Author: dheltzel

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Humidity and hatching

Humidity in the incubator is the most confusing part of hatching chicks. Unlike temperature, where you can aim for a number that you know works, RH is, well, relative. Relative humidity (RH) is a percentage of moisture present on the air compared to it being fully saturated. Technically, you can’t go more than 100%, though I have seen RH meters show higher than 100.

Why is RH important? During incubation, eggs with live chicks release water vapor and CO2 to the atmosphere. This is normal and necessary or the chicks will drown. If the air is too dry (low RH) then they lose water too rapidly, dehydrating sometimes to the point of death. If the air is too wet (high RH) then they risk drowning, or not being able to maneuver into a position to hatch.

So what is the right RH? It really and truly depends on a number of variables:

  • Porosity of the egg shell – ever noticed some eggs have a glossy surface, while others are more matte? They lose water at different rates at the same RH. Eggs laid early in the hen’s cycle tend to be less porous than later. Some breed have different shell types. I believe that the dark eggs, especially those with a glossy finish, like some Marans and Welsummers, lose water less readily and so need a lower RH.
  • Size of the eggs – This is a simple surface area to volume ratio thing.
  • Age – Eggs that have been stored for a while have already lost some moisture to the air, before they even get into the incubator.
  • Washed vs unwashed – Washed eggs lose some or all of their “bloom” that protects them from moisture loss.

There may be other factors, but you can see from this list that arriving at the “right” RH for a mixed group of eggs is pretty much impossible. So what to do?

Experience is the best teacher here, and I mean experience with a specific incubator and specific breeds of poultry. Some breeds/hybrids are so vigorous and easy to hatch that any RH seems ok, others are more finicky. Peafowl tend to need a much higher RH during the setting phase (before “lockdown” or moving to the hatcher. Coturnix quail want a lower RH during all stages. Turkeys need lot RH during setting and very high for hatching. You get the idea.

Generally, you can only add water to increase RH, if you remove the water and the RH is still too high, that is hard to manage. So, I start out with low RH and increase it if needed (if I get a bad hatch). During the course of the hatching season (Winter to Summer mostly), the RH trends upward no matter what I do. Nice that that correlates to the more porous shells of summertime.

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Is your cheap incubator good enough to hatch chicks?

Recently a friend had a bad first hatch in a new incubator, and asked my advice. I recommended running the incubator without eggs and using a digital thermometer with a corded probe to record the temp in various places where the eggs would sit. A min/max capability is very useful as well. Here is one I bought that seems accurate enough for me: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07L88FYNW

Draw a diagram of the egg area and write down the min/max in each location. Check areas until you get a pretty comprehensive picture of the temperature gradient. So, how much is too much? I cabinet incubators, I frequently see a temp gradient of a whole degree between the top and bottom shelf. The newest eggs should go on the top and the older eggs moved down to take advantage of the internal heat the growing chicks produce. However, in a tabletop incubator I think 1 degree across the area is too much.

If there is a large gradient, that would indicate that the air flow is not sufficient, or not properly designed. That can be very hard to fix. Clean the fans if the incubator is not new, and check that they are running.

If the temps are pretty consistent across the entire egg area, what’s next? What is the temp you recorded ? Forced air incubators are generally run at 99.5 to 100.0 degrees F. If you are in that range and still had a poor hatch, check the accuracy of the thermometers against a child’s digital fever thermometer. Put it into the incubator, where the thermometer probe is located. Wait about 5 minutes to get the thermometer up to temp, then open the incubator, push the button and close it quickly. The thermometer will record the temp as long as it is increasing. When it finally beeps, remove it and compare it to the thermometer you are testing. If this is the incubator’s thermostat, and it is not matching, try to adjust the temperature “offset” or else adjust your incubator set temp to correct for the difference. Wait a while and retest until you get it in the range of 99.5 to 100.

That’s all I have to say about temps. Humidity is also important, we will discuss that in the next entry.

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Statistical probabilities with the blue egg gene

For a lot of my project birds, I am working with the blue egg gene to create blue or green eggs. A green egg is just blue, plus some brown color. This gene is tricky to work with for 2 reasons:

  • It is dominant – that means that a hen that lays a blue egg might only have 1 copy of the blue egg gene and so could make a chick that carries no copies.
  • The cockerels never lay eggs, so you can’t tell if they have even 1 copy of this dominant gene

Short of paying for a genetic test, the best I can do is to compute probabilities of having at least 1 copy of the gene. Because there seems to be a shortage of layer chicks this year, and the pullets that I am finished with from my Isabel Welbar project are such great layers, I decided to put them into my Opal Legbar pen. Until last week, there were 5 cockerels in there. Two are homozygous for the blue egg gene and the other 3 are hetereozygous. Some of the pullets lay olive eggs and some lay medium brown eggs, about half and half.

