Hands on hatching and help

[quackshack74]

HI again, I'm back.
DaY 29. I've done the tap test. No movement seen & no chirping for my little Pekin egg. I did float test here are some pictures.

And this is what I just saw candling...

So what ya think?
Help me.
I'm thinking baby is stuck & maybe gone or needs help now? Very worried here.

 

[Blooie]

Remember, you are starting with the hardest possible scenario - shipped eggs over long distances, change in altitude, first time, etc. If you survive this, you can survive anything!

You've done a great job so far, and remember that no amount of perfect incubation techniques can resurrect scrambled eggs.

Next time try some local eggs, or maybe some shipped from WY or an adjoining state, and you will see much better results.

Or you can be like me and keep ordering eggs from far away and only getting 1 chick per dozen set.

(Although my homegrown eggs hatch great!)

Thanks. The new ones Katie and I just set yesterday are pretty local...Colorado....and were only 2 days in transit so with any luck and a lot of prayer I'll have better results with those.

And of course now that I've put the Gang of Eight back in the incubator, I'm seeing some fluctuations in temps that I wasn't expecting. I'm supposed to have the thermometers at top-of-the-eggs- level, right? Could it be something as simple as the eggs being at a lower level in the baskets now than they were when they were in the turner and they are sitting farther away from the heater? I don't worry about temps dropping a degree or raising a degree then settling back out, because I know that the interior of the egg doesn't change temps that fast so as long as I'm within the realm of average it should be okay. But both thermometers are reading about 97,6 and I don't like that at all. <sigh> I won't even tell you what the built in thermometer is reading. It LIES!

 

[caesargirl]

Got plenty of that shelf liner. Oddly, none on my shelves...

7 days left.....

Oh, leave them in the rings to hatch or directly on the mat?

 

[AmyLynn2374]

And what do you folks like over the wire on the bottom of the bator for hatching? I've always just left them on the wire to dry... And I leave the eggs in their cardboard rings....
Like I said, doing it differently, so I'll take ideas!!!!

I like the nubby rubber shelf liner. It's soft, gives the chicks something to grip and can be washed and re-used.

Rubber shelf liner here too.

HI again, I'm back.
DaY 29. I've done the tap test. No movement seen & no chirping for my little Pekin egg. I did float test here are some pictures.

And this is what I just saw candling...



So what ya think?
Help me.
I'm thinking baby is stuck & maybe gone or needs help now? Very worried here.

Do you see any movement? Float testing pics don't tell you anything. Float tests are only good if you see them wiggling. The second candling pic looks like draw down, but I don't see any signs of internal pips in the pic.

Got plenty of that shelf liner. Oddly, none on my shelves...

7 days left.....

Oh, leave them in the rings to hatch or directly on the mat?

I lay mine down on the liner.

 

[FridayYet]

Thanks. The new ones Katie and I just set yesterday are pretty local...Colorado....and were only 2 days in transit so with any luck and a lot of prayer I'll have better results with those.

And of course now that I've put the Gang of Eight back in the incubator, I'm seeing some fluctuations in temps that I wasn't expecting. I'm supposed to have the thermometers at top-of-the-eggs- level, right? Could it be something as simple as the eggs being at a lower level in the baskets now than they were when they were in the turner and they are sitting farther away from the heater? I don't worry about temps dropping a degree or raising a degree then settling back out, because I know that the interior of the egg doesn't change temps that fast so as long as I'm within the realm of average it should be okay. But both thermometers are reading about 97,6 and I don't like that at all. <sigh> I won't even tell you what the built in thermometer is reading. It LIES!

Oh yeah, I forgot your latest set was from CO. They should fare much better.

97.6? That's got to be frustrating!

 

[quackshack74]

Rubber shelf liner here too.

Do you see any movement? Float testing pics don't tell you anything. Float tests are only good if you see them wiggling.  The second candling pic looks like draw down, but I don't see any signs of internal pips in the pic.

I lay mine down on the liner.

1st time doing the float test, and no egg didn't move around.

 

[lyndellarosa]

thank you from Australia, such a great post/sites/forum

 

[lightchick]

Is it OK to have condensation on the incubator walls during lockdown? I have pips already and my incubator says it's at 72-75% humidity while my other one says 55%. I don't really trust either. I started out with little to no water during incubation (20-30%).

Oops! Not walls! I ment windows.

 

[BigWeenMachine]

Calm down and take a deep breath... was there any foul smell at all? If not, then I'd say not bacteria contamination... at day 21, they are 3/4 of the way done... they will look dark, and sometimes it looks yucky, but don't worry... if there is movement, then they are alive... I've had many I was sure were quitters that ended up hatching... so if the egg doesn't smell, just leave it in... the only ones that could explode are stinkers, so there's no harm in leaving a quitter in longer...
Oh, and as the 'ling gets bigger, so do the veins to move more blood... they might look off, but I'd just wait it out and see...

They don't stink but they look scary. Black veins and black dots all over them. And I do mean black, not dark, but pitch black veins or worm looking things all over in them. A few are still moving inside the shell but most I am not seeing movement. I think I am definitely gonna be lucky to have half or even any survive. I will candle some when I pull them out to go into lockdown monday and show you guys the pics. I've spent the last couple days finding stuff to keep myself busy to not think about those eggs. Hope some live and aren't weak.

I did finally get that 4th duck in the hatcher to hatch. Took between 58 and 66 hours from pip to hatch (pipped overnight but didn't know what time exactly). I had to basically do everything for him to get him to come out but he is another blue baby. So 2 blues and 2 Welshies. Glad for those at least.

 

[BigWeenMachine]

I'm out! I feel like I should get some kind of medal or something. News not real good - 8 eggs left out of the original 28. Out of those eggs only 2 look okay to me. (our bathroom is always dark since there's no windows in there) Candled them while I let the incubator start coming back up after taking out the turner and getting the thermometers and hygrometer reset in there, then put them into their respective cheery baskets as I finished and logged each one. 1 Green Magnolia and 1 Olive Egger seems to be all I have left. And two with really wonky air cells...really saddle bag cells. I'm second guessing myself now and thinking I should have cut down an egg carton and used the cups to put those in. I still might.

If this is a learning experience, I think I flunked. I won't beat myself up though, because I am sure that I did everything right after they arrived....let them set, made sure the incubator was holding, turning, marking, and keeping an eye on development. But for sure at least two more that were moving a couple of days ago are now deathly still, and the others are so dark in there it's hard to tell anything. But they are all in their little welcome baby cradles and all I can do now is wait, watch, and take care of the new ones in the Brinsea.

How do you people DO this time after time??

Lol, I'm askin myself the same question right now. The first 4 were a 3 day time suck and that was all I thought about. Now I'm worried about the 30 remaining eggs that are left in my Lyon incubator. I decided I would try to order more ancona eggs if these all die but I hate losing the lil guys. I'm too much of a perfectionist to watch entire hatches get decimated by a silly bacterial infection. Pretty sure that's what I'm dealing with right now and it makes me sick....