Hello all, hoping for your insight.
I've just hatched a bunch of chicks, and am puzzled by the result. I'd like to learn where things went wrong, and how to better handle things next time.
Using a Hovabator, which has given sterling service over the years, I set 23 Ameraucana eggs, and 11 Leghorn eggs. That is, eggs from white hybrid leghorns crossed to an Ameraucana roo. This is my first time hatching Leghorn eggs.
As usual, I removed the eggs from the rocker on Day 18, increased humidity, and locked down. As usual, the Ameraucana chicks started pipping and zipping on Day 20, and were pretty much all dry and fluffy and toddling around on Day 21. (Of 23 eggs, 21 were fertile; all 21 hatched, and 20 survived.)
The Leghorns, not so much. They started pipping on Day 21, and by the end of Day 22, there were four Leghorn cross chicks (three normal, but one with such a big abdomen that its feet couldn't reach the floor, and odd, small eyes), and no further activity in the incubator. One egg was partly zipped, then stopped. I gave the hatch one more night, then this morning, Day 23, I gave up and investigated.
Of the eggs, one was infertile... okay; one had died halfway along...it happens; and four were feathered and at the point of pipping, but did not, and died in the shell. As did the one that half zipped, then quit.
I'm wondering if the poor hatch with the Leghorn eggs was due in part to the difference in egg size, and that they therefore needed different management. "Chicken eggs need 21 days", they say. Ameraucanas have always had their main event on Day 20, so do Leghorns need more like 22 days? And following that thought, do they need that extra day in the rocker, rather than in lockdown? If redoing this mixed egg size hatch, should the Leghorn eggs go into the incubator rocker a day before the Ameraucana eggs, to synchronize lockdown? Or should I not do mixed egg size hatches? If I do a straight batch of Leghorn eggs, should I still give them an extra day in the rocker before lockdown?
I think I've done mixed egg size hatches before (been a few years), but never had this sort of failure rate, and not so tied to one breed.
Any insight or similar experiences?
Thank you for any help.
I've just hatched a bunch of chicks, and am puzzled by the result. I'd like to learn where things went wrong, and how to better handle things next time.
Using a Hovabator, which has given sterling service over the years, I set 23 Ameraucana eggs, and 11 Leghorn eggs. That is, eggs from white hybrid leghorns crossed to an Ameraucana roo. This is my first time hatching Leghorn eggs.
As usual, I removed the eggs from the rocker on Day 18, increased humidity, and locked down. As usual, the Ameraucana chicks started pipping and zipping on Day 20, and were pretty much all dry and fluffy and toddling around on Day 21. (Of 23 eggs, 21 were fertile; all 21 hatched, and 20 survived.)
The Leghorns, not so much. They started pipping on Day 21, and by the end of Day 22, there were four Leghorn cross chicks (three normal, but one with such a big abdomen that its feet couldn't reach the floor, and odd, small eyes), and no further activity in the incubator. One egg was partly zipped, then stopped. I gave the hatch one more night, then this morning, Day 23, I gave up and investigated.
Of the eggs, one was infertile... okay; one had died halfway along...it happens; and four were feathered and at the point of pipping, but did not, and died in the shell. As did the one that half zipped, then quit.
I'm wondering if the poor hatch with the Leghorn eggs was due in part to the difference in egg size, and that they therefore needed different management. "Chicken eggs need 21 days", they say. Ameraucanas have always had their main event on Day 20, so do Leghorns need more like 22 days? And following that thought, do they need that extra day in the rocker, rather than in lockdown? If redoing this mixed egg size hatch, should the Leghorn eggs go into the incubator rocker a day before the Ameraucana eggs, to synchronize lockdown? Or should I not do mixed egg size hatches? If I do a straight batch of Leghorn eggs, should I still give them an extra day in the rocker before lockdown?
I think I've done mixed egg size hatches before (been a few years), but never had this sort of failure rate, and not so tied to one breed.
Any insight or similar experiences?
Thank you for any help.