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Author Topic: Poor bobwhite hatch  (Read 5924 times)
galaxie428
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« on: May 08, 2013, 09:19:53 PM »

It has been a few years since I hatched any bobwhites. Before when I did it, I had almost a 95% hatch rate but this year we are not even getting half of the eggs hatching. We have different incubators, one a little giant with no fan. This is the one we move them to hatch. We also have a GQF Hova-Bator with the fan and egg turner. I have a thermometer in both and try to keep the temp around 100 degrees. The chicks that hatch in the little giant with no fan do not seem to ever dry out. It says to fill up all the trays but is that too much?

My last two hatches have been less that half so I increased the heat a little bit in both incubators. This last hatch did better but after being in the incubator all night and most of the day, the chicks still were not dried out so I thought I better move them into the box with food and water. Several died almost immediatly. There is enough heat in the box.

I checked several eggs that did not hatch and most of them had birds in them, they just didn't make it out. Any ideas?

We are holding the eggs down in the basement for 10 days before putting them in the incubator. It is fairly cool down there and that is where we kept them years ago when we raised birds.

I can't figure out what is going on. Thanks for any help.
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Little Bear Game Farm
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Kick 'Em Up - Knock 'Em Down

« Reply #1 on: May 09, 2013, 05:58:42 AM »

Are these puchased eggs or hatching from your own layers?  Why are you holding them for ten days prior to setting?  How long after scheduled hatch date do you pull the plug on the ones that haven't hatched yet?  Not sure exactly what may be happening but a little more info may be beneficial to try to figure it out.
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Chukar and Pheasant Propogation - Trust my advice based on the knowledge that I have not been doing this very long and don't know a lot more than I do know...  But at least I know that I don't know
galaxie428
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« Reply #2 on: May 09, 2013, 07:29:29 AM »

Quote
Are these puchased eggs or hatching from your own layers?

These are from our own birds. I had about 47 BW left over that I bought for dog training.

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Why are you holding them for ten days prior to setting?

We are trying to hold them for as long as we can to get enough to put in the incubator. 10 days gets us around 50-60 eggs. I have read that you can hold them for up to 10 days and it is hard to remember that many years ago but I thought that is what I held them before with a much better hatch rate.

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How long after scheduled hatch date do you pull the plug on the ones that haven't hatched yet?

Usually 3-4 days unless I can hear chirping in the egg.

I moved 18 chicks from the incubator last night, they had been in there for since sometime the night before and still had not gotten dried out. I went ahead and moved them into a brooder box with a heat lamp that is around 100-102 degrees but they have room to move away from the heat if it is too much and they started dying off like crazy. I lost nine of them but there were some in the incubator that didn't look like they were doing well either so it was probably those.

Is the humidity too high and that is why they are not drying out? There is no fan in the incubator either, maybe that would help? I don't remember this being a problem before, it seems like the chicks hatched, almost every egg, dried out in a few hours and i moved them. It seemed very simple. This time I am having a rough time.

Thanks for your help.
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