First Time Hatching - incubator edition

[cluckingheck]

I'll be honest, it looks like they quit around day 15ish. Did you sniff them? If they're not stinky you can continue to wait but I would definitely sniff because with the eggs only looking partially filled I'm thinking they quit a while ago.

I candled them on day 16 and I thought they were alive. Thought I saw movement, but I could’ve been mistaken. I smelled them, yeah, but didn’t smell anything so I put them back in the incubator

 

[cluckingheck]

So...what would a barred rock roo over a blue Orpington hen look like? Someone my cousin knows just started this cross and I thought about adding some eggs to the next round of hatching. The guy just started, so he doesn’t have any adult offspring from the cross yet. Would it follow the same pattern as BR roo over black hen? Both barred offspring?

 

[cluckingheck]

i called it on the two remaining eggs. there wasn’t any movement and there were particles floating around in the egg. one died halfway through absorbing the yolk and the other right before absorbing it. both still had some amniotic fluid. it didn’t look like anything was wrong with them, but I didn’t go any farther than getting them out of the shell. one was a yellow chick and the other a black & white chick. it’s stupid, but I buried them out in the yard by the magnolias.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

i called it on the two remaining eggs. there wasn’t any movement and there were particles floating around in the egg. one died halfway through absorbing the yolk and the other right before absorbing it. both still had some amniotic fluid. it didn’t look like anything was wrong with them, but I didn’t go any farther than getting them out of the shell. one was a yellow chick and the other a black & white chick. it’s stupid, but I buried them out in the yard by the magnolias.

It's not stupid. I'm sorry you had a couple of late quitters. I know they're much harder.

 

[cluckingheck]

That concludes this thread. 22 eggs in and 13 hatched...not great, but it could’ve been worse. NR360 — “Hatch Batch” — has been cleaned and ready for the next cycle as soon as I collect enough eggs from my girls. After this started, the days have gotten a little longer and some of my pullets have started back to laying and my ameraucana roo has finally been mounting some ( the ladies aren’t chasing him away now! well, except for reeses, one of my ISA browns, she still kicks his ass lol ), so hopefully some of the next round of chicks will have beards & muffs.

OH! I’ll also being using some borrowed incubators from my cousin. Though, I think I’ll only being using one of them. It’s an older little giant styrofoam incubator ( model 9200 with a 6200 egg turner ). The other is a cheap knockoff with no name or brand and it hasn’t been holding a constant temp since I turned it on last night.

 

[Mellowmalt]

Hey clucking, thanks for the detailed post with pictures. You did great for your first try. Incubators don't always have even temperatures throughout so maybe work out where you had more losses althogough they were turned quite regularly. I'm just starting some eggs myself and I'd be very happy with 50% hatching.

I know it is irrelevant really but I noticed a lot of people stating the middle eggs turn more than the outside eggs. No they wouldn't. They would turn less. It's very simple to work out why too. They turn based on the rotation of the egg turner. If the egg turner makes one rotation, the eggs on the outside will have completed one rotation. The eggs on the inside in comparison would have completed one rotation. You might say nonsense. But that is how it is. When the dial on a clock goes round, every hour it makes one rotation. If a fly is sitting on the dial as it goes round it is irrelevant if the fly is sitting on the end of the dial or near the middle - it will have made one rotation in an hour - but f the fly sits on the very end of the dial then it will travel a much bigger circle than if it were sitting right near the middle of the clock.

So if the outside eggs travel a further distance for each rotation and all eggs go though the same rotation then for each rotation the outside eggs travel further and thus are rolled more.

But it is irrelevant from a practical point of view as if you use smaller eggs, the smaller egg diameter will mean it will actually roll more per distance travelled than a big egg and thus counter the increased rolling distance the bigger eggs make and will probably be turned roughly the same as the big eggs. Even if one were to use big eggs in the center the slightly less turning of the middle eggs would be negligible as automatic egg turners are so constant even turning throughout the night.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

I know it is irrelevant really but I noticed a lot of people stating the middle eggs turn more than the outside eggs. No they wouldn't. They would turn less. It's very simple to work out why too. They turn based on the rotation of the egg turner. If the egg turner makes one rotation, the eggs on the outside will have completed one rotation. The eggs on the inside in comparison would have completed one rotation. You might say nonsense. But that is how it is. When the dial on a clock goes round, every hour it makes one rotation. If a fly is sitting on the dial as it goes round it is irrelevant if the fly is sitting on the end of the dial or near the middle - it will have made one rotation in an hour - but f the fly sits on the very end of the dial then it will travel a much bigger circle than if it were sitting right near the middle of the clock.

So if the outside eggs travel a further distance for each rotation and all eggs go though the same rotation then for each rotation the outside eggs travel further and thus are rolled more.

But it is irrelevant from a practical point of view as if you use smaller eggs, the smaller egg diameter will mean it will actually roll more per distance travelled than a big egg and thus counter the increased rolling distance the bigger eggs make and will probably be turned roughly the same as the big eggs. Even if one were to use big eggs in the center the slightly less turning of the middle eggs would be negligible as automatic egg turners are so constant even turning throughout the night.

Not many people, just me, lol, I said it backward in this thread apparently. They don't turn evenly every time due to slipping and egg size so if you make a mark on the eggs and they're all facing up, by the end of the day they will be all over the place. The turning is still sufficient in the inner and outer rings. I've done plenty of hatches using both rings.

 

[cluckingheck]

The no name incubator keeps fluctuating ( what it’s reading, anyways. I don’t have any thermometer or hydrometer ) around the 37.4 - 37.8 Celsius range which...does not seem good. It’s going from 99.3 to 100 Fahrenheit almost in a cycle while my NR360 stayed constantly at 99.5

 

[CluckNDoodle]

The no name incubator keeps fluctuating ( what it’s reading, anyways. I don’t have any thermometer or hydrometer ) around the 37.4 - 37.8 Celsius range which...does not seem good. It’s going from 99.3 to 100 Fahrenheit almost in a cycle while my NR360 stayed constantly at 99.5

If it's a yellow top China-bator I would avoid using it since you have better options. They're very unreliable and if it's already fluctuating before you even fill it with eggs I wouldn't use it.

 

[cluckingheck]

If it's a yellow top China-bator I would avoid using it since you have better options. They're very unreliable and if it's already fluctuating before you even fill it with eggs I wouldn't use it.

LOL, spot on. It is a yellow top China-bator. The only thing it had going for it was a 48 egg capacity. I know the LG incubator holds a lot, but I didn’t want to put all of the egg cups in it. So I’ll have 22 eggs in Hatch Batch and 30 something in the LG ( I’ll have to count again ). After that I might have to start another batch again...I have 3 people wanting 10 pullets and a 4th wanting whatever’s left, so that solves my cockerel problem.