First time hatching advice

[aart]

I don't at all suggest an incandescent light bulb as a heat source. 24-hour light can make the chicks aggressive and mess up their internal clocks. A red bulb is a bit better, but a brooding plate is ideal.

What's better... a white light all night or too cold to thrive?

 

[oliverj102]

Ive ordered a basic brooder plate. As youve said the light ones always seemed to have horrific reviews of chicks going mad!

No more chicks hatched, the 2 that started piping didnt make it through hatch, one stopped half way through and just led there with its beak poking out a hole, the other.... seemed to get stabbed by some of its own shell..... a bit had broken off and another chick rolled the egg and the shell pierced the exposed membrane... I took them out when i saw, removing the shell but it looks like it cut a vein in the egg and the chick bled out, poor thing...

One of the bought eggs piped yesterday afternoon tho! its not progressed much however. Im keeping the humidity at 65 like my book says and the other chicks are eating the drinking quite happily. you can hear them chirping away every so often and they get all excited when you go to the box and look through the walls!

Im a little worried about the late start piper as he hasnt progressed in about 14 hours, his beak is poking through the membrane this morning so should defiantly have air, the rest of the shell is intact. I am trying my hardest not to interfere as it will probably do more harm then good.

The incubator stinks now tho, im wondering it I can heat up another box and transfer them over for 10 minutes while i clean it... My brooder plate will arrive in a few days, tho it doesnt look like they are unhappy in the incubator it does smell funky! Id love to move the chicks out and leave the eggs to try a few more days but i heard the sound of chirping helps hatching..

Any thoughts would be great, ive lost 3 chicks so far mid hatch and its a bit gut wrenching to have to "deal" with their bodies...

 

[oliverj102]

The Buff Orpington that piped yesterday was dead. I made a short term brooder and transferred them over to clean the incubator so it doesn't smell like death. I stored the unhatched eggs in thermal blocks just in case. I had a look at the pipped one and it still hadn't moved, candling showed no movement either. I carefully removed some of the surrounding shell and it was dead. No apparent cause tho, it had fully adsorbed the blood from the egg, had internal and external pip, was nice and active 15 hours ago... yet this morning was cooler to the touch, no respiration and no reaction to stimuli...

Im really pissed off at the mail order egg supplier. They boasted a a very high success rate on their shipped eggs, yet currently out of 12 eggs, 8 failed to develop, 3 are still sat there and 1 died during hatching... I know its problematic with shipped eggs but a 0% success rate from an someone who sells these commercially feels shocking.... especially as the same incubator hatched 6 healthy chicks from 10 eggs, 3 didn't make it through hatching and 1 is still sat there. So its cant be the environment else mine would have been dodgy as hell too...

Any thoughts? Im going to give them today to show activity of any kind then I think im gonna have to call it.. this evening will mark 25 days since start.

 

[Mark Armstrong]

Never heard of washing eggs before incubating, won't that let excess air in?

 

[Fishkeeper]

I'm fairly sure the concern with washing is that it removes the bloom, which protects the eggs from bacteria. That's why you're only supposed to gently wipe down any dirty ones.

 

[aart]

Never heard of washing eggs before incubating, won't that let excess air in?

Plenty of folks wash and sanitize hatching eggs...if done carefully it does them no harm.