So, for all of us that loved word problems in high school math, here is a chance to apply that. Statistical probabilities are portions of 100%, and this is a binary possibility (lay green eggs or not). So, I’m going to compute the chance of getting non-green and subtract that from 100%.

60% of the fathers have 1 copy of the white egg gene (non-blue), they will have a 50% chance of passing that to their progeny, so the chance of getting a white egg gene from the father is 30% (.5 x .6). The chance of getting a white egg gene is 100% from the brown egg pullets and 50% from the green egg pullets. Given half of the pullets lay brown, the chance of getting a white egg gene for the mother is 75%. To lay a non-green egg, the chick must get a white egg gene from both parents (white is recessive to blue). So we multiply the 2 probabilities (.75 x .3) and get 22.5% (chance of non-green). Subtract that from 100% and we get a 77.5% chance of each chick laying a green egg.

On February 15, I removed the 3 Opal cockerels that have a copy of the white egg gene, leaving only the 2 that have 2 copies of the blue egg gene. It takes some time to ensure the hens are not retaining sperm from the removed cockerels, but once that passes, the probabilities change. Since only 1 copy of the blue egg gene is needed to turn the daughters eggs green, the chance of green eggs will go to 100% very soon.

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Genetic testing of chickens

I have started using a genetic testing laboratory in Florida to test some of my breeders for the blue egg gene. The process is easy, but not cheap, and results can be disappointing. This last batch I tested all 5 of my Opal Legbar cockerels and 2 of the best looking pullets. The entire flock was sired by a genetically tested cockerel that was homozygous for blue eggs, so the expected results were to get at least half the flock to test homozygous (meaning they have 2 copies of the blue egg gene and so will breed “true” for blue eggs).

Of the 3 cockerels, only 2 were homozygous. I have since removed the other 3 to the “bull pen” where extra roosters live. This means that soon, all the eggs I collect from the Opals will produce chicks that have at least 1 copy of the blue egg gene (and therefore lay blue eggs, as that trait is dominant over white eggs). The conclusion from all this is that starting in April, every Opal pullet chick that hatches will have a (nearly) 100% chance of laying blue eggs. I say nearly because is it possible for a pullet to store sperm from one of the removed cockerels for several weeks, but generally breeders observe that the more recent breedings take precedence over the older breeding, making this less and less likely as time passes.

Now, as for the 2 pullets, they both tested heterozygous. That means they will lay blue eggs (and they do), but half their offspring will inherit a gene for white eggs. This makes them less valuable as the genetic basis for future breeders, as all their offspring would need to be tested to see if they were homozygous.

In a week or 2, I will be sending off samples of other pullets to test. Once I identify 1 or more homozygous pullets, they can be paired with one of the 2 cockerels and will be the foundation of next year’s flock of all homozygous Opal Legbars.

Good breeding practices can be tedious and/or expensive, but it is necessary to advance the breeding of these exciting birds.

If you would like info about the lab that does the testing, their website is https://iqbirdtesting.com/

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Locally bred and hatched poultry

Are you concerned that when you buy chicks some might turn out to be roosters? Very disappointing, and in most cases the seller is not going to help you with your problem. You can buy from us with confidence because we breed several different breeds that are easily sexable as chicks, and I will stand behind that by replacing (if I have a suitable replacement pullet) or refunding your money.

We can do this because we use the genetics of chick down color to show the sex of each chick as it hatches. With the autosexing breeds, the difference is substantial, making them sexable as soon as they are hatched. Read about our guarantee here

There are details about each breed we raise in the links above. All chicks will be vaccinated for Marek’s. Please read our page on vaccinations for information about caring for vaccinated chicks. Only chickens get Marek’s, so ducks, turkeys, guineas and quail are not vaccinated.

We try to keep the availability page sort of up to date, but this is a challenge as some go quickly. There is also a waiting list I can add you too, but honestly this is difficult to keep up with as well.

