- Sep 18, 2014
- 27
- 3
- 87
Back when I was 12-17, I had a still air incubator that I converted with the forced air kit and I was like the incubation czar. Then, I stopped. And this month, I attempted to incubate for the first time since, in a little giant forced air I'd never used, but got in high school, with a turner I had. And I have had nothing but problems.
1. Because most of the eggs in there are from eBay, I wanted to wait until they were all here to set them (STUPID, I know), and have the incubator test run for a couple days. This is also the first time I've incubated since having a full time job, and somehow setting the eggs kept getting put off and put off. Most of them waited a WEEK after arriving to be set. Dumbest thing ever. How much does that decrease my hatch rate by? 50%? More?
2. Got them in there, and cups keep falling out of the turner. This turner you have to set a lot of pressure on (enough to likely break it), to secure the cups, and I thought they were all secure, but still cups with some of the larger eggs fall, dropping the eggs, and worse, sometimes jamming that entire row of eggs. Since I work, I only go in there, and I have no idea how long all 5 eggs in that row have been stuck like that and not turned. And isn't turning the most important in the first week?
3. I candled laaaate last night for the first time (eggs are 6 days, 5 days and 3 days respectively), and felt like an utter failure. I definitely remember what a blood ring looks like, but I think there were still signs of life in some. When I went to candle, I discovered my water tray had run dry. Panicked and ran and got a glass--which I thought was room temperature--and added it. Came back 6 hours later (when i woke up) just now, and the temp in there was at 95.5. Will that kill them to be low for 6 hours?
At this point, given all my rookie mistakes and stupidity, should I just assume they're all dead in here?
Also, are green eggs notoriously hard to candle? Green eggs would be at day 5, and there were definitely some that were infertile with that bacteria dot thing going that I remember, but others, I completely could not see inside except maybe the air cell (and these eggs are the same shade of green, so it's not shell differences). The green eggs are from one of my new laying hens, who lived with a rooster when I got her--eggs were just sitting in the basket on the counter for a couple weeks, not even the right way up, and I threw them in just for giggles. Could these possibly be fertile?
1. Because most of the eggs in there are from eBay, I wanted to wait until they were all here to set them (STUPID, I know), and have the incubator test run for a couple days. This is also the first time I've incubated since having a full time job, and somehow setting the eggs kept getting put off and put off. Most of them waited a WEEK after arriving to be set. Dumbest thing ever. How much does that decrease my hatch rate by? 50%? More?
2. Got them in there, and cups keep falling out of the turner. This turner you have to set a lot of pressure on (enough to likely break it), to secure the cups, and I thought they were all secure, but still cups with some of the larger eggs fall, dropping the eggs, and worse, sometimes jamming that entire row of eggs. Since I work, I only go in there, and I have no idea how long all 5 eggs in that row have been stuck like that and not turned. And isn't turning the most important in the first week?
3. I candled laaaate last night for the first time (eggs are 6 days, 5 days and 3 days respectively), and felt like an utter failure. I definitely remember what a blood ring looks like, but I think there were still signs of life in some. When I went to candle, I discovered my water tray had run dry. Panicked and ran and got a glass--which I thought was room temperature--and added it. Came back 6 hours later (when i woke up) just now, and the temp in there was at 95.5. Will that kill them to be low for 6 hours?
At this point, given all my rookie mistakes and stupidity, should I just assume they're all dead in here?
Also, are green eggs notoriously hard to candle? Green eggs would be at day 5, and there were definitely some that were infertile with that bacteria dot thing going that I remember, but others, I completely could not see inside except maybe the air cell (and these eggs are the same shade of green, so it's not shell differences). The green eggs are from one of my new laying hens, who lived with a rooster when I got her--eggs were just sitting in the basket on the counter for a couple weeks, not even the right way up, and I threw them in just for giggles. Could these possibly be fertile?
