Hands on hatching and help

[jenniferlamar70]

Thanks all the flock will recover! We've set 15 of our own eggs today - a mix of cream legbar crosses, Marans, Araucanas and Buff Orps. I didn't think my husband would be onboard but he's said yep let's set a whole bunch! So I hope we will have better success. It'll help that the eggs are mostly pale and so easier to candle than the Marans.

Foxy fox has so far got into the less secure bit of the pen but it's still pretty fenced/wired/raised houses etc. Some areas have electric fencing and so far they've stayed secure but I worry the fox is getting bold. We have a fox trap out now, so far we've just caught one of the poor cats!

Good luck.

 

[FridayYet]

It's a Brinsea octogan advance ex with humidity pump. I have a spot check thermometer too and that showed pretty reliable temps. I did 37.5/45% humidity until lockdown and then 65% at lockdown. Autoturn was on. 2/12 eggs were infertile, I had some early quitters and then a few that were mostly developed that stopped just before hatch. It is Brinsea's own recommendations that I have followed. Of note the eggs are shipped.

Shipped eggs are always a gamble, and depending on the distance of the trip, number of transfers, altitude change, extreme temperatures and just shaking the heck out of them could cause both early and late losses. You might want to do a test hatch of local eggs just to tweak your incubator settings and eliminate the shipping variable.

I would definitely try a low humidity incubation this time around and check the air cells at least day 7/14/18 to monitor for growth and know if and when to adjust. Sorry to hear about the problems, hope you have better luck. (I shoot for 30% first 17 days)

X 2.

I have the exact same incubator. Mine tends to run 0.3 degrees hot, so I set it at 99.4. I am at a higher altitude (5,000 ft.) so I start at 35% and adjust weekly like Amy mentioned. I don't double check the humidity since I'm watching the air cells. My local eggs hatch great, but shipped have been anywhere from 2/29 to 13/28. They all came from lower altitude though, so that's an automatic strike against me.

 

[arr36]

We let them get up to room temperature for 24h in the carton, with fat end of the egg upwards, then I move them into the incubator which I have at the right temperature ready and waiting. Anything else I can do? The air cells this time were pretty much all misshappen, we had wrong end pippers and one chick pipped in the right spot but must've hit a pocket of fluid somewhere and drowned. The one decent air cell was the only egg which hatched. Mostly they quit before that though.

I've set some other eggs a couple weeks back in my older cheaper incubator (mini Eco) and have pretty much done nothing other than turn them a couple of times a day and add a bit of water (often it's dry though) and they are developing beautifully. They're our own eggs though.

Thanks for the help and support y'all! I really appreciate it.

I believe this could be your problem. You've got a pretty reliable incubator. What precautions or specific care are you giving the shipped eggs? How do the air cells look upon arrival? I think it's great that you set your own eggs. It will be an excellent comparison to the shipped.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

We let them get up to room temperature for 24h in the carton, with fat end of the egg upwards, then I move them into the incubator which I have at the right temperature ready and waiting. Anything else I can do? The air cells this time were pretty much all misshappen, we had wrong end pippers and one chick pipped in the right spot but must've hit a pocket of fluid somewhere and drowned. The one decent air cell was the only egg which hatched. Mostly they quit before that though.

I've set some other eggs a couple weeks back in my older cheaper incubator (mini Eco) and have pretty much done nothing other than turn them a couple of times a day and add a bit of water (often it's dry though) and they are developing beautifully. They're our own eggs though.

Thanks for the help and support y'all! I really appreciate it.

I agree. If they were shipped that's probably the majority of your issues.

 

[Sarah Catherine]

Yes!! We just hatched our chick! Thank you so much for the advice yesterday!

 

[Sarah Catherine]

Looks just like the mama!

 

[Sarah Catherine]

I meant to rely on your thread- but we have a chick!! Such a sweet baby

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Looks just like the mama!

Congrats!!!!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I never brought down my bucket of feed that I had upstairs for Peep and look what I found in it just a bit ago..... isn't he cute??? He got in but couldn't get out.

 

[Pyxis]

Well, I just set 25 sultan eggs (not 26 because I managed to break one ) and I also had to throw in two mystery eggs because they may have been cemanis, I couldn't remember if I set some cemani eggs in that carton or not (you'll notice I said "had to" - clearly there was no other choice to be made).