8 eggs in the incubator

[Zootopia]

The BLRW eggs are on day 5 and only two are fertile and the air sacks in them aren't great. If you remember my earlier post about those eggs I paid around 3.50 for each egg. So now I"m at about 20.00 for each egg. I put 30 of my own eggs from 5 month old roos in the bator on the same day I set her eggs and all but three of my eggs show veining. HOW in the world could I have gotten 12 eggs from this girl and only two are fertile??? I wonder if there was a roo even of breeding age in with the hens. I am going to recandle them in a few days and hopefully they are just slow starters. If now I really hope she replaces the eggs with fertile ones.

Shipped eggs are a real gamble. Just because they don't develop doesn't mean they weren't fertile. Rough handling by PO is a real problem, it can kill the germ and of course damage the air cells, making the chicks more likely to die at early stages. That is why the disclaimers are up at Auctions, no guarantees on shipped eggs. I got 2 chicks ($24 dollars each w/shipping) out of my last shipped 14 eggs, air cells were a mess when they arrived but no cracked eggs. 6 never developed but when I opened them I saw that only one looked infertile. the batch that went in 4 days prior I hatched 11 out of 14. Go figure. Shipped eggs, you take your chances or you opt for shipping chicks instead. It is often cheaper to ship chicks and it's definitely less of a gamble.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Forgot to check water level and I remembered last night. It was DRY - NO WATER!!! So, I added more water.

I hope I didn't mess up because of no water.

 

[PeepsCA]

They should be fine, it's early enough into the incubation they shouldn't have suffered any damage (as long as it's wasn't for a week straight or something drastic like). Mine have gone dry before too. What's the average ambient humidity in your house this time of year? If it's above 20%, I wouldn't worry.

 

[r4eboxer]

Shipped eggs are a real gamble. Just because they don't develop doesn't mean they weren't fertile. Rough handling by PO is a real problem, it can kill the germ and of course damage the air cells, making the chicks more likely to die at early stages. That is why the disclaimers are up at Auctions, no guarantees on shipped eggs. I got 2 chicks ($24 dollars each w/shipping) out of my last shipped 14 eggs, air cells were a mess when they arrived but no cracked eggs. 6 never developed but when I opened them I saw that only one looked infertile. the batch that went in 4 days prior I hatched 11 out of 14. Go figure. Shipped eggs, you take your chances or you opt for shipping chicks instead. It is often cheaper to ship chicks and it's definitely less of a gamble.

Thanks for the reply, I know shipped eggs are a gamble, but these eggs only came from 2 hrs away. This girl is pretty local and talks a good game, but there is no evidence that these eggs are even fertile. Even if they were to die early I should see some signs of fertility if it were there. I suppose they could be slow starters so I'm going to give them a few more days before I toss them and start over. I hope they show some signs soon.

I got guinea eggs and duck eggs from clear across the country and they have great fertility.

. I have also purchased chicks, turkeys, and ducks live and had them shipped too, but I wanted to incubate these eggs myself. If I'm just stuck with my 2 fertile eggs I'll get the breed I want elsewhere so no big deal but it is a disappointment.

I think I've just learned yet another lesson. If I want a good show quality breed it may be worth having the chicks shipped and fore go all the expense and disappointment with infertile eggs. Of course I just lost 6 turkey poults due to stress in shipping but the breeders are going to re send the breeds of poults I lost out again so I did get some good news on that front.

How is everyone else doing with the guinea eggs? I am not going to re-candle until Sat and I hope I see some veining then.

 

[r4eboxer]

Forgot to check water level and I remembered last night. It was DRY - NO WATER!!!

So, I added more water.

I hope I didn't mess up because of no water.

I have let mine go to about 20 percent (basically dry too) and my geese hatched out just fine. It seems the water needs to be added every two days to keep it up to the 35-45 %. My bators are sharing a hydrometer right now because I only have one, but so far so good. I need to get to petco this weekend for another one.

 

[PeepsCA]

I'd make sure you open all the clears once you finally do pull them out of the incubator, so you know if they were ever fertile or not to begin with. That way if you see a blastoderm (bullseye), you can attribute a bad hatch to the shipping saga, not the breeder or the lack of fertility.

Out of the 53 Guinea eggs I set I think maybe 8 looked like they are clears (infertile), I only quickly candled them with a bright LED flashlight without taking them out of the egg turners tho. I have not removed any eggs yet, gonna give them all a little while longer... I'm getting lazy, and less anxious about my hatches, time for another break I think, lol.

 

[kuntrygirl]

[COLOR=4B0082]They should be fine, it's early enough into the incubation they shouldn't have suffered any damage ([/COLOR]as long as it's wasn't for a week straight or something drastic like). [COLOR=4B0082] Mine have gone dry before too. What's the average ambient humidity in your house this time of year? If it's above 20%, I wouldn't worry.[/COLOR]

That's great news. It was only dry for about 1 day. I"M not sure about the humidity. I don't have one of those humidity thingy-ma-jig readers. I guess I need to get one huh? :/

 

[kuntrygirl]

Forgot to check water level and I remembered last night. It was DRY - NO WATER!!! So, I added more water.

I hope I didn't mess up because of no water.

 I have let mine go to about 20 percent (basically dry too) and my geese hatched out just fine. It seems the water needs to be added every two days to keep it up to the 35-45 %. My bators are sharing a hydrometer right now because I only have one, but so far so good. I need to get to petco this weekend for another one.

I need to get a hydrometer as well.

 

[PeepsCA]

Walmart and RadioShack usually have fairly inexpensive digital Hygrometer/Thermometer units that are thin/small enough to lay on top of the eggs so you can read them easily.

I try to keep my Humidity in the 45-50% range for Guinea eggs.


All my posts usually get edited cuz I typo a lot... I can spell, just can't type!

 

[kuntrygirl]

I'm getting lazy, and less anxious about my hatches, time for another break I think, lol.[/COLOR][/SIZE]

This is only my 3rd hatch and I am definitely LAZY. I get the LOSER award for incubating. I really don't like it but I'm making myself practice on hatching eggs. :/