First Hatch Failure

[Limpyduck]

Okay so we had some problems with our first hatch. Out of 11 promising looking eggs on day 17, we only got one healthy chick, which hatched yesterday morning (two days late). We are using a Little Giant forced-air incubator with digital sensor. I was told earlier on another thread that those sensors are often wrong and that we should get a normal (accurate) thermometer to put inside. I had a simple one from my son's science kit and i'm not sure if it's right but I put it in the still running incubator and came back to it later. The digital read 99 the one I placed inside was closer to 89...if that's right I have to wonder if those other eggs still have any sort of chance. We are going to wait a few more days just to make sure before cleaning it out and trying again. It's all we can do right? It's sad but we were bound to make some rookie mistakes

Advice would be welcome

 

[sonjab314]

Make sure your thermometer is calibrated. Sounds like you had some temperature issues going on. How was the humidity? Id make sure to get the lone chick a friend as well even if you have to buy one chick from the local feed store. They do not go well by themselves. I hope you have better luck next time. Sometimes hatching can be so frustrating.

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

I too agree never trust the incubator untill you have double checked with a calibrated thermometer and hygrometer. They are often sold as factory set but are not. Her is a great article on Incubation failures https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/egg-failure-to-hatch-diagnosing-incubation-problems

Wishing you the very best of luck with your chick I hope you are able to get it a friend.
Good luck with future incubations.

 

[Limpyduck]

We are trying to find a little friend for the Easter Egger chick, but we got our other chicks( we have four older ones we just put outside in the 'nursery yard' yesterday) at the hardware store down the street. We went down there to sell our extra chicken and duck eggs but they didn't have any more chicks. We actually have four other chicks on order, two welsummers( gotta love the chocolate eggs!) and two silkies(to reduce the house hatching drama hopefully), the problem is they aren't going to arrive at the same time and the first ones won't get in until the first week of may and that's just an estimate. My daughter goes up and plays with the chick or just holds it for a bit, every now and then, but I don't want it to become so attached to people it won't like being put outside with the other birds. Don't get me wrong I wouldn't mind having it as a pet but i'm pretty sure my Husband would. We already have a 'pet' duck, but he only puts up with that because she's only got one leg and has trouble getting around on her own.
As for the humidity before we knew the sensor was likely off everything seemed fine. It was kept at 50 up until the last few days then a small cup of warm water was added to keep it between 55 and 65 ( it sat most steady at 59). Even if it was wrong it hand only slight condensation in the corners of the plastic windows, and we made sure it didn't spread too much. Still I think we are only going to wait until the end of this month before trying another batch. this one will only have a dozen eggs instead of the 16 we set the first time because honestly I'm not sure what we would have done if all 11 had hatched anyway.

 

[Limpyduck]

Little 'Honeypot'