Candling overdue eggs

[FridayYet]

Could be either. At this point, it won't hurt to grab it real quick and check. Just enlarge the opening a bit and check the membrane for veins.

 

[jonezjollyfarm]

Well he or she was dead. But one did hatch and is following my head around the incubator. Another is about to hatch. It's probably a little late to ask but what the heck are you supposed to do with the plastic thermometer plate (it's a little giant still air). It's in the way everywhere. The directions aren't clear what to do when they are hatching. I've been using a long piece of wire to move it around off the pipped eggs. I hate this incubator.

 

[FridayYet]

Congratulations on your chick -hope you get a bunch more!

Lots of people have problems with the LGs, they need tons of babysitting to get good hatches. Irregular temps can be a real issue.

 

[jonezjollyfarm]

It's been stressful to say the least. Do you know if the fan kit makes it any better? I'll spend the money to avoid this headache again... if I ever do it again.

 

[FridayYet]

I've heard that the fan kit helps. Also putting marbles or stones in the water channels or jars of warm water can help reduce temperature fluctuations.

You also have to have your styrofoam incubator in the most stable room in your house, away from drafts.

When you do another batch, there are things you should do to make sure your temps and humidity are in track - like have secondary calibrated thermometers and hygrometers. The built in ones are notoriously inaccurate.

 

[jonezjollyfarm]

Well I started with 12 eggs. 3 never started to develop. 2 never started to hatch. 2 pipped and died. 1 hatched with a peaish sized yolk still attached. 1 I had to assist. And the other 3 hatched with no issues. Yikes! This has been more stressful than I ever anticipated

 

[EaeMre]

Congratulations on your 5 new babies! I agree on how stressful all this is. Since we only hatched 1/2 of our eggs, we are setting up for another batch. Hopefully with a better turn out.

 

[jonezjollyfarm]

Hope this one goes better for you. I'm going to buy the fan attachment from nine and try again. My friend is a hobby farmer... well its a pretty large scale hobby farm. But he wants me to hatch chicks for him and I can't do it if it's going to be like this every time. I sure was ready to throw the incubator in a wood chipper.

 

[shamrockmommy]

I'm also using a LG still air incubator for our 4H project (was kindof saddled with this project= since I have chickens it must mean I wan to hatch eggs!) I've had horrible temp fluctuations. I finally got it to stabilize at 99-100 (according to a digital thermometer, but the original glass thermometer reads somewhere in the 100s, and a meat thermometer poked into the styrofoam reads like 104!

The thermometers are all in different spots in the bator. Candling reveals veins in most, so that's good.

I'm so nervous about this I can hardly stand it LOL. Want baby chicks? That's what chick days are for!

What were your temps during incubation? I'm hoping and praying we end up with at least one or two chicks out of this!

Thanks!

 

[jonezjollyfarm]

Well I was kind stupid about the Temps at first. I set the temp and stuck my had in and it felt about 100 degrees so I went on my way. I couldn't find a thermometer that read high enough Temps that would sit in the incubator with the turner. So when I candled and saw life I assumed the temp was good. When they weren't hatching I did the same thing you did with the meat thermometer and it was reading the same temp as the digital so I was really confused. So i started checking it like everyone half hour and a few times it was reading like 104 instead of 102 like I had set it. When my last 2 chicks are out I'm going to run some tests and make some alterations. And do a lot more research probably contact the manufacturer for some answers that I can't find. Maybe build some sort of humidity pump for lockdown.