First Hatch.

Okay so this is the first time we have hatched eggs. The eggs were from our own backyard flock. Because the hens are nearing their 'culling age' we wanted some chicks from them.

Anyway, we set sixteen eggs the night of the 3rd. 2 were infertile and 3 were early death. so we had eleven eggs in the incubator that were promising. Our first chick hatched a day late (yesterday) but it hadn't fully absorbed its yolk and managed to rupture it (The poor thing is still covered in the dried yolk ). It's since stopped bleeding and has a little 'Easter Egger" sibling to keep it company (Hatched out this morning at 7 o'clock!). It's very small compared to the other chick, but it moves around and it's chirps can get so loud we can hear it over the older chicks and the little ducklings(they are all in the guest bedroom turned nursery) I think it has a decent chance if we can get it to eat/drink. However I am concerned that in two days we've only got two chicks and I haven't been able to see movement or hear chirps from the other eggs yet. We are going to wait for a few more days, I have heard that some hatch up to a week late because of incubator or handling issues so we stay hopeful but we have already started keeping an eye out for eggs that look good for hatching.

We would love to hear any advice or questions.

It sounds as though your temperature is a tad low. They should hatch on day 20-21 and I generally consider anything after day 21 will not be a strong chick that is likely to make it to adulthood.

At this late stage in incubation, I would candle. If I see that some have internally pipped I'll give them a little more time but generally I can turn off the incubator if nothing is internally pipped by day 21, as it means they will not hatch.

I agree that it sounds like your temp is a little low. I allow up to a week after the "hatch date" before I discard any unhatched eggs. Good luck with the rest of your hatch and keep us posted.

Well, we've considered that it's probably got something to do with how they were incubated but i'm pretty sure it stayed between 99 and 101 all throughout (we got a forced air little giant incubator if that makes a difference). My daughter took care of most of that stuff. Of course she knows that some things cant be helped and has already started picking out more eggs for hatching. she has this little notebook buy the incubator that she wrote, all the info she got, down in. The eggs all looked perfectly fine the very last time we candled. the only ones we couldn't be sure of were the green ones because they were near impossible to see through.

Limpyduck said:

Well, we've considered that it's probably got something to do with how they were incubated but i'm pretty sure it stayed between 99 and 101 all throughout (we got a forced air little giant incubator if that makes a difference). My daughter took care of most of that stuff. Of course she knows that some things cant be helped and has already started picking out more eggs for hatching. she has this little notebook buy the incubator that she wrote, all the info she got, down in. The eggs all looked perfectly fine the very last time we candled. the only ones we couldn't be sure of were the green ones because they were near impossible to see through.

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Ahhhh....okay. A couple of things. First, how are you measuring the temperature? If you are using the one that came with it, those are notoriously inaccurate. I would forget about the one that came with, and use an independent thermometer that you trust to be accurate. I don't care for digital thermometers because they often read a few degrees off and a few degrees in incubation makes all the difference. Instead I prefer an analog thermometer and coincidentally those are easier to verify as accurate before purchase. What I did is to go to Walmart and look at all the analog models available. I picked one the size I needed with an easy to read display and checked the rack. They had 20 of them. I pulled down every single thermometer and read the display on each. 15 of them read 75 degrees. It made sense to me that Walmart would have their thermostat set for.....75 degrees. The other 5 read a little higher or lower. I went with the majority rules theory and bought one of the 15 that read 75. I did a second test on it when I got home and set it on my house thermostat. A few hours later it read the same temp as my house thermostat was reading. I discarded all other thermometers and relied solely on that one and my incubation rates went up immediately.

Second, you said that your temperature fluctuated between 99 and 101. That is actually a pretty big range when it comes to incubation. And, it depends on whether your incubator is still air or forced air, on which temp you are seeking. If your LG is still air, you want to be at 101. If it has a fan (forced air) you want to be at 99.5.

We will have to look into that. Like I said we are going to wait a few more days just to be certain before we clean it out and try again. We have the one little Ameraucana cross chick, who is doing fine but looks lonely in the brooder all on it's own.