Oodles Of Embryos!

 Hey, we got us embryos here!

Out of the 28 eggs I set in the ReptiPro, here's how things shake out:
16 have embryos!
Also, 2 more *might* be early quitters, but I'm leaving them in to be sure. I'll check again on lockdown day (three days before our hatch day of April 8-9th) and pull any definite quitters then.
10 eggs were duds (never developed), these include three bantam eggs and eggs from Slick Charlie (Partridge Rock, Chickam class of '21) and Cheerio (Red Star mix, Chickam class of '19).

Of the original 28, eggs from Spork (Barred Rock, Chickam class of '21), Sesame (Smokey Pearl, Chickam class of '22) and Brick (bantam Cochin/d'Uccle mix, Chickam class of '19) all have embryos! Only one other bantam egg besides Brick's has an embryo, the other 3 were duds.
Two of the three eggs from my local friend have embryos, the other was a dud.

I kinda blame so many duds (and possibly the early quitters) on our extra-harsh and cold winter. Even though we gathered eggs 2-4 times a day, they were always very cold. Several feet of snow on the ground since December 31st, and we still have low 40's days/low 20's nights (I think we've only broken 50 degrees two days since Jan 1), another storm moving in today.

Other than my original Govee unit failing (they replaced it super quick, I'm very impressed with their customer service), all of the equipment is working like a champ--no temperature spikes/drops from the ReptiPro.

Fingers crossed for lots of healthy lil' chicks! 

We Are 'Go' For Our 15th Year Of Chickam !

28 C-Seeds have been placed in the ReptiPro...now to wait for three weeks!

 

All of the equipment has been calibrated and is working great!

The red things on the left are a toy called 'water weasels', each one has a thermometer probe in it--one goes to the Spot Check, the other to a new Thermoworks Chef's Alarm. Yes, the Chef's Alarm unit is technically for the BBQ...but hey, it works. It does temperature and humidity, you can set a high/low range on it and it'll alert you to any deviations. As for the use of the water weasels--it's a hack:  the water weasel simulates an egg, and inserting the temp probe gives you the most accurate idea of how the weather is inside an egg! This is vital, because there is a very narrow temperature range required by eggs in order for them to hatch. Too hot or too cold, and no chicks.

The last two years we've had such a miserable hatch, plus chick deaths, that I made some changes this year...and having four thermometers and two hygrometers is one of them!

The shot glass in the bottom holds water, you need 55% humidity in the incubator. The square white thing on the second shelf is the sensor for the Govee thermometer/hygrometer, it synchs with my phone and charts the temperature/humidity every 15 minutes, with the Govee you can set a high/low range and it'll alert you to any excursions outside that range so you can adjust your incubator.

On the top right is a new thermometer/hygrometer--between the Govee and this one, I know the humidity on each shelf.

I'll candle the eggs in 10 days to see how many embryos we have.

Meanwhile, they'll get turned 5 times a day!

What's This?

Hey look, it's 28 Chickam eggs!
They go into the ReptiPro in about 6 hours!

This will be our 15th year of doing Chickam, yay! 
Because we are gluttons for punishment and powerless to resist cute fluffies...

All but three of these eggs are from our flock--sadly, when I candled the eggs tonight, 10 of the 12 eggs we got locally were badly cracked from repeated pecking (it seems our friend has an egg eater in his flock!)

#1-3 are the eggs from our friend. I know who laid some of our eggs: #4 Brick (bantam Cochin mix), 5 Slick Charlie (Partridge Rock), 6 Spork (Barred Rock), 7 Sesame (Smokey Pearl), 9 Cheerio (Cochin/Americaunas/Red Star mix).

There are 4 bantam eggs (#15-18, which will no doubt hatch first), the rest are a mix across our flock. I believe #19-20 are from Frittata (Danish Brown Leghorn), Pearl (Sussex mix) or Boombox (White Leghorn).

