot or as a result of a young rooster getting too eager, the embryos can outright die, develop deformities, or hatch seemingly healthy but have hidden health problems.
A fertile egg has begun cell division before the hen has laid it. Sending these eggs in the mail can result in some strange things happening even in the best and most careful of circumstances.
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Kbr42
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Re: Dry Hatching

Post by Kbr42 » Fri May 15, 2020 1:02 pm

@windwalkingwolf thanks for the clarification. They were Glued! Odd thing, I had 4 silkies eggs in the incubator along with those shipped eggs and they hatch without issue. I wonder if the humidity issue was because of their position in the incubator, they were in cartons, where as the silkie eggs were on their sides. No idea.
I think I'm going to try a dry hatch. No water until lockdown. My house is about 25% Humidity anyway. I only have silkies eggs to test. Or maybe i just have figured out how to hatch silkies:)
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