Hands on hatching and help

[jenniferlamar70]

I am going to murder the post office. First they took 15 days to deliver one of my shipments, so I'm probably going to have to replace those eggs for the buyer and, of course, the PO denied my claim and won't even give me my shipping money back. Then, I sent another package, with special handling even, and the post office delivered them late - they sent them to correct post office, marked them as out for delivery when they weren't, sent them back to a sort facility, and then sent them out to the wrong post office so my buyer had to drive all the way out there to get them, and upon checking the eggs 10 have detached air cells, three are cracked and leaking, and the only one that's not detached or leaking has a huge air cell. So apparently that's what you get after paying for special handling :/

And to top it all off, I somehow apparently sent a wrong egg to a buyer who won an auction for my eggs and it's the only one that hatched and it's clearly not an AC. I don't think it's even an AC cross. I have no idea how I did that. So I'm going to refund them if they want it.

I think I'll be taking a break from shipping eggs for awhile.

So sorry to here this Pyxis. I seriously hate the post office. My last 3 boxes of shipped eggs were tore back. Damaged and broken. The eggs didn't develop. Expensive eggs!! I don't blame you one bit!!! :/

 

[RubyNala97]

oh so excited!! had the 2 pips yesterday about 11:30 got up this morning to find 5 little chicks ! as of now we have 8 little ones running around in there with 1 more for sure pip even had an upside downer that did it by its self ,was so happy about that one   as soon as these guys dry  out a bit more going to move them to the brooder.  i did have a strange color come out of a brown egg.. it is yellow? unless im mistaking it for a differant chick ,its the only one that is still really wet ??

Awesome news!! Congrats on the hatchers! And I'm a little confused by the end of your post. Was there a strange yellow fluid come out of the egg? Or was the chick the wrong color? I'm sorry, I just didn't get that last part. Lol.
My hatch is going well too. I had one egg I was worried about. It had a large clear spot with no veining. And next to it looked like a large dark blob, like a blood clot. But the chick was very active when I locked down. I checked it last night and it was gone. I'm going to open it up today and investigate. Otherwise I think all the other eggs will hatch. 3 pips left to go and hatch is over!

I'm a complete maroon, to paraphrase Bugs Bunny.  I have a 6w reptile heating pad in the bottom of my Hovabator 1602, under the water tray.  I turn my eggs by hand and when I have the incubator open I plug in the additional heater to get it back up to temps more quickly.  It works really well, but you have to physically stand there and watch the thermometers (I have a digital at the bottom of the eggs, and one at the top) and unplug it when the floor temp reaches 100 degrees.  Yesterday I wandered off and when I returned hours later it was 110 degrees on the floor of the bator!
I was sure everyone was cooked, but today I still have movement and am only unsure about one egg.  It's one Buff Orpington and four of my bantam cross egg laying machines so nothing with a huge investment but it doesn't feel good to be a murderer :-(

Oh no that is terrible!! I'm sorry to hear that. When I was using the cradle with the octagon 20 I would unplug it when I had to add water. And one time I forgot to plug it back in for like 3-4 days. So the developing eggs just sat there in the same position. We all have those moments where our brains shut down. I hope the eggs are ok!

I'll be surprised if any of these guinea eggs make it all the way.  I think the old LG is on it's way out.  One side is running a good 2 degrees hotter than the other. I keep rotating the dang thing, but I'm not loosing sleep at night to do it so one side is usually lower  than I like when I wake up.  I think I will be investing in the Hovabator next spring before I start hatching again for myself.  It'll be a miracle if these do anything.

You are going to be really happy with it! Are you just rotating the eggs once a day?

6 hours now we got a couple more hours before really starts cooling off as gets down to the 40-50 range at night, she's up on the perch now

Did you move the eggs?

I am going to murder the post office. First they took 15 days to deliver one of my shipments, so I'm probably going to have to replace those eggs for the buyer and, of course, the PO denied my claim and won't even give me my shipping money back. Then, I sent another package, with special handling even, and the post office delivered them late - they sent them to correct post office, marked them as out for delivery when they weren't, sent them back to a sort facility, and then sent them out to the wrong post office so my buyer had to drive all the way out there to get them, and upon checking the eggs 10 have detached air cells, three are cracked and leaking, and the only one that's not detached or leaking has a huge air cell. So apparently that's what you get after paying for special handling :/

And to top it all off, I somehow apparently sent a wrong egg to a buyer who won an auction for my eggs and it's the only one that hatched and it's clearly not an AC. I don't think it's even an AC cross. I have no idea how I did that. So I'm going to refund them if they want it.

I think I'll be taking a break from shipping eggs for awhile.

Oh wow, that's terrible!! I've only had one bad experience with shipping out eggs. It was not nearly as bad as yours. The package was supposed to be delivered by Friday but the po sent it to the wrong post office and they then sent it to the right post and it was picked up by Monday. No eggs were broken and the buyer said only 1 had a detached cell (but I sent 6 extra). The woman threw a fit and was so so difficult to deal with. She wanted me to file the $50 claim and to send her a free dozen eggs. Her package was only delayed about 2 days and arrived intact. I told her there was no basis for the claim. She just would not stop. After 21 days she contacted me and wanted a refund because only 3 eggs hatched. (I thought about all the total busts I've had with shipped where I would have been thrilled with 3!). And honestly, it made me not want to ship eggs for awhile. I was stressed over this woman! So I know how you feel!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I am going to murder the post office. First they took 15 days to deliver one of my shipments, so I'm probably going to have to replace those eggs for the buyer and, of course, the PO denied my claim and won't even give me my shipping money back. Then, I sent another package, with special handling even, and the post office delivered them late - they sent them to correct post office, marked them as out for delivery when they weren't, sent them back to a sort facility, and then sent them out to the wrong post office so my buyer had to drive all the way out there to get them, and upon checking the eggs 10 have detached air cells, three are cracked and leaking, and the only one that's not detached or leaking has a huge air cell. So apparently that's what you get after paying for special handling

And to top it all off, I somehow apparently sent a wrong egg to a buyer who won an auction for my eggs and it's the only one that hatched and it's clearly not an AC. I don't think it's even an AC cross. I have no idea how I did that. So I'm going to refund them if they want it.

I think I'll be taking a break from shipping eggs for awhile.

You are not having good luck with POs!!!

My hatch is going well too. I had one egg I was worried about. It had a large clear spot with no veining. And next to it looked like a large dark blob, like a blood clot. But the chick was very active when I locked down. I checked it last night and it was gone. I'm going to open it up today and investigate. Otherwise I think all the other eggs will hatch. 3 pips left to go and hatch is over!
Oh no that is terrible!! I'm sorry to hear that. When I was using the cradle with the octagon 20 I would unplug it when I had to add water. And one time I forgot to plug it back in for like 3-4 days. So the developing eggs just sat there in the same position. We all have those moments where our brains shut down. I hope the eggs are ok!
You are going to be really happy with it! Are you just rotating the eggs once a day?

Glad to hear that your hatch is going good!
No, I'm turning the normal 3 times a day.

I put the lid on sideways (so the sides are top/bottom instead of right/left. It seems to have stabilized the temps somewhat so that from one side to the other it's staying 99.5- just under 100.5 ish. We'll see how long it stays that way.
Hey Ruby are you doing this hatch in the Hovabator or the Brinsea??

 

[RubyNala97]

You are not having good luck with POs!!!

Glad to hear that your hatch is going good!  
No, I'm turning the normal 3 times a day. 

I put the lid on sideways (so the sides are top/bottom instead of right/left. It seems to have stabilized the temps somewhat so that from one side to the other it's staying 99.