1st and hopefully last incubator heartache

[tigerkitten45]

My poor daughter lost all her eggs she had in the bator......husband went to check on temp and turned dial the wrong way, temp went to 117 and had to have been there for over 2 hours, poor lil ducks, and guineas

.......they were both so upset, yesterday was not a good day! Today is a bit better she has placed an order for some runner ducklings, and we have some guinea chicks coming from another person's order, but she does not want to try the incubator again.

 

[trilyn]

Ugh, that's awful!!

My dh touched the incubator yesterday too, but thankfully he told me about it. It was all I could do to not strangle him, needless to say I was like a hawk for the next hour watching that temp.

 

[HallFamilyFarm]

I bought the Genesis 1588. It takes a Phd and a very small, long handled screw driver to change the temp. With five children, ages 5, 7, 8, 10, and 12 you just don't take chances. Since he cooked the eggs, make he pay for the replacements!

 

[Serrin]

Sad, but true, that accidents like these will happen. It's the main reason there is one and only one person responsible for running the incubator in our home. That person is me! I would never want to direct that kind of anger, hurt or disappointment at any of my little family. So, I'm the only one who ever touches the incubator when there are eggs present. If anything goes wrong, it's my fault alone.

I hope you'll encourage your daughter to give it one more try. Maybe not this year. Waiting until next spring might be a better idea. But I certainly wouldn't abandon the idea all together. The temp was that high for only 2 hours, possibly less? (I say possibly less because it would take a little while for it to get that high. It's not an instantaneous thing) I don't think I would have given up so quickly. What day were the eggs on? Did this happen early on in the 21 days? Or were they almost to the end? Eggs under a broody go through all sorts of temperature swings. I think I would have just turned it back down to the proper setting, kept a close eye on the temperature and kept my fingers crossed for a positive outcome. I've heard of worse stories with successful outcomes.

Was this her first attempt? So sad if it was and this was the result. But, just like riding a horse, if you get thrown off, you have to get right back up there and keep trying. Winners never quit, and quitters never win.

Though I can certainly understand the lack of desire to try at this time. Hopefully she'll want to give it another try in a few weeks perhaps.

 

[tigerkitten45]

We are not sure how long they were at that temp but she had 11 runner duck embryo's, 5 guinea and 1 spitzhauben that were all viable, you could see them wiggling, but when she checked them after the temp increase, not a single one was moving any longer. And yes this was her first attempt......she is hyper and broody and unable to do a lot right now...she is due with 3rd child in june, so she was trying this to give herself something to do, along with the rest of us. However i have now taken over the incubator, and have some eggs coming from rarefeathers, maybe she will get interested if mine show good signs, am sure she will towards the end, right now she is morning the babies she worked so dilgently on.