Round 3 hatch rate

Our last hatch of the year netted 11 chicks out of 20 eggs.  I ordered the hatching eggs from the same place I bought my cuckoo marans eggs, and they were all supposed to be black australorps this time.  Imagine my surprise to see this little naked-necked chick --- must have gotten a turken mixed in by mistake!  Regardless of variety, this batch of chicks seemed to be the perkiest yet, with every chick that pipped hatching and staying alive.

Even though my hatch rate was a hair worse this time compared to the cuckoo marans hatch rate from last time, I was happy to get so many living chicks.  One day into the incubation process, we had a two hour power outage, and the temperature in the incubator dropped to 84 degrees.  Sure enough, when I autopsied the unhatched eggs, six of them were "yolkers", meaning that the eggs either were infertile or the chicks died within the first few days.  Since the fertility rate of the cuckoo marans eggs I bought from the same hatchery was 100%, I figure the power outage was the obvious problem during hatch 3.  That's good news because it means I would have had a 79% hatch rate without the power outage --- definite progress!

As you can tell from the photo at the top of the page, we tricked our broody hen into taking on the mothering responsibilities once the chicks were out of the shell.  The first month of our chicks' lives has been very problematic this year, with us losing nearly a quarter of the chicks to power outages or predators, so I'm hopeful the hen will do a better job.  Maybe by this time next year, all of my experiments with the incubator will be moot and we'll have a broody hen doing all of the hard work for me.