All of the equipment is running perfectly and ready to go!

Gearing Up For Chickam...

So I'm doing my best to avoid a repeat of the chick deathfest that has plagued Chickam for the last two years.

Chicks need to incubate at a temperature of 99.5, with humidity for day 1-18 at 50%, 65% days 19-21. Nobody does it better than a hen.

Keeping the temp/humidity consistent inside an incubator is generally agreed to be a MASSIVE PAIN. Since 2/6 I've been test running the ReptiPro and all of our assorted devices (including some nifty new ones!) that track temperature/humidity...I wanted to work out all possible bugs. Everything got calibrated (ice bath AND salt method), several times just to be sure.

Thanks to a generous Chickam patron, we were able to get some new equipment. The first is a Chef's Alarm temperature monitor (yes, it's for use in barbecuing. Hey, any port in a storm). You can set the alarm to alert you if the temps go above/below the range you specify, and it uses a probe (I had to order a shorter one than the one pictured) that is going inside a water weasel on one of the incubator racks. Our old Spot Check temp probe will go in a water weasel on the other rack.

Next is a Govee Smart thermometer/Hygrometer. VERY accurate, the little unit goes inside the incubator and synchs to your smartphone--and tracks temp/humidity spikes and drops by hour, day, week and month.

 

Lastly, I got a new digital hygrometer, so I could have it on one shelf and the Govee on the other.

I even dismantled the ReptiPro in order to clean out dust/chick dander from its innards. Which was a good thing, as I didn't realize just how nasty it had gotten in there over the years! I took the back off to find this:

And...

When you can write 'Ick!' in the dust, you know it needs cleaning.

In the end, everything was thoroughly cleaned.

I've poured over my hatch records going back to the beginning of time. Read articles online hour after hour until my eyeballs are about to fall out & my brain is overstuffed on high altitude hatching. I came up with little that was new to me, which is good--but I think I figured out the cause of the chicks dying and have done everything I can to prevent it.

One thing about the chicks that died last year, was that they ALL died 4 days post-hatch, within a few hours of each other, and all displayed identical symptoms.

It's a red flag--a chick survives it's first 1-3 days living off the last of the egg yolk it absorbs just before hatching. It's why hatchery chicks survive 1-3 days of shipping w/no food or water. I suspect our incubation temps/humidity were off without us knowing it, which caused internal defects to form. I think this made it impossible for the chicks to process any food they ate post-hatch--and they weakened & died.

It would fit. The chicks did tend to walk like their gut bothered them...

When I calibrated everything this year, it turns out that the old hygrometer was reading 11% too humid & the Spot Check temperature 1 degree too cold! It's amazing we got anything to hatch last year.

Hopefully that's now under control. Hatching at high altitudes is already hard enough, there is an unavoidable ding to your hatch rate of 50% or so. No magic bullet for a great hatch at our altitude, but every little 'help' counts at 4800 feet!

Meanwhile, here are the eggs we'll choose from!

Ours (some we know are from certain hens):

And eggs from our local friend:

Getting these eggs was a whole 'nother mini-adventure that involved trying to drive out to his house the day after our area had a voluntary evacuation from flooding by the lastest in a series of Atmospheric River megastorms. Our friend is WAY out across the valley with no other houses within miles...

...so of course we got stuck in the mud.

We eventually got loose, but had to give up and go home. Our poor car--!

Kind friend met us in town the next day with the eggs.

So, we're as ready as we're gonna be! The eggs go into the incubator this Saturday, March 18th for a target hatch date of Easter weekend, April 8-9th. BUT--as usual, start checking our YouTube channel a day or so BEFORE that, as high altitude chicks tend to hatch early!

I'll post updates on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/chickam2008

When Chickam starts, you can watch it here--if you tune in and see EGGS instead of Jack, the hatch has begun! Click on the 'Notify Me' icon to get an alert from YouTube when we go live:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CteVAyCD2iY