Diary & Notes ~ Air Cell Detatched SHIPPED Chicken Eggs for incubation and hatching

[silver1313]

So is there an award for worst hatcher ever? Maybe if I join the Easter hatch-a-long right now I could still win it if that award exists! . Listen to these awful stats.

Hatch #1... 28 eggs arrive, 6 are infertile, only 15 go into lockdown (bc I somehow killed 6 along the way) and only 6 hatch!! 1 wrong pipper was saved, one was killed during the "saving process" (it would have made #7). Eggtopsies showed an internal pip and a bunch of upside down dead fully grown chicks!

Hatch #2.... 15 eggs arrive. 8 are smashed in the box, out of the 7 only 3 don't have cracks, 2 of those have air cells rolling around like a carpenter level and YaY the last 1 made it, hatched alone on Sunday!

Current Hatch: long story short... Old old eggs finally arrive, like 10 days old. I give them a shot. I put all 12 in lockdown mainly bc I can't see into them.... Due Friday annnnnnnd, one just piped the wrong end!

I am not an idiot ... That I am aware of. Someone please laugh will me on this! It's so awful there is nothing left to do but laugh!!!

not alone with bad hatches and i usually use eggs from mine or local eggs i have picked up .. had one bator full with 0% my second or third try and with my ducks i managed 1 living out of 20 eggs that went in and lost one that i helped they wer the only two that pipped at all out of the 20 ... sometimes things go wrong.. ya live ya learn ... ya set more !!!

 

[bellah1]

If you are on lockdown When I use paper towels they never seem to hold enough moisture I have better luck with cotton jersey or terry rags or towels .soaking wet and as wide an area as you can do . under where you are adding your water Always have to remember surface moisture is what brings humidity up. Try a wet rag or 2 GOOD LUCK!

X2!

 

[MommaBee]

not alone with bad hatches and i usually use eggs from mine or local eggs i have picked up .. had one bator full with 0% my second or third try and with my ducks i managed 1 living out of 20 eggs that went in and lost one that i helped they wer the only two that pipped at all out of the 20 ... sometimes things go wrong.. ya live ya learn ... ya set more !!!

Thank you! I think I would have done even worse with out this forum. I am sad to hear of our common beginners luck. But I think so far I have learned A TON from just experiencing it first hand! Books can only prep you so much!

 

[Crimsonchicken]

Temp is perfect. You might take a wet wash cloth and spread it out as much as you can. The more moist surface area you create the higher your humidity. I also like to put it under the tops vent holes so I can easily drop water thru them to remoisten the cloth as it will dry out a bit. What kind of incubator are you using?

A brinsea octagon 20 advance. The water wells are under the egg basket. I don't know how I can drip water down into there. Can I just put a wet rag in a cup or something in the egg basket where I CAN add water through the vent?

 

[silver1313]

Quote: i love this forum i have learned a lot myself !!! and cant wait for it to get warmer and get our move over and done with so i can fire my incubator back up again and try with all i have learned.

 

[sumi]

Quote: I have the same incubator and the same issue. I took a cloth and spread it out on the bottom, under the egg basket and soaked it. But watch out! The water overflows and pours out the bottom of the incubator when I do that, so keep a bowl handy. It was worth it though, after soaking the cloth I got the humidity up to 70% and it stayed there for hours without needing a top-up.

ETA: The vent hole when fully open is big enough to fit a straw through, but watch out for those inconveniently placed rubbers just below. If you feed the straw all the way in you'll reach the bottom of the tray. I filled the straw with water and dripped it onto the cloth through the vent hole, but it takes forever if you need to up the humidity quick. What I did in that case was lift the lid on the side closest to me and poured some water into the tray. (I did arrange the eggs to allow me to do this without splashing them) This resulted in the tray overflowing, as I mentioned, but it bumped the humidity up beautifully too.

 

[sumi]

Sally-serious breeders trim the fluff around the backside for easier and more accurate access.

Also if he is young it might have something to do with whether he is getting a bullseye too. The younger they are the more clumsy they are.

True. Young ones sometimes need to practice for awhile before they get it right. Another possibly is that the hen is rejecting the sperm. I have actually seen one of my hens do that. Just as the roo dismounted she expelled it.

 

[sumi]

Quote:
Heck no! I swear she was growling at me! She never saw the world before that day and then to see me! why I thought for sure she was gonna collapse! he he he

 

[sumi]

So is there an award for worst hatcher ever? Maybe if I join the Easter hatch-a-long right now I could still win it if that award exists! . Listen to these awful stats.

Hatch #1... 28 eggs arrive, 6 are infertile, only 15 go into lockdown (bc I somehow killed 6 along the way) and only 6 hatch!! 1 wrong pipper was saved, one was killed during the "saving process" (it would have made #7). Eggtopsies showed an internal pip and a bunch of upside down dead fully grown chicks!

Hatch #2.... 15 eggs arrive. 8 are smashed in the box, out of the 7 only 3 don't have cracks, 2 of those have air cells rolling around like a carpenter level and YaY the last 1 made it, hatched alone on Sunday!

Current Hatch: long story short... Old old eggs finally arrive, like 10 days old. I give them a shot. I put all 12 in lockdown mainly bc I can't see into them.... Due Friday annnnnnnd, one just piped the wrong end!

I am not an idiot ... That I am aware of. Someone please laugh will me on this! It's so awful there is nothing left to do but laugh!!!

From the sounds of it you had the odds stacked against you. But you managed to hatch some chicks in spite of that, so be proud of yourself! My first incubator hatch I got a whopping 7 chicks from 56 eggs. And they were from my own hens...

 

[MommaBee]

From the sounds of it you had the odds stacked against you. But you managed to hatch some chicks in spite of that, so be proud of yourself! My first incubator hatch I got a whopping 7 chicks from 56 eggs. And they were from my own hens...

Yes, I should factor in the odds I guess. And that backwards piper we saved gave me a confidence boost.

Update: out of the 12 eggs in the bator, 5 are barnyard mixes and I set them only a few days old, this morning I woke to ALL 5 with pips!!! Even the backwards piper had started to zip up the middle! Anyone seen that before? It's not zipped around the egg, but from the middle pip straight up to the fat end.
The other 7 are olive egger eggs that were 10+day when set have no pips. They are larger eggs, so Maaaayyybe that makes a difference? If not they are probably all duds and they were just too dark to tell. Either way it's the morning of day 20, so we've got time...