I’ve incubated a couple of batches of chicks. I’m taking advantage of a peculiar genetic phenomenon called sex-link, where when a red- or buff- colored rooster is bred to barred-colored hens, the offspring are different-colored by sex. In this case, I have a Rhode Island Red rooster and Barred Rock hens. The chicks hatch black, but the male chicks are destined to have the barred pattern, so they have a white “thumbprint” on top of their heads. Voilà, instant sexing of day-old chicks (which is much more accurate than a layman trying to eyeball their teeny genitals to guess). This hybrid “breed” is often called Black Star. They are supposed to be good egg layers, due to coming from two good egg producing breeds, and leveraging heterosis.
I still use the standard cheap-o, foam cooler-style incubator, and the yield out of it still sucks for me. They are really best suited to be operated in a climate-controlled room, and we don’t have any of those! 
But, I’m resigned to the reality of the low yield, as I’m not serious enough about hatching eggs to buy something nicer. This gets me the few replacement hens I need, plus some, if I want. Of the 41 eggs set, I’ve gotten as high as nineteen chicks, and as low as eight.
One interesting accident in my second batch was that I skipped candling the eggs to pull out the non-fertile ones at seven days. I just plain forgot to do it. But, my yield was higher than usual, and more of the eggs hatched on time. So it could be that every time I fiddle with the eggs or cool them down, it causes some to perish or experience delayed maturation. I think I’ll stick to the simpler method in the future.
My yield also seems to be impacted by the fact that my poor, kindly rooster is getting old, and I don’t think he’s able to cover twenty-something ladies anymore. So a good 1/3 of the eggs are infertile. I am hoping to get a replacement red rooster in this batch. I did get some purebred RIR chicks, but fewer. My RIR hens are two+ years old, and it seems it shows up in the viability of their eggs.
This last batch gave me a ton of Black Star roosters. Grr. I will grow them out and butcher them, for lack of anything better to do with them. But they are not very fruitful as a meat breed, so the work to butcher them is not entirely justified. I guess nature is making up for my generous number of ewelambs born by giving me lots of boy chickens!
June 16, 2013 at 7:15 pm
I have the same crappy incubator, compounded in failure this last round by 3 different thermometers reading 3 different temps. Hatch rate: 0. Grrr. I had moved it to a still corner of the basement where temps should be more consistent. Good brand thermometer, and my young roo is um, quite a success at his job. I was really disappointed.
I read that a cheapo greenhouse enclosure can make a good incubator “room” with more consistent temps. I might try it, but I’m leaning towards brooding under hens from now on.
I let a couple of broody hens stay on the job, so I’ve got chicks in the barn to make up for the ones that didn’t hatch in the house.
June 16, 2013 at 9:04 pm
harrietnw — yeah, they aren’t the best design, and to be fair, I think they disclose this in the instructions, that it works best in a room that’s at a constant temp. Have you candled at 7 days to check the viability of your eggs tho? Zero % seems extreme, so maybe your rooster is infertile? I think if there are none growing at 7 days, then I’d blame the rooster. I find that with a young rooster and few hens, I get a pretty good % that are viable at 7 days, at least 2/3.
But then they perish sometime after that, or during or right after hatching. I think that effect is the incubator being too inconsistent in temp as they mature. It seems like such a delicate balance, that they need to mature and hatch right on time in order to have enough energy to get out of the egg quickly and last long enough to figure out how to eat. I get some that have matured too slowly,too, so maybe they attempt to hatch, but their yolk is still half out of the body, and they are all messed up.
Incidentally, I find that my hens don’t have a very high percentage either, maybe 50-75%? Do yours do better?
June 17, 2013 at 3:53 pm
As I understand it, the humidity during incubation is critical as well as the diet of the hen before fertilization. Regular laying feed seems to not be ok. Humidity variations seem to cause deformities such as crooked legs or wings among others. We have the same incubator and decided it was too cruel to continue using it. We’ll be looking for a more controllable environment for the process. (We crossed Barred Rock rooster with a brown leghorn and got a good barred layer of tan eggs with such big combs that we named them the “Elvis’s”) Both birds were of the same age as well.
June 17, 2013 at 6:00 pm
Oh, gosh no, they candle out at 99%. I think I’ve had 2 duds, and 2 that looked like duds and then grew. My 1st attempt sucked, I learned from my mistakes and expected good results this time. But my thermometer started giving implausible readings, I moved in the one that came with the incubator (reads in huge increments), and then put in what I thought was a good one. Not one egg hatched.
