Very frustrated!! Please help!!

So I have a still air incubator I have the temp set at 100...... I have tried hatching 2 different batches and when I candle them on day 7 I'm not seeing any signs of life.. What could I be doing wrong? My should all be fertile I'm getting them from my hens in the yard...I will post a pic of the eggs when candled...

Have you seen your roo "with" your girls? Or are you assuming he's doing his job. He may not be and you're getting infertile eggs.

I’ll ask a silly question, do you have a rooster? This is actually come up before, that’s why I ask.

Do you have any experience candling? Darker eggs, especially green eggs, can be really difficult to see inside. Have you cracked any of them to confirm they are not developing?

Have you looked for the bull’s eye? If you crack eggs and see the bull’s eye then the egg was at least fertilized. If the ones you crack are fertile, the ones you don’t crack should be. This thread has photos so you know what you are looking for.

Fertile Egg Photos
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/16008/how-to-tell-a-fertile-vs-infertile-egg-pictures

Have you calibrated your thermometer so you know it is working right? Not all thermometers read the way they should. These links can help with that.

Calibrate a Thermometer
http://www.allfoodbusiness.com/calibrating_thermometers.php

Rebel’s Thermometer Calibration
http://cmfarm.us/ThermometerCalibration.html

Rebel’s Hygrometer Calibration
http://cmfarm.us/HygrometerCalibration.html

In general, if eggs die in the first week or don’t develop at all, it’s because of something that happened before the eggs went into the incubator. It could be that they are not fertile to start with, or that they got so cold or so hot the embryo was killed. If they are shaken up really bad they won’t even start to develop. I did that once with eggs I picked up on a really rough country road. How long are you storing them and what conditions? Usually you can store them for a week without any real problems but after that the hatchability starts dropping unless they are stored in a relatively cool place. Storing pointy side down or on their side and turning them helps but shouldn’t be too critical the first week. You should at least get some to develop.

Check your thermometer and crack a few to look for the bull’s eye. Those are the two I suspect. If those are OK look at how you are keeping them before incubation starts. You should at least get a few to start developing.

The other thing to point out is that a still air Bator should be closer to 102 at the top of the eggs. You said you had it set at 100. That may be part of the problem.

agreed your temp is low for a still air, but regardless you'll still get development at your current temp, try bumping it up to 102° and give them a few more days and recandle.

I do have a Roo.. And I've seen him with several of my girls... We also eat these eggs and each morning the ones I crack have the bullseye mark so I'm assuming the others should be fertile as well... The ones that I placed in the bator went straight from the nest to the incubator that morning right after my girls laid... I'm only using 1 thermometer maybe I'll go invest in another... And I'll try turning up the temp a bit. Thank you and I'm going to post candle pics shortly I'm just seeing dark shade in one side no veins or black spot where the eye should be...

Here is a pic of one of the eggs

At seven days I don’t see anything in there. You should be seeing red lines at least. That egg is not that dark.

You said the eggs went straight from the nest to the incubator right after they were laid so they were very fresh. I don’t know what weather you were having in South Carolina a week ago but those eggs should not have been frozen or anything like that. Since you are seeing the bull’s eye in the others, these eggs should be developing.

The only thing I’m left with is to check the temperature. I would not just crank the heat up until I had some confidence in the thermometer. I don’t know what kind you have but I’ve seen some read several degrees too high or too low.

I can understand your frustration. I’d be pulling what little hair I have left out by now.

Ridgerunner said:

At seven days I don’t see anything in there. You should be seeing red lines at least. That egg is not that dark.

You said the eggs went straight from the nest to the incubator right after they were laid so they were very fresh. I don’t know what weather you were having in South Carolina a week ago but those eggs should not have been frozen or anything like that. Since you are seeing the bull’s eye in the others, these eggs should be developing.

The only thing I’m left with is to check the temperature. I would not just crank the heat up until I had some confidence in the thermometer. I don’t know what kind you have but I’ve seen some read several degrees too high or too low.

I can understand your frustration. I’d be pulling what little hair I have left out by now.

Click to expand...

Yes I'm getting to that point I'm using a fish tank thermometer got the idea from another post is there a better one I should be using? That is my only guess as to why I'm not getting any results temp to high or low.. I'm going to calibrate it today and see what happens with my next batch..