Adventures in Incubating Shipped Eggs

[Mommaj89]

Please double check the temperature under your lamp.
Heat lamps get really HOT.

Thank you I switched the bulbs to a regular 40 watt & The rest seem to be doing great. I feel horrible that that could be why but I'm thankful we caught it before the rest had the same problem

 

[Kiki]

Thank you I switched the bulbs to a regular 40 watt & The rest seem to be doing great. I feel horrible that that could be why but I'm thankful we caught it before the rest had the same problem

Keep an eye on the 40 watt bulbs temperature too.

 

[Morrigan]

FULL HATCH!!!
Well, 6 of 7 eggs actually; but I didn't really think the suspected quitter egg was going to hatch. I'll candle it again today and then open it up to see what's inside. Last night 2 D'uccles had hatched and everyone else (excluding quitter egg) had external pips! I'd been fretting over the quiet Cochin so feeling pips on all the eggs was a relief. This morning everyone was out of their shells and drying off! The Cochin egg with the saddle air sac had hatched, no sign of problems when I examined the membrane and shell after hatch. I haven't seen all the chicks yet, but mama hen let me grope around under her and I'm pretty sure I touched all the babies. They ran away from me so I'd say the chicks are all doing fine post hatch.

That's wonderful. Mama hen did excellent work for you!

 

[Zinjifrah]

Been trying to figure out what could have gone wrong with the eggs, to have ten of them quit in the last three days. Everywhere I look, I come to three primary variables - temperature, low humidity, and the health of the birds the eggs came from. I know I had one temperature spike up to 101 F. on day 18, when I adjusted the incubator for lock-down, but that doesn't appear major enough to have been responsible. Humidity fluctuated between 40% and 50% during the entire incubation, but if anything that's high, rather than low. I don't rule out that I may have done something to cause the die-off, but what I keep coming back to is the three eggs I culled early on that appeared to have bacteria inside them at lay. That's a good indication of poor health in the parent stock, at least to me. So I'm tempted to order some eggs from someone that I know has healthy birds, and see how they fare.

 

[Colly1470]

Day 28 officially started about an hour ago, so I'll hopefully be hearing some tapping/peeping very soon.

I'm trying to not spend the whole day sitting next to the incubator haha.

 

[Morrigan]

It's frustrating not knowing what exactly goes wrong with a hatch, and I think the number of possible causes and uncertainty goes way up when you are dealing with shipped eggs. I know I am frustrated with losing 6/10 orpington eggs by day 10. I'm guessing some of the Maran eggs are bad too, I just don't know it yet.

It's possible I did something to them because 1) incubator is no longer giving me accurate temps or humidity; 2) I should not have candled them on day 4; or 3) it was a bad idea not to turn them for the first couple of days (even though I read this was the right approached shipped eggs). I don't think any of these are the causes, but I guess I will never know for sure. I think it was old eggs, because of starting air sac size, or postal mishandling jumbled up the eggs. I wish I had put a couple of fresh eggs from my backyard in as controls.

 

[CSAchook]

It's frustrating not knowing what exactly goes wrong with a hatch, and I think the number of possible causes and uncertainty goes way up when you are dealing with shipped eggs. I know I am frustrated with losing 6/10 orpington eggs by day 10. I'm guessing some of the Maran eggs are bad too, I just don't know it yet.

It's possible I did something to them because 1) incubator is no longer giving me accurate temps or humidity; 2) I should not have candled them on day 4; or 3) it was a bad idea not to turn them for the first couple of days (even though I read this was the right approached shipped eggs). I don't think any of these are the causes, but I guess I will never know for sure. I think it was old eggs, because of starting air sac size, or postal mishandling jumbled up the eggs. I wish I had put a couple of fresh eggs from my backyard in as controls.

You are doing everything you can! Try not to question yourself. The biggest factors were likely the ones not in your control: shipping stress and egg age. Still crossing all my fingers and toes for your remaining eggs! It will all seem worth it once that first baby makes an appearance

 

[Mommaj89]

Keep an eye on the 40 watt bulbs temperature too.

Will do! Theyre doing great... The only thing I had been concerned about was really watery poo from most of them & after I switched bulbs it's all looking quite normal
I feel so horrible that he probably died because of my mistake, but I won't be doing it twice! The outside temps are fluctuating so much and our house right along with them

 

[Mommaj89]

On a happy note, A few of my buff orpington x RIR chicks are hatching today

 

[Morrigan]

You are doing everything you can! Try not to question yourself. The biggest factors were likely the ones not in your control: shipping stress and egg age. Still crossing all my fingers and toes for your remaining eggs! It will all seem worth it once that first baby makes an appearance

Thanks! I hope I have babies making an appearance in 10 days.