You know the old adage, don't sweat the small stuff, and it's ALL small stuff. Well, it just must be. Around the time I set the frozen eggs I found a few eggs, I found a few stuffed in a corner of the second pen, and figured what the heck, they were worse for wear - young pullets who hadn't learned to lay in the boxes yet. All three had slight cracks. Okay, waxed the worst of them and put them in with the others. Turned everything. The popsicles hatched out, and still two of the three found ones were rolling, at least I thought they were - dark shells. So I just kept rolling them whenever I thought of it. Two days ago I got to wondering when they were due to hatch. Probably soon, huh? Kept rolling them. No "lock down", no stopped rolling - I hand turn. No excess humidity. This morning I got up to a little black rock chick running around the incubator - OH HI BUDDY! LOL he's a loner though, the other quit a few days ago. So he'll also be a shirt chicken.
Sometimes we over think this thing. And in pursuit of the perfect conditions, really screw stuff up. I've had my best and simplest hatches since I did just set it up, and let it all "roll". Do what I's supposed to, let the bator work, and let nature do what it will do. There's a whole range of what will hatch eggs, perfection is in general, impossible, and you can go nuts trying to achieve it. This same chick was in the incubator when the temps dropped to 74 degrees when the power went out for several hours.
Yes, check your thermometer's accuracy and what the difference is between what your hygrometer reads and actual (though I dry hatch and don't bother). I didn't know when it would hatch or if it would, I just gave it the time and persisted. And voila, he hatched. Hang in there. Once you understand what you need to do with your equipment, it will work and it doesn't require perfection in either your equipment or what you do.
I'll snap pictures of the little self hatcher when he's dry. I like the baby black and blue rocks, they're cute things.
