Biggest Incubation Mistakes

[yakitori]

Okay, I’ve dropped an egg on another one and one cracked... but hey, neither were fertilized

Mistake 1 (pre incubation)
-What did you do?
Buy local hatching eggs during a heat wave

-What were the consequences?
5/8 were not fertile

-Did you fix it? How?
uh...

-What did you learn?
Be aware of your weather/conditions when buying hatching eggs whether it’s online or local. Don’t be shy to request the order to be delayed until better weather is abound. Local eggs are not going to have a higher hatch rate than shipped ones if they were laid in less than ideal conditions.


Mistake 2 (post incubation)

-What did you do?
Leave weak chick that I was nursing with broody at night.

-What were the consequences?
broody left it out in the cold and it died

-Did you fix it? How?
Currently studying to be a necromancer

-What did you learn?
Broodies do take care of chicks well, but sometimes if a chick can’t make it under mom by themselves, then they will be ignored and left to natural selection. I don’t know whether it’s my specific broody, but I witnessed a similar scene with my current hatch. One chick that just hatched didn’t quite dry up well, and somehow ended up kicked out from under mom. It was chirping up a storm, which would normally send the broody into distress, but the broody was completely calm and ignoring the “weak” chick.

I ended up giving the chick a long warm bath, after which it managed to fluff out properly, and mom then accepted it without issue.

 

[Chookwagn]

You're supposed to use distilled water? Huh.

That's exactly what I thought when I read it....

 

[Chookwagn]

You may want to add wasting money on cheap incubators!!!!

Agree with this one

But I will also add... even if you have the top notch incubator, poor management can totally screw it up.

 

[Silexian]

What's a problem with using tap water? I didnt know that was an issue. I've always used it straight from the sink with good results.

I don’t think it is such an issue. If you have city water. We have a lot of iron in our well water. Plus we have a water softener system. So our tap water leaves rust stains and mineral deposits in the evaporation pools of my incubators. Therefore I use distilled water.

 

[Silexian]

I have found that if you are going to assist. It is best to get the chick’s head and neck free. Then just peel back enough shell and membrane to prevent shrink wrapping. Then let the chick attempt to free itself the rest of the way from the remaining shell. I pulled a not fully absorbed yolk out of a chick. By trying to completely free it from the shell. With more air getting to the area. Assisted chicks are more prone to not fully lose all of their umbilical cord. It is imperative to remove any remnants of the umbilical cord. The other chicks will pick at it unmercifully.

 

[yakitori]

I don’t think it is such an issue. If you have city water. We have a lot of iron in our well water. Plus we have a water softener system. So our tap water leaves rust stains and mineral deposits in the evaporation pools of my incubators. Therefore I use distilled water.

agreed, when I lived in the city, the water was perfect.... but now on my own well, ick, everything will have a thick white deposit if you don’t use a water softening system I know it’s time to add more salt when my dishes come out of the dishwasher feeling powdery. lol

 

[casportpony]

The writing in this thread looks awfully similar to the one in my mistakes thread? Wouldn't you say, @Kiki?

Yes it does, and that's because we thought your thread was brilliant, so we used your template and made this one.

Check out @PippinTheChicken's thread:
What was your worst mistake as a chicken keeper?

 

[Swbertrand1]

Yes it does, and that's because we thought your thread was brilliant, so we used your template and made this one.

That was put VERY diplomatically...!

 

[Swbertrand1]

FWIW, we use filtered bottled water for our incubators just because we don't like the stuff that's in our tap water (chlorine, fluorine, etc). It just seemed like common sense to us though we had never read anything about what sort of water to use, distilled or otherwise...

 

[PippinTheChicken]

Yes it does, and that's because we thought your thread was brilliant, so we used your template and made this one.

Check out @PippinTheChicken's thread:
What was your worst mistake as a chicken keeper?

I feel so flattered