Hen brooding is new for me, so hard to gauge ratios. And I’ve seen their egg count grow as they set, so I figure hens are sneaking in there to lay during the daily walkabout.
I have 2 hen mamas now. There are ~6 eggs under them, ~14 chicks swirling between them, 3 chicks lost, a few eggs donated to a faker broody. I’m happy with their output, and I’d be happy with a lousy ratio. The chicks are outside much younger, developing immunity younger, learning from their mothers, semi-integrated into the flock already. I think they’ll be better adults than the ones I incubate, so it’s worth “wasting” some eggs to raise them.
June 18, 2013 at 2:38 pm
Bruce, I believe that’s true about the humidity. I bought a little hygrometer intended for cigar humidors, but what I found is that being in the rainy Northwest, our humidity is almost always high enough, and can often be too high with the water wells filled. I believe this causes “chubby” chicks with an insufficient air pocket in the egg, and they can have trouble hatching. I don’t seem to have problems with leg or wing deformities, just ill-timed hatching and its associated problems.
As far as cruelty, it seems that many sources consider any kind of hatching to be a test of nature- whether they are under hens or in an incubator, only the strongest survive this very rigorous test. Most books recommend not helping chicks that don’t make it on their own, because it could imply that they are genetically compromised. Though, I never do that, I always help them if they seem to need it…
I haven’t read much about diet for hens producing hatching eggs. It would seem to make sense, though, that if the hens are on a very rich diet, their chicks may do better.
June 18, 2013 at 2:44 pm
harrietnw- wow, that’s a pretty bad score for the incubator then, eh? I also have 2 of the little cheap thermometers in mine, they read slightly differently, so I kinda go with an average of the two, but just have them there for redundancy. I have the opposite issue with chicks outside- predators seem to get them more easily, especially with baby ducks. So I like to keep them in the barn for several weeks, then I keep them in a wire coop outside until they are big enough to not easily be picked up. But while they are indoors, I bring them sand grit from our own soil, and greens, so they are still getting exposure to the microbes of the world. I don’t prefer the hens to brood, because it takes them out of laying so long. But I kinda look at “wasting” eggs in hatching as being justified too, because one chick is the same value as a dozen eggs if I sell it.
June 21, 2013 at 3:06 am
Greetings, When is the time to make the deposit on a lamb? Peace, Margaret Biggs
On Sun, Jun 16, 2013 at 9:59 AM, The Collie Farm Blog wrote:
> ** > Michelle Canfield posted: “Ive incubated a couple of batches of > chicks. Im taking advantage of a peculiar genetic phenomenon called > sex-link, where when a red- or buff- colored rooster is bred to > barred-colored hens, the offspring are different-colored by sex. In this > case, I hav”
July 21, 2013 at 5:45 pm
The true Black Star is a specifically developed chicken for egg laying rather than a true cross of BRs and RIRs. They don’t have a great carcass for eating and they are as thrifty an egg layer as the commercial leghorn. But the sex linkage is of course the same with the heritage crosbreds I had a couple Black Stars. They are nice looking hens until their first molt. They continue to put so much effort into egg laying that they never get a full set of feathers after that. I also found them to develop thinner shells with age. At this point the commercial birds would have been removed from the flock.
Do you think humidity has much to do with your hatching problems? I find keeping up with the water reservoir easier in the warmer weather of summer. And I get better hatch rates then as well. I like to hatch in summer so I can put them outside sooner without as much rain and cold nights to worry about. But sometimes I do it so late that I don’t get them laying until the Spring. I put them out in a hoop house at one month with electronet fencing. They free range in a week or two when I open the hoop house door. Chicks run through the fence like water through a strainer unless the dog is parked outside but they return at night to the hoop house.
July 21, 2013 at 11:17 pm
cathylee, I’m no expert in chicken breeds; but from my reading on Wiki, backyard chickens and McMurray hatchery’s website, the names Black Star and Black Rock always refers to the first generation cross between a RIR and Barred Rock. Thus, it’s not really even a “breed” per se,and it’s not recognized by the American Poultry Association; so is really just a casual term people use to describe the hybrid, maybe because the name “sex link” isn’t very catchy. Interesting that you’ve had performance issues with yours, since most people seem to really tout their quality and hybrid vigor. I’ll find out I guess!
Re- humidity in the incubator, certainly books say this is very important. I live in a pretty humid climate though, and have put a little hygrometer in my incubator, and it always reads high, whether I put water in there or not. This is another variable that’s hard to control in the little foam cooler incubator I think, and I suspect is one of the multiple contributors to why they don’t work very well.