My eggs are all dead! 😢

[-Shade-]

I can hardly bear what has happened. I’m trying to write this post before I break down and sob uncontrollably. First batch of eggs and I had one good egg. It died I believe day 12 but I held on hoping it was alive until day 24. 6 more eggs, 2 infertile. 4 healthy and strong last night, moving all over. Tonight, no movement. All 4 dead. Nothing changed with incubator. No temp fluctuations. No humidity fluctuations. Nurture Right 360 incubator. I’m so devastated. What have I done?? I truly loved all of these babies already! Every day I candled I was terrified because of what happened with the first one. Today I am living my nightmare.

I understand how you feel. It is so easy when you first start the batch to come up with all these possibilities for the little ones, names, futures, homes, and then they just never arrive. Like unborn children. It just breaks my heart to hear about it and to experience it. It's really awful. I'm so sorry.

 

[alpacasandchicks78]

I could never get more eggs and do this again! When day 13 and 14 came around I would be a total mess. The temps were never more than 100 degrees so I guess I can feel fairly confident I didn’t harm them. I have the two new govee meters side by side in the incubator with totally different readings. How is one supposed to know what is right? I did the daily cooling and misting like clockwork. I’m probably mental… I really loved my egg babies!
View attachment 3471342
Incubator is reading 99.5….

Don't give up-- I had a 2/8 hatch with my current batch. I usually have 6/8. Try again with a different person with a better hatch rate and maybe go by word of mouth. We have a livestock and poultry trade group close to my area, so I'm lucky in that way to find what I need and it was on Facebook, which I hate but in this case has been useful. Maybe there's one in your area??

 

[-Shade-]

Don't give up-- I had a 2/8 hatch with my current batch. I usually have 6/8. Try again with a different person with a better hatch rate and maybe go by word of mouth. We have a livestock and poultry trade group close to my area, so I'm lucky in that way to find what I need and it was on Facebook, which I hate but in this case has been useful. Maybe there's one in your area??

Yes, it's important not to give up. Last year, I incubated over 50 turkey eggs. Only 8 were infertile and only one died during incubation. The other 40 or so made it to lockdown, and then pipping...
I had nearly 35 turkey poults drown within hours or minutes of their first breath of air...
I was so crushed by the results of the hatch, I nearly gave up poultry farming. It's been nearly a year now, and I am traumatized by everything I saw and experienced. But I tried a batch of chicken eggs this year and I have had a 95% hatch rate--I've only lost one chick so far.
These new chicks are my pride and joy, and I enjoy every second I get to spend with the little fuzzy goofballs before they are sold to new homes. Despite the anxiety and occasional nightmares, the wonderful little bundles of fluff always make it worth it in the end.

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

They died at 14 days incubation, not very close to hatching. There was no bruising on any of the eggs. I incubated them between 45 and 50%. It was almost always at 46%, never below 44 or above 51. I used a separate hygrometer besides the one on the incubator. The new govees also measure that the incubator humidity reading is exact. I measured the air sac when I weigh them weekly. On day 14, only the largest egg did not lose quite enough weight, the others were perfect. But then I didn’t need to figure out what to do because it was then I saw that they had died.

The breeder just got back to me and told me that I was inept at hatching geese if that many died in my care and that I should purchase goslings instead. She refuses to tell me how many of her eggs have ever actually hatched. Someone else told me they received 50 infertile chicken eggs from her. I think something is wrong in her entire farm, but she just keeps selling.

Do you still want pics? I have continued to incubate the dead eggs because she tells me I probably just can see movement. I was able to see everything so clearly the days before. The only thing that changed was that they died. I will attach a pic at day 9, the day I fell in love with the goslings I would never touch. I think my flashlight is strong enough the my eggs wouldn’t all of the sudden look dead.

View attachment 3471331View attachment 3471334

They looked so strong too
The veins were good
Nicely branched out
That tells me something went wrong most likely within her flock lines
Usually don’t loose them at the half way mark
I would maybe try purchasing from a new person instead
Not everyone is honest unfortunately

 

[-Shade-]

They looked so strong too
The veins were good
Nicely branched out
That tells me something went wrong most likely within her flock lines
Usually don’t loose them at the half way mark
I would maybe try purchasing from a new person instead
Not everyone is honest unfortunately

Truth in this world today, is one of the most sought-after things, and yet, the hardest to find.

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

I could never get more eggs and do this again! When day 13 and 14 came around I would be a total mess. The temps were never more than 100 degrees so I guess I can feel fairly confident I didn’t harm them. I have the two new govee meters side by side in the incubator with totally different readings. How is one supposed to know what is right? I did the daily cooling and misting like clockwork. I’m probably mental… I really loved my egg babies!
View attachment 3471342
Incubator is reading 99.5….

