Ok, so I have 4 different breeds of hens and 1 Rooster. I have been pulling eggs to eat, well it’s just my husband and myself we get loaded down with eggs, so we’ve been giving them away to the people of this small town we live in, I know that giving eggs away is not going to change someone’s life, I’m just trying to help as much as I can for the community we live in, cause I know a lot of people have school aged kids, the school shut down, parents are getting laid off. Unfortunately some of these kids depend on their school lunches as having at least 1 meal a day, so I give them away for free. I thought I could incubate egg and that way I can give the chicks out, so my neighbors could have free eggs and a couple chicks, so it would help in the long run. My first set of eggs that I incubated was 32 eggs (only 12 survived and I sold them) Leaving 20 eggs that went kaput for multiple reasons. 13 died in the shell (never got out) and 2 exploded in the incubator, and 5 exploded in a vac seal bag, I wasn't going to take any chance of more exploding, OMG, what a smell, I thought I was never going to get that smell out of my house. I decided to open all 13 eggs (8 white eggs and 5 brown eggs) to see why they didn’t hatch. They did try to get out cause all 13 had holes in the shells where it looks like they had pecked from the inside. They were fully developed chicks, I could see that all 13 had absorbed the yolk. Now my issue was to find out why they could not get out. I videoed myself opening the eggs. Each one had a shell, A thin white membrane and this other thing, didn’t know what to call it so I said 2nd membrane or sack, I don’t know what it’s called, haven’t got a clue. I showed my vet the videos and explained what was going on, (same vet I’ve had for 16 yrs), and he looked at me like I had 5 heads and said “ I HAVE NEVER SEEN THIS BEFORE IN MY LIFE BEING A VET”, so I started asking anyone that would listen, to see if MAYBE someone had a clue. I spoke with so many breeders, different vets, people I know that have raised chickens their entire life......same response “I HAVE NEVER SEEN THIS BEFORE IN MY LIFE”, I told myself that it was just some random weird incident. And I tried a second batch of eggs, out of the 36 eggs only 16 made it out, leaving 20 to perish. I only have them because I removed the entire shell on all 16 eggs. All the chicks in both batches had this same membrane, and of course no one knows anything. I am back at collecting them (no more in incubator till I know what I’m doing) My instructions were to set incubator at 99.5 for 18 days while in the rotator, then remove the egg turner, lay the eggs on the bottom grid and up the heat to 103.5 for the last 3 days of a 21 day cycle. When the eggs that didn’t hatch got to day 30 since laid, that’s when I decided to open them. The only chicks to make it came from brown eggs in both batches, I haven’t had 1 survivor from a white egg yet. I could go on and on about more weird things, I’ll just address those issues on another day. I know I’m VERY long winded and I apologize for that, I have lots more issues and questions but I’ll save those for my next Post
Thank yall for all the advise and not throwing in the towel, when it came to my issues.