help..again!! (im not having good luck)

I have a little giant still air incubator. I am doing dark shelled eggs and have mostly left the eggs in the bator even if they were questionable because I was worried about tossing a good egg. I am now 2 days beyond my hatch date and today I smell a stinky smell coming from the bator. I have no pips no movement at all. The smell isn't very strong so I would have to open the bator and handle the eggs to figure out what one is bad. My questions are, should I open the bator and try to figure out what is the bad egg, and also should I be doing any float tests or anything yet? I'm only 2 days beyond the hatch but I'm thinking this isn't good that I haven't seen anything. I have had bad luck thus far so I'm going to assume my bad luck will continue and I'll probably end up with no chicks. But in the event I am wrong I don't want to do anything wrong to stop any from hatching that might. Any help would be great, im super frustrated and I don't know what to do and I'm in dire need of advice. Thank you in advance for any help I can get!!

Do you have a thermometer that's checked for accuracy? Can't trust one on incubator

I have one but I don't think its right either. Eggs by the outer edge feel a lot cooler then the ones in the middle closer to the heater. Is there a specific kind I should try? And should I have more then one thermometer because of the eggs not all feeling the same? I plan on doing another hatch once I get enough info and have it running correctly.

Any suggestions you can give me would be greatly appreciated! Thank you for reading my question too

If you smell something it's not good Do a visual, look for "sweating" or any oozing from the eggs. If you're past 21days, you state 23 days, I'd say it's a bad hatch but I could be wrong. What I do know is a rotting egg can & will explode if left, it's happened to me & it was a goose egg! Wear disposable gloves when handling the eggs to inspect.

I'd make sure the temp in the incubator was constant before starting another hatch. Reading about incubators, the still air type gets the eggs closer to the heating element warm while those farther away don't. I haven't hatched in quite awhile so hopefully someone with better experience will peep in soon to help. Good luck

If you have the little giant 9300.. they are notorious for cooler temps in corners. . A fan helps. . But it's located not in the middle. Some people tryed rotating lid every few days.. I guess they had better luck.. I end up rebuilding mine.. installing fan in center

Rod-T said:

If you have the little giant 9300.. they are notorious for cooler temps in corners. . A fan helps. . But it's located not in the middle. Some people tryed rotating lid every few days.. I guess they had better luck.. I end up rebuilding mine.. installing fan in center

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Plus the fact the digital little Giants are also known to be off in both temps and humidity to begin with. Many people find that they are 3 degrees (on the average) off running cooler than the digital shows and causeing delayed hatches.

I use the 9200 (non digital with the heating element that runs around the top) and I have a fan installed. I still have major cool/warm spots in the bator. Center and corners generally running cooler by 1-2 degrees than directly under the element. I rotate my eggs during incubation.

I have another question. I got up this morning and two of the eggs have started to hatch. One has a beak hanging out and the other is just started to crack. My question is, after the chick has pipped and has a beak outside of the shell is it normal for the chick to be completely still and silent? I don't know what is normal and I know it takes time but the beak has not moved and hasn't made and sound since 5 this morning. Its now 10 and I've seen absolutely nothing. It looks like the bottom half of the hole has dried up dark colored stuff on it. Its not leaking out but I can see it clearly. I will post a picture and if anyone knows wether this is normal or not let me know! I have not touched it and left it alone with the lid on but I have been watching it pretty much every 10 minutes or so and it looks pretty dried up and not showing any signs of life. No zipping started either. The other egg looked like it was about to pip and that one still has just the crack.

linz44 said:

I have another question. I got up this morning and two of the eggs have started to hatch. One has a beak hanging out and the other is just started to crack. My question is, after the chick has pipped and has a beak outside of the shell is it normal for the chick to be completely still and silent? I don't know what is normal and I know it takes time but the beak has not moved and hasn't made and sound since 5 this morning. Its now 10 and I've seen absolutely nothing. It looks like the bottom half of the hole has dried up dark colored stuff on it. Its not leaking out but I can see it clearly. I will post a picture and if anyone knows wether this is normal or not let me know! I have not touched it and left it alone with the lid on but I have been watching it pretty much every 10 minutes or so and it looks pretty dried up and not showing any signs of life. No zipping started either. The other egg looked like it was about to pip and that one still has just the crack.

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linz44 said:

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Any progress?? It's usually normal for them just to hang out with the beak at the hole, but you usually see periodic moving of the beak and often cheeping from the chick. The membrane does look dryish, but from the pic it may also look like a little blood? Looks reddish from my computer, like he may have pipped through a membrane. You can either pull it out and check on him or play a youtube video of chicks chirping at the bator and see if he responds, if you haven't already.