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Isabel Crele Welsummers

My highest priority project is to add the gene for lavender into my line of Gold Welbars. I am now on the F4 generation for this project and making good progress. Egg color has been lighter than I want, but this generation has started to come close to the color of the Welbar and Lavender Marans. This pic shows the darkest egg gathered in the last 3 days from 4 different breeds, left to right:

  • Isabel Crele Welsummer pullet (Gold Welbar + the lavender gene)
  • Lavender Marans
  • Crele Welsummer (Welbar)
  • Copper Marans
Eggs of various dark egg layers

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Changes for 2023

Every year I “tweak” the way things are run with chick hatching. Mostly that is getting some new breeds and getting rid of other breeds. In 2023, I am planning to cut back on the numbers of chicks I hatch for sale. Most of my flocks are smaller now and will produce fewer eggs than last year. I want to concentrate more on my genetics work to create new color varieties. For anyone wanting new and unique birds for their flocks, I will often have surplus chicks with great genetic variation.

Breeds that are new in 2023

In 2022, I added several new breeds of chickens, plus my first geese. After expanding my flocks, I should have these to sell in 2023:

  • Ayam cemani – these chickens are almost mythical. All black, and I mean completely black. Their blood is red and their eggs are normal (light brown), but everything else is jet black – eyes, skin,combs,wattles,flesh, even their bones. These are prized for their meat in some Asian cultures, but are really just pet chickens, IMO.
  • Ayam ketawa – the Laughing Chicken. These are close to wild jungle fowl in appearance and behavior. Rooster’s laugh is supposed to sound like laughter. Haven’t found that to be true in my flock yet.
  • True Blue Opal Legbars – Previous years, the Opal Legbar chicks could end up laying light brown eggs instead of blue. Because of breakthroughs in genetic blood tests, I hope to use only roosters with 2 copies of the blue egg gene, guaranteeing that their daughters will lay blue eggs.
  • Sexlinked Ameraucanas in black and lavender – These are the culmination of years of genetic work to overcome the greatest drawback of standard bred Ameraucanas – they are not sexable at hatch. These sexlinks are sexable, and they are pure Ameraucanas. Blacks are easily sexed, lavenders a bit harder, but still sexable at a much younger age than the Ameraucanas I used to sell as straight run only.
  • Sexlinked Olive Eggers – These were new in 2022. What is new this year is that I am using Copper Marans instead of lavender Marans for the black sexlinks. Hopefully that will produce darker green eggs.
  • Lavender Olive Egger project – Unique line of autosexing lavender birds that lay medium brown or olive colored eggs. Project is still not complete, but offering some of these for sale for the first time. They are Welsummers that contain genes for sexlinked barring (making them autosexing) and lavender, as well as some having a copy of the blue egg gene making their eggs dark green.
  • Jumbo Coturnix quail – 2 color varieties and a sexlinked hybrid of the 2 for those interested in raising all females for egg production
  • Shetland ducks – a lightweight egg layer breed that is calmer than the Campbells and Welsh Harlequins I have raised in past years. They are also super rare, so having more people keep flocks of these is a help in conserving them.
  • Hybrid laying ducks – I am taking hints from Metzer’s hatchery. They sell a hybrid duck called a Golden 300. They don’t say what they use to create the hybrid, but looking at the pictures, it seems pretty obvious that they are using Khaki Campbell drakes over Blue or Black Swedish hens. The Campbells are top-notch layers, but much too nervous for my taste. My flock of Shetland ducks are much calmer, more like the Swedish breed, but lighter in weight, and a result, probably better and more efficient layers, so why not use them instead of Swedish? I recently obtained some nice looking Khaki drakes and will be pairing them with some of the Shetland ducks. This will be a new cross, so no track record here, but if you are looking for locally bred laying ducks, I think these may be just the ticket. My goal with this hybrid are ducks that look like, and lay like, pure Khaki Campbells, but have a calmer disposition. Oh, and as a bonus, the ducklings are sex-linked, males will be black and females will be khaki (brown).
  • Pilgrim geese – Autosexing geese. These are medium sized and a very practical breed if you want to try adding geese to your flock. Goslings that are hand reared become deeply imprinted on humans. Geese are often used for protection of other birds. They are large and can be intimidating for the smaller predators.

Breeds that are being retired in 2023

This will be the last year I have these chicks available. I would love to find a local breeder to take over supplying these chicks. Contact me if you are interested.

  • Lavender Marans (keeping Copper Marans)
  • Lavender Cochin bantams (keeping mottled frizzles)
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Incubation Notes

Cleaning eggs to be incubated

I often have some very dirty eggs that I want to try to hatch. That is not ideal, but for valuable eggs it is worth trying. Some days it seems like all of the eggs I collect are dirty. The recommendation is to wash them in water that is 10 – 15 degrees warmer than the egg. This prevents the porous shell from pulling the dirty water and any contaminants into the shell. I have been doing this for some time now, and for the last year I have used Tek Trol to disinfect the incubator and the eggs.

