When to give up

Muffblood

In the Brooder
Aug 24, 2015
12
0
22
Hello,
This is my first time using a incubator it's is a still air and I have a egg turner. I candle lighted my eggs during the process removed a few I knew was bad and anything questionable I left. At day 18 I took out of the auto turner and went into lock down I had the hundity at 70% its at 65% now and today is day 21. Still no peep no signs of crack. When should I give up and start over? I got this incubator from my mother witch had no luck she had 1 hatch out of 3 batches. But she didn't keep eye on temp and humdity like I did. The temp always stay 100 and humdity 50-55%. When is the latest they will hatch and what did I do wrong?
Thanks
 
Some will hold out until day 24 at the latest.

Do you have any way to calibrate your instruments to verify that your temperature and humidity are accurate? Too many incubators do not have reliable thermometers or hydrometers.

Also, I am not familiar with using a still air incubator, but shouldn't your temperature be a little higher than that? And shouldn't your humidity be higher during lock down as well?

You might want to google hatching techniques for still air incubators and see what comes up.

https://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/hatchingeggs.html may be a place to start.

I hope you get some that still hatch.
 
Ok thanks I have another gage in the bottom that reads both. And they stay right with the incubators Gage's. they paper they came with the machanice says 99.7 50% then lock down 65%. But who knows I know I have at least a few that were developing at I could see the development and vaines but that was my white eggs. Most of my eggs are marens eggs and there so dark it's hard to tell. Thanks
 
Update 0 hatched not even one. So I cracked open see if they even enveloped see if I could see what went wrong looks like I had 3 die about day 14 rest nothing. The eggs also had a lot of water in them. Been thinking of trying the dry hatch method in my foam still air incubator. Has anyone had any luck with this method? I have 5 eggs from hen and rooster that recently died due to fox or coon would really like to have one of there baby's. Wouldlove some help to increase my odds. Thanks
 
I have had my best luck by putting warm water in the one section of the tray like the instructions say on day one. Then not adding any water at all until day19 to get the humidity to between 55-70%. Usual hatch is 85-95%. My worst one was my second hatch when I followed the directions for higher humidity, and ended up drowning all the chicks in the shell for a 0% hatch. I go near dry hatch all the time now.
 
Yeah I agree from all the research Ive done to add water once at beginning and then at lockdown. Still air is definitely 101-102 ideal. 98-100 is for forced air(fan). I bought about 36 eggs, selling as eating eggs but all less than a week old, cracked open a few to verify fertility, set about 28. First couple days I manually turned 2-3 times a day but couldn't get my still air reptibator(really for geckos/snake eggs but supposed to have a very good thermostat and i bought it a yr ago, never used it) to get above 96, so I moved those to my $400 petiatric parrot brooder and bought auto egg turner. As of day 16(sept 16th) had 21 confirmed movement, 3 questionable. And I had temp fluctuates but Im home so kept turning slightly to balance it back, it especially changed temps after I removed unfertile eggs, there were about 4 that didnt develop but al in all I only paid $10 for all eggs so this was my trial run. Fingers crossed and best of luck with your next batch!
 
Hello,
This is my first time using a incubator it's is a still air and I have a egg turner. I candle lighted my eggs during the process removed a few I knew was bad and anything questionable I left. At day 18 I took out of the auto turner and went into lock down I had the hundity at 70% its at 65% now and today is day 21. Still no peep no signs of crack. When should I give up and start over? I got this incubator from my mother witch had no luck she had 1 hatch out of 3 batches. But she didn't keep eye on temp and humdity like I did. The temp always stay 100 and humdity 50-55%. When is the latest they will hatch and what did I do wrong?
Thanks
I am with the above poster. Calibrate your thermometers and hydrometers. You do need to run a still air a little warmer then a circulated air incubator.

I had such a rough time with my styrobator that i bought the little brinsea...everything was done for me and it made hatching enjoyable. Unlike setting timers to turn the eggs and fussing with the heat and humidity levels. I had a hard time justifying the cost until I started adding up the cost of my eggs....$65.00/ $45.00 etc... and one hatched!

Also, join a hatching thread. There is usually a monthly hatching thread on here and you can go through the incubation process with some experinced hatchers and some newbies!!!!

Best of luck!
 
Ok thank you all I calibrated everything then tried again using the dry hatch method put water in to begin with and haven't opened it since check all the time on temp and humdity stays right at 45% so today was day 18 and I candle lighted before lock down looked like only 1 possible. And IF it hatches that will make 1 out of 70 eggs. I'm about to just give up I started this process to have fun and all it has caused is disappointment. If I do decide it again I will be buying a better incubator with a fan this time and trash this styro one. They shouldn't even up them on the market if they don't work. Thanks for all the help from everyone hope everyone is having better luck then me
 
Ok thank you all I calibrated everything then tried again using the dry hatch method put water in to begin with and haven't opened it since check all the time on temp and humdity stays right at 45% so today was day 18 and I candle lighted before lock down looked like only 1 possible. And IF it hatches that will make 1 out of 70 eggs. I'm about to just give up I started this process to have fun and all it has caused is disappointment. If I do decide it again I will be buying a better incubator with a fan this time and trash this styro one. They shouldn't even up them on the market if they don't work. Thanks for all the help from everyone hope everyone is having better luck then me
I tried dry hatch on two of my hatches and they turned out horrible. I think it depends on your area and the temps/humidity/weather/ etc...It didn't work for me. I talked to my egg ladies and they were all incubating at 50% HUMIDITY and up to 65% at hatch. I just keep a straight 50% and they are hatching for me...It's all trial and err. What works for one won't work for another.

I would encourage you not to give up. Try it again...just do something different!
 

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