I just had my first ever incubator hatch.... I set 33 eggs. 3 were clears from the first candle, but I left them until the next just in case. At lock-down we saw development and movement in all the eggs, with a couple that were dark and we weren't sure, so we left them in. 10 chicks hatched- one died because yolk hadn't been absorbed, so 9 healthy chicks. 2 pipped, but never zipped. The rest did nothing.
Egg-topsied this morning because the incubator was starting to smell funky. Out of 19 eggs left, 1 quit pretty early-you could see development, but not a formed chick. 1- quit early, but had a nearly formed chick, but it was small. The rest had fully formed chicks, several were malpositioned, 2-3 had pipped internally, but MOST had a LOT of fluid. So I am thinking that humidity was too high sometime during lock-down. What do you all think? I didn't take pictures because it was only me doing it, and I couldn't do both. Not sure what I am going to do next round.... I have 2 dozen Salmon Faverolles eggs coming around the 21st.... I don't want to screw up that hatch, because the eggs aren't exactly cheap! So...for those of you that incubate regularly.... What did I do wrong?
I put eggs in the turner fat end up. Did NOT add any water, and humidity stayed between 16-25%, temp stayed 99* (therm. just did whole degrees...) I candled at day 7, 14, 18. I "twisted" the eggs in the turner once every day or two so they were turned more than one way. At lockdown I dropped temp down to 97* and bumped humidity up to 60%.... It did get up to 74% at one point when all the chicks started hatching.... I'm thinking that may have been the problem....
Can some of you expert hatchers give me some advice!?!
ETA: These were eggs from my own flock.
Egg-topsied this morning because the incubator was starting to smell funky. Out of 19 eggs left, 1 quit pretty early-you could see development, but not a formed chick. 1- quit early, but had a nearly formed chick, but it was small. The rest had fully formed chicks, several were malpositioned, 2-3 had pipped internally, but MOST had a LOT of fluid. So I am thinking that humidity was too high sometime during lock-down. What do you all think? I didn't take pictures because it was only me doing it, and I couldn't do both. Not sure what I am going to do next round.... I have 2 dozen Salmon Faverolles eggs coming around the 21st.... I don't want to screw up that hatch, because the eggs aren't exactly cheap! So...for those of you that incubate regularly.... What did I do wrong?
I put eggs in the turner fat end up. Did NOT add any water, and humidity stayed between 16-25%, temp stayed 99* (therm. just did whole degrees...) I candled at day 7, 14, 18. I "twisted" the eggs in the turner once every day or two so they were turned more than one way. At lockdown I dropped temp down to 97* and bumped humidity up to 60%.... It did get up to 74% at one point when all the chicks started hatching.... I'm thinking that may have been the problem....
Can some of you expert hatchers give me some advice!?!
ETA: These were eggs from my own flock.
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