23 chicks for 2 :(

[milleryardchx]

Well my eggs went way past their due date and I didn't get my first two to hatch till day 23. One was in there for 36 hours and was looking a little weak so after much nail biting i decide to open the incubator grab the two i did so last night when I did the humididty dropped from 70 to 67 did a spray through a vent hole and topped of wells and spunges before bed. Woke up this morning and humidity was 43!!!! Soo stinking mad at myself I have never had this big of problem most of the time I have a 80 to 100% hatch rate. So I called it done this morning of day 25 time to examin the eggs all but two had internally pipped and absorbed yolks but all looked vacuum packed in their eggs. I feel like such a bad mama! So I cleaned out all the eggs and incubator this morning at 5 am so that my two year old wont be sad when he wakes up to see all his "bebe chickies" gone

This by far was my worst hatch I started with 42 eggs had one weep in the second week cleaned everything up put eggs back in a couple days later one more weeped and this caused 14 blood rings. took all those out day13 at that point i was going to call it done! but I said theres a few good eggs left I think might as well try. Locked down with 26 eggs end up with two babies I failed! I so don't want to do this again at this point but I have 19 eggs sitting in the garage waiting to go in the incubator for my aunt

I suck i don't want to be a chick mama no more its to heart breaking and all because i was stupid and was like you read stories on here all the time where if there is no external pip or you aren't hearing chicks peeping from inside its ok to grab real fast... NOPE ITS NOT!! Next time i think I will make myself out of town the last two days.

 

[sevenchickens]

I'm so sorry. There are no words that can take away the sadness a frustration but your heart was in a good place. Life is full of lessons, some good, some bad but all lessons. Chin up for your little one, they are capable of handling more than we give them credit for.

 

[mstricer]

I dont take chicks out until hatch is complete they dont need anything to eat or drink for 72 hours after hatch. But dont listen to me I suck at hatching. The only good hatch I've had was with my own eggs, but had 100% hatch. All the shipped ones I've had only resulted in 2 chicks.

 

[tamelroy]

I am so sorry! I felt the same way last year, and stupid me tried again this year and so far the 2 year old got to the bater and cranked it up and killed all of them. Then I tried again, and they just didn't make it. So I figure I am gonna wait a couple of weeks and I will try one more time. The looks on my kids last year when I got at least 3 chicks, (but that was like 100 eggs!) I have to keep trying.

But what I do with my kids I tell them some eggs has babies and some don't. Mommy doesn't know until a couple of days if there is a baby in there. Then if I loose them after the couple of days I tell them mommy couldn't see in that egg so I wasn't sure if there was one or not. I always try to use that as an excuse instead of telling them that they died. That is just me, so if it helps use it for you too!

I am truely sorry, I know it can be so sad, but when you do get a hatch it is so wonderful it makes up for the loss in some way!

 

[IggiMom]

Good gracious, don't beat yourself up so much. I seriously doubt if opening the incubator that time did in your eggs--it sounds to be as if they were goners already.

Sometimes things happen. Perhaps some bacteria got in there or some such; you did have the blood rings.

I know that sometimes eggs hatch late but in my opinion if they haven't hatched by day 23 something was wrong.

Clean the incubator out really really well and let it sit for a while and then try again, why not?

But it is discouraging when things go wrong.

Catherine

 

[whytedragon]

I am so sorry about your little chicks

I wonder though, why did your humidity not go back up? Every time i've had to grab one, the temp and humidity dropped just a bit, then rose back to normal after a few seconds-minutes, as long as I had adequate water in the pans. You weren't stupid to grab a chick, and no one else that has decided to do so was. I don't feel that opening the incubator was the cause, were your pans full?..did they dry out over night? What I get from your post is that we who posted that opening the incubator turned out ok was the cause of your eggs not hatching...sorry, but that's how it reads to me. Not trying to start a war...but no one here had that intention, we are just sharing the experiences that worked out for us.

 

[milleryardchx]

Quote:
NOo not blaming anyone what works for some doesn't work for other depending on humidity of their home, their incubator so on I shouldn't have opened I know better I'm a big girl haha

 

[Lucindahart]

OH NO, my heart is with you.

I felt like giving up last week as well. I hatch for fun - not full time, so try and enjoy all the 'kids' but hatched 19 last week and have lost 5 - and had to do the horrid thing where i had to finish some of them off.

Its horrid, but someone on this said to me, concentrait on the healthy and it helps.

I am still really unhappy with it and wanted to quit instantly - but have set some more eggs that are due to hatch in march and hope for better that time.

I normally take the chicks out after they fluff up and keep a monitor oj the humididty - so am sure it was nothing you did. Sometime they just aren't meant to hatch and it sucks.

 

[Maggizzle35]

I can feel for you, I was so excited that I had a hen sitting on eggs and the day came and went so I broke into them to see what happened. I'm not sure that I really know, but the 25th is our due day this time so I'm hoping we see some fluffy little things come about. The hen is a black alstralope and she has been diligent. Life is such a fragile thing, but if it weren't for our failures we would never have our successes.

 

[DANNY]

First of all the problem is runnig too low of a temperature. The humidity probably didn't have anything to do with it. A chicken egg should be finished hatching on day 21 and if it's not you are running the wrong temp. The fact is that most people's problem is temperature and they may think it is humidity because the thermometer says the temp was fine. Inaccurate thermometers as well as the spot you are reading temperature can throw you many curves during incubation. For it take 25 days to pip you must be running at least 2 degrees cool. I as well as many others have fought this same problem for years in the GQF's, Dickey's as well as other kinds. If you want to know what I did to fix the problem pm me.
Good Luck.