Day 23....and..

[CarolinaKid 8]

Well BYC,Its been 23 days for my first 4 egg experiment .THe temp has been 98 to 102 the whole time and no pips or eggs moving.The Question is should i try the water test today or wait ?
My humidity for the first 18 days was 45 to 55.the last 4 days has been in the 70s. Thanks for everyones help here .This new hobby is be coming a nightmare.

....Homemade incubator here also..any advise will be Great

 

[Liamm_1]

Hi, I'm on day 19 with my first attempt, also with a home made incubator. Many factors are involved. Where did you get your eggs? transporting and or shipping of eggs can damage the yolks, rendering them unable to develop. Have you candled along the way? I candled on days 7, 12 and 18. I started with 24 Trader Joe's fertile eggs. On day 7, candling showed that 2 were infertile (just a floating yolk) and 2 had blood rings. So we had 20/24 that were developing. On day 12, it looked as though 16 were developing still, but we left them all in until day 18 to be sure. On day 18, the 4 that looked like they had quit early were confirmed, and there was one more that appeared to have quit maybe just after day 12 or so. Last night we locked down 15 eggs out of the original 24, that were still developing. So, in total, we lost 9 from the original 24. I'd guess that trying to hatch 4 eggs is a gamble, considering all the time and effort involved.

 

[midget_farms]

I also have a home made. I originally set 58 eggs (its a pretty big incubator). After day 8 or so I removed 10 that looked like duds. So that left me 48.

3 of the 10 were not duds - so I didn't mess with them again afraid I'd kill more.

Anyway 48 went into lock down. I had great humidity for incubating, but I really struggled to get the H up for hatching. I added an egg carton & filled it with water to help & a mason jar with a wash cloth in it as a wick.

In any case - 16 hatched. 1 of those 16 fell into my egg carton of water & drowned. So I have 15 chicks.

Since I had no more pips I candled all the remaining eggs - there were 6 more duds - so that meant I really set 42. 38% hatch rate. 2 of the chicks got shrink wrapped & required my help to hatch. what a mess.

In any case - I had seen some of the other eggs moving just a couple of days before, now nothing - they didn't break into the air cell.

I think my issue was 2 fold.

1) Humidity for hatching was way too low. I had it at 50% & really couldn't get it higher except momentarily if I added hot water.
2) When I reached in to collect the chicks I felt a cold draft coming in through the hole the turner handle went through - I wonder if the eggs by that hole got cold.

In any case I opened a couple in the end & the membrane was very dry. I'm going back to figure out a better humidity control & next time I will plug the side holes when going into lock down.