Hatching in tabletop incubators

I incubate eggs in cabinet incubators, but I try not to hatch chicks in those, as it creates quite a mess and also, I prefer to raise the humidity and drop the temps for hatching. Because the environment needed for hatching is somewhat different, I prefer to hatch in tabletop incubators, not cabinets.

Temperatures

  • Incubation 99.5 to 100
  • Hatching 98.5 to 99.5

Humidity

  • Incubation 30% – 40%
  • Hatching 60% to 95%

The biggest issue I have with the cheap styrofoam incubators is that they are underpowered and hard to clean. The Genesis from GQF is the exception regarding power, it is digital and has a much more powerful heating element – but it costs more. During hatch, chicks are not nearly as sensitive to cooler temps. They are, after all, mere hours away from being housed in a brooder that is kept around 95 degrees. This makes the cheap incubators more valuable for hatching than for the actual incubation period.

Cleaning styrofoam incubators is another matter. Anything that touches the styrofoam tends to stick or even embed itself. Better made, hard plastic incubators like the Brinseas or R-COM’s are a breeze to clean. To prevent a hard to clean mess, I line the bottom of the styrofoam incubator with a disposable “puppy pad”, like this: 

Cleaning styrofoam incubators is another matter. Anything that touches the styrofoam tends to stick or even embed itself. Better made, hard plastic incubators like the Brinseas or R-COM’s are a breeze to clean. To prevent a hard to clean mess, I line the bottom of the styrofoam incubator with a disposable  puppy pad. You could try reusable cloth towel that are thoroughly washed between hatches, but I find the disposable pads save me a lot of time. Put the pad in first, then the plastic bottom that holds water. Some water might wick up the towels when you are filling the humidity channels, but it will dry safely.

I hate the metal grid that came with my incubator. Plastic grids work much better. If you only have the metal, buy some coarse needlepoint canvas from the craft store. take measurements with you when purchasing, you will need to cut to size.

On top of the grid, I used rubberized shelf liner, overlapping as needed. This stuff is reusable, but it gets quite dirty and will need soaking for a while after each use.

Finally, the unit is turned on and brought up to temperature. This is where the more powerful units really save time. The Genesis can come up to temp in an hour or less. When the temps are where you want them, meaning the interior of the incubator and the water in the bottom are warmed, you can move the eggs into the hatcher.

Separating chicks in the hatcher

What to do if you are hatching multiple breeds or pens and can’t be sure you can tell the chicks apart? You can use mesh bags to keep the chicks separate in the hatcher. I use these supplies:

These baskets have smooth bottoms, so always line them with the non-slip shelf liner. The bags zip closed. I put the eggs into a basket then put it basket and all, into a bag and zip it shut. I fold the extra part of the bag under the basket, then put it into the hatcher.

Thermometers

I want to explain the ones I use and why.

  • cheap digital humidistat and thermometer combos with sensor on a wire that make it placeable anywhere. I put these in every incubator, sometimes several. Good to glance at often as they are precise enough to show issues like faulty thermostats or heating elements. Humidity is usually “close enough” to accurate.
  • IR “gun” – these are so fun to use, esp if they have a laser pointer. I use these for checking floor temps in brooders. Did you know chicks will chase a red laser dot like a cat?
  • Braun ThermoScan 5 Digital Ear Thermometer (IRT6500US) Just got this, but it will be my goto for spot checking the incubators and tuning their thermostats. This is what commercial hatcheries use and their incubator manufacturers recommend. It is a contact thermometer that takes about a second to register a temp of the egg shell. Take the temp around the widest part of the egg, and take several egg shell temps. The “ideal” is 100.2, but .5 either side is acceptable. I tested mine on the few eggs I have in my Brinsea cabinet and they were 100.2. I have been getting very high hatches in that incubator, so now I can tune all my others to be this same temp.

Price shop for the Braun, I have seen it for $29 and another place was over $100 for the same model. The 6 and 7 models are more expensive, but the extra features (remember more past temps, adjust the display color for different temps to indicate fever) are not useful for egg temps.

Last year I used a child’s digital thermometer to check my other thermometers. Not doing that anymore, now I intend to adjust each thermostat to keep the egg shell temp and note the readings of the other thermometers in each incubator, so I can pick up variances quickly, but always go to the Braun for the real check.

Documentation

Incubation HandbookDownload
Incubation Temperature ChartDownload
RCOM Max 20Download
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Cabinet Incubators

I have experience with several makes and models of cabinet incubators.

Reviews

Dickey Incubators

Cheapest to buy new. Sturdy, all wood construction. Excellent basic incubator, this is certainly the best value for the money.

GQF Manufacturing

These are the most commonly used in the US. Parts are readily available from multiple vendors. Often available used and used ones can be a great value if you are handy and can take them apart to clean and replace any parts that have failed. Middle of the road, this is a good choice for a first cabinet, as lots of people can help you with use, care and maintenance.

Brinsea

Imported from the UK, these are expensive to buy and parts are expensive, if you can even find them in the US. New, they come more complete than the others, including egg trays and spacers that are extra for the others. All that said, this is where I put my most valuable eggs, the ones that can be tricky to hatch (geese, peafowl, etc).

General Comments

  • Why do all the manufacturers insist on using cheap hardware? These are major investments that people intend to use for decades, so why not use stainless hardware to avoid the inevitable rust? It could not cost that much extra when building them and you would gain a reputation for quality just from that alone! It just makes sense.
  • Brinsea and R-COM are the top of the line in non-commercial incubators. If you have the money to invest, buy them instead of the cheaper domestic incubators, you will have better hatches. It is interesting to me that on the Strombergs page the Brinsea 580 is exactly twice the price of a GQF 1502, and the 580 holds exactly twice as many eggs. I see many cases where people get 2 or more 1502’s. If you planned to buy 2 1502’s, why not get the Brinsea 580 instead? If I were starting over buyng incubators, that is what I would do.

Documentation

GQF Cabinet Model 2013Download

Follow these instructions to re-calibrate your Command Center 3258

  1. Set your LCD to (SET TEMP 100) degrees and give the incubator time to stabilize.
  2. Turn off the incubator 
  3. Press the Cooler and the Auto buttons at the same time and hold them down
  4. While holding these buttons down, turn power back on to incubator… hold buttons for (6) seconds
  5. After holding the two buttons for at least (6) seconds, release them.
  6. You will see “SET TEMP” and either a (+ or – number) (example: -1.0)  The factory default is -1.2
  7. Use the temperature up or down button to adjust the command center.  (Ex.  If you are 1 degree high (101), then you’ll need to use the cooler button to lower temp. – 1 degree) You can add or take away temperature until it matches the desired instrument (thermometer/hygrometer) you are using.
  8. Run the incubator until your thermometer and LCD are reading as close together as possible. —- Humidity—-
  9. While the incubator is still on, press and hold the cooler and warmer buttons for 5 seconds. When released, the humidity calibration screen will appear. Here you can adjust the humidity to your trusted hygrometer. TO EXIT THIS MODE: Either press and hold the cooler and warmer buttons for (5) seconds and release. Or you can turn off the incubator and then turn it back on again.

Dickey Incubator Instructions

Brinsea OvaEasy 190,380,580,Advance Series 2Download
Brinsea Advance Humidity Pump OE and TLC KitDownload

GQF Incubator – replacing rusty screws

I am cleaning and refurbishing my 1502 cabinet incubators. I bought stainless steel hardware to replace the rusty ones that GQF uses. Why can’t they put stainless hardware on a $700 incubator? The environment inside an incubator is warm and humid, perfect for rust formation.

For future reference, or to help others doing the same, these are the specs for the hardware: #8-32 x 3/4 inch flat head machine screws #8-32 x 1 inch machine screws (only a few of these, but you could use them in place of the 3/4 inch ones) matching hex nuts #8 x 1/2 phillips hex head sheet metal screws

I will update this if I replace other fasteners.

Some of the screws were too rusted to extract. I used Duro Extend to treat the screws to delay further rusting. It would have been better to replace these with stainless before they got this bad, but sometimes you have to make do.

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Vaccinating Chicks

Equipment and supplies to vaccinate chicks for Marek’s

This is a reference list for my use, but sharing it with others seems like a great idea as well.

Specialized equipment and supplies

Updated prices as of August 2024. These are the best prices I could find. With shipping considerations you might find some are cheaper at other places.

Other supplies

  • small disposable plastic cups (for mixing partial dose vaccine). I have started using the empty vaccine vials.
  • small tweezers (to section vaccine disk and pull 1 piece out)
  • empty vaccine jar (or similar) with permanent rubber stopper (needed if you do partial doses)
  • small pliers to remove sealing band from vaccine bottle
  • Rubbing alcohol and cotton balls to sterilize the tops of the diluent bottles

Work area

  • well lit and clean
  • absorbent work surface (newspapers or paper towels)

Storage considerations

The vaccine comes with 2 parts:

  • Diluent – 200ml glass bottle. Can be stored at room temperature, but I refrigerate it.
  • The freeze dried wafer with the virus in a small glass bottle – Needs to be stored between 2 and 7 degrees C (35 – 45 degrees F)