The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: shep53 on August 18, 2014, 06:41:44 pm
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Bought my friend 6 eggs on ebay left them to sit for 24 hrs as recommended and put under a very experienced bantam just before due we could hear live chicks and mother was hovering but nothing happened , today we had a look at the 4 fertile eggs and the shell took a lot to crack all chicks dead , home bred broods have all been fine , so why was the shell so thick and hard , too much grit???
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What breed were they I find my marans have incredibly thick shells! So much so if I hatch any next year I will happily step in and help them earlier than normal so I don't lose so many!
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We don't feed grit to hens we want to produce hatching eggs. Layers pellets should contain all the calcium they require.
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old English game bantems
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We've had a lot of dead chicks near hatching this year and I'm putting it down to lack of humidity during incubation. I've got my last lot in the incubators now and have used a moisture meter due to so many problems with earlier hatches. I've rarely added water at the early stages before but on this hatch I'm topping it up every 5 or so days. I think it's not so much the thick shells but that the egg has lost too much moisture and the membrane has dried out.
Just my theory. I'll find out if it's right in a week or so.
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Been a very strange year for hatching, too dry mostly.
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Its either rained or very heavy dew every day while she's been sitting so plenty of moisture in the air , as I said home broods 2 in the last 2 weeks and 1 today all no problem . The shells really took a hard hit with a pocket knife to even crack ??