First time incubating Silkie eggs. Candling pics and embryo movement video.

[Rockporters]

This is my first time incubating chicken eggs. I am learning (mostly the hard way) as I go. The stats:
-I bought 12 Silkie hatching eggs.
-12 out of 12 eggs were fertile and developed really well until day 5.
-Lost 3 eggs in a styrofoam incubator malfunction on day 6. (It cooked the eggs.)
-Lost 2 more eggs in an incident with the Janoel 12 on day 7. (It nearly cooked the eggs.)
-7 remaining eggs are doing well and are on day 12.

Equipment has been my biggest challenge to date. I have 2-Janoel 12 incubators and a styrofoam still air. Neither incubator is consistent with temp or humidity. I find the Janoel 12 particularly awkward. The lid is clumsy, and it’s very difficult to see inside the incubator without lifting off the lid. It is also nearly impossible to keep humidity consistent in it. I have 4 different thermometers/hygrometers, and only 2 of them are semi-consistent and a close match. I will be holding my breath, and crossing my fingers, for the next 9 days!!

Here are videos of the action inside a couple of the eggs, and day 10 candling pics. Apologies for the very noisy chicks in the background!

 

[Rockporters]

I thought maybe others who are like me and new to incubating might want to see what the bad eggs looked like during candling. The second set of pics are the eggs that got “cooked” by the styrofoam incubator.

 

[SilkieLoverFarm]

Thank you for this post. Those are amazing videos! I know this was posted a while ago but any of those hatch for you?

 

[Rockporters]

Thank you for this post. Those are amazing videos! I know this was posted a while ago but any of those hatch for you?

Out of the 7 eggs that made it to lockdown, I believe 6 hatched.

 

[SilkieLoverFarm]

6 out of 7 is great. Malfunctions don't count. Curious on your temp, humidity and lock down humidity for your silkie egg hatch success? Have you hatched more since that batch? Is your profile pic one of your grown out hatchlings from this post? It's adorable!

 

[Rockporters]

6 out of 7 is great. Malfunctions don't count. Curious on your temp, humidity and lock down humidity for your silkie egg hatch success? Have you hatched more since that batch? Is your profile pic one of your grown out hatchlings from this post? It's adorable!

Thank you! She is from a later hatch. She’s about 4months old. I’ve become a hardcore hatch-a-holic since that first time lol. Since the first hatch I’ve incubated: Silkies, Serama, and a variety of rare breeds. 4 incubators and too many chicks later...

I have Silkies, and Orpingtons (hopefully), hatching today. White Face Spanish, Serama, and more Silkies next week and the week after.

In general here is my process:

Let the eggs sit upright and come to room temp. Usually 6hrs or so.

Lightly spray the eggs with hydrogen peroxide.

Place into the still air, no auto-turn, incubator at a temp of 101.

3 days later move the eggs to an auto-turn incubator. 3 thermometers/hygrometers go in too. Temp set to 99.5.

I was dry incubating—then cranking humidity at lockdown. I have recently started adding some water here and there during incubation, particularly at the beginning. Just enough to keep humidity 20-33%. Not all the time, just when I’m around and think of it. I stop adding water by the end of week 2.

I don’t add water at lockdown. I wait for the 2nd pip. I no longer crank the humidity, I keep it at 40-50% during hatch, and that seems to be working well.

I’ve been having good luck with this method. Sorry for this ending up a bit of a ramble!

 

[SilkieLoverFarm]

No, no. Thank you for the ramble! I've been reading a lot about the dry incubation method. I have yet to hear the spray with hydrogen peroxide. Very interesting. Everything I've read says people have a way better success rate, doing kind of what you're doing. I'm just starting with eggs, and thus far feeling like an egg failure. So I appreciate you sharing what's working well for you. Thank you!

 

[Rockporters]

No, no. Thank you for the ramble! I've been reading a lot about the dry incubation method. I have yet to hear the spray with hydrogen peroxide. Very interesting. Everything I've read says people have a way better success rate, doing kind of what you're doing. I'm just starting with eggs, and thus far feeling like an egg failure. So I appreciate you sharing what's working well for you. Thank you!

What problems are you having? Your eggs or shipped eggs?

I read about the peroxide on FB, I think it might have been Judy Lee that mentioned it? I feel like it helps.

Ive tried other methods, but what I’m doing now is working well. It’s similar to what I did when first starting out, and I was very successful with hatches. Will let you know how my current hatch turns out

 

[SilkieLoverFarm]

Currently they're my own silkies eggs. I only tried one batch so far, and for only 8 days, no viens. They may not have been viable but my roo is all over my hens, so I'm leaning towards my own fail I'm having problems even getting the temperature to stay consistent. Our ambient isn't either, it's cold in our place a lot. I wish a hen woul go broody. The humidity ranged from 30 to 45. I just put in a second batch. I have two digitals in there that also have humidity. They never match, the incubator never matches. Then I have one regular aquatic thermometer that never matches either. It's frustrating to say the least. I read about hot plate hatching, maybe I could get a more stable heat through development with that during winter and then switch to incubator for hatch. I don't know. I wrapped a small blanket around my incubator to try to hold in heat better, I'm not sure that that's really working at all. It'd be nice if one of the four temperature readings matched. Haha

 

[Rockporters]

That’s frustrating. I’m sorry. There is definitely some trial and error.

You probably have, but I’ll ask anyway. Have you cracked an egg to check fertility? Depending on how much fluff and poof your Silkies have, they might be having trouble getting the “job” done.

Otherwise, it seems like at least some should be developing. Your humidity is on the high side for incubation, but I don’t think it would cause problems that early on.

You should buy a good old fashioned, manual, people thermometer. Hard to find, but I think Amazon sells a couple. As for the digital, your experience sounds about right. My current favorite, but not completely accurate, is:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004K8RF10/?tag=backy-20

Take out the battery and reinsert it, right before you put it in the incubator. Seems to help. This one is pretty close for humidity, maybe a degree or two low on temps.

Btw Which incubator do you have?