I would calibrate a meat thermometer
Fill a glass with crushed ice then add water. Stir so ice doesn’t stick together
Set the thermometer in for 30 seconds
It should read 0 c or 32 F
If it doesn’t use a wrench to adjust the bolt while still in the cup
Then use that as the guide to what one is more accurate
Those kind you have you can’t calibrate thermometer part but can use the meat one for guidance
But you can calibrate the hygrometer reading
Take a bottle cap of salt I like to use chunks not fine salt then add 1/4 bottle cap of water to it
Place the govee meter and the cap of salt in an air tight container ( I use large freezer bag
Leave it for 24 hours
It should read 75%
If it’s off either to low and reads 70 then you write -5 on it
So if your shooting for 45 % your meter would read 40 to get your 45
Opposite way if it reads higher then the 75 % after calibrating
Don’t give up
Try again but don’t get eggs from that buyer
Another thing I was thinking
Did you hand turn them or turner ?
I just had a motor blow in my turner luckily I noticed before I gave the set up to the school
That can kill healthy eggs if they aren’t being turned
So if a turner quit and one didn’t realize it would kill off the eggs

 

[alpacasandchicks78]

Yes, it's important not to give up. Last year, I incubated over 50 turkey eggs. Only 8 were infertile and only one died during incubation. The other 40 or so made it to lockdown, and then pipping...
I had nearly 35 turkey poults drown within hours or minutes of their first breath of air...
I was so crushed by the results of the hatch, I nearly gave up poultry farming. It's been nearly a year now, and I am traumatized by everything I saw and experienced. But I tried a batch of chicken eggs this year and I have had a 95% hatch rate--I've only lost one chick so far.
These new chicks are my pride and joy, and I enjoy every second I get to spend with the little fuzzy goofballs before they are sold to new homes. Despite the anxiety and occasional nightmares, the wonderful little bundles of fluff always make it worth it in the end.

Yes, and I almost lost my two that did hatch getting them friends from tractor supply. Now, seven weeks old and all are healthy and giving me grief. I think one is trying to crow. You'd never know how sick they were now!! I'll probably be setting another batch in June. The game bantams are pretty much spoken for and my home hatches are staying with me. I'm going to be working to see if I can sex link them. (Using more eggs from mom and dad.)

 

[alpacasandchicks78]

I would calibrate a meat thermometer
Fill a glass with crushed ice then add water. Stir so ice doesn’t stick together
Set the thermometer in for 30 seconds
It should read 0 c or 32 F
If it doesn’t use a wrench to adjust the bolt while still in the cup
Then use that as the guide to what one is more accurate
Those kind you have you can’t calibrate thermometer part but can use the meat one for guidance
But you can calibrate the hygrometer reading
Take a bottle cap of salt I like to use chunks not fine salt then add 1/4 bottle cap of water to it
Place the govee meter and the cap of salt in an air tight container ( I use large freezer bag
Leave it for 24 hours
It should read 75%
If it’s off either to low and reads 70 then you write -5 on it
So if your shooting for 45 % your meter would read 40 to get your 45
Opposite way if it reads higher then the 75 % after calibrating
Don’t give up
Try again but don’t get eggs from that buyer
Another thing I was thinking
Did you hand turn them or turner ?
I just had a motor blow in my turner luckily I noticed before I gave the set up to the school
That can kill healthy eggs if they aren’t being turned
So if a turner quit and one didn’t realize it would kill off the eggs

This is good advice. New duck mommy was one of the people who got me through my rollercoaster of my most recent hatch.

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

I really can’t go through it again. Seeing them so strong and healthy and then gone the next day. Holy cow was that hard for me to take. Blaming myself has been so awful. My husband says no one of the planet goes more overboard than me, and he knows there was no fault in my actions with these eggs, but I still struggle to blame myself. Another mental disorder I have! It really is easier to blame yourself than to believe there are people in the world that are so awful and will hurt you that bad just to make a dime. Even if I wanted to get more eggs, there are no Sebastopol eggs anywhere near where I live.

Im so sorry you had to go through this
I hope in time you will realize this wasn’t on you and he able to try again

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

The hygrometer reads exactly the same on each meter I have in there and also what’s on the incubator reading, so I think I’m good with that. The incubator has a turner and I have watched to confirm it works. I also hand turned them every night when I let them cool off and misted them, starting in day 6.

I don’t have a meat thermometer. I have one that is not able to be calibrated with a screw. It is just a cheap plastic one. After moving all of the meters around for the past several hours, one thing I noticed is that when the meters are close to the air vent, the temperature changes by at least .5 from the one in the back. I also noticed that I have to leave the meters in there for a very long time until they seem to give an accurate reading.

My incubator allows you to set the temperature to 99.5 or to 100. There is no 99.7 or anything like that. After leaving both meters in for quite some time, it appears that if I change the incubator to 100 degrees, the furthest meter from the vent reads between 99.5 and 99.7. So I’m guessing that if I bring the incubator temp back to 99.5 where it has been all along, my temperatures will fluctuate from 98.5 to 99.2 depending on whether the egg is near the vent or at the furthest point. The other option is to go with the 100 degree setting which should keep it between 99.0 and 99.7. I did read in the incubation guide that goose eggs could benefit from slightly lower temps. Of course, this still all assumes the new meters are accurate!

Definitely a flaw in the incubator though. Which setting do you recommend I chose? Do you think I may have had the setting too low which may have killed the poor things?

I would go with the 100 as it sounds like it brings it to the proper temp
The slightly lower temp would not kill the eggs
It may cause a slight delay in hatch by 1-2 days but won’t harm the embryo or take a healthy looking egg and stop it
I really don’t think you did anything that killed these guys
The only reason a embryo would die half way through when it looked good and strong is
1 not being turned the first 2 weeks even then they may go a little longer and not all die at the same time
2 the incubator got to hot for to long killing them this would need to be 103 or higher for a Good amount of time
3 some bacteria got into the eggs
This can happen if the Blume has been removed ( being washed )
A bad egg exploding
Cracks in the egg shell ect
4 bad genetics ( although they shouldn’t all die at the same time )
It’s hard for me to know for sure as I didn’t see the eggs
I run 40-45-a% humidity until lockdown
I candle my eggs daily starting at 24 hours after setting in
I start cooling/ misting day 10 till lockdown
All the things you do and it never hurts my hatches so again I don’t think it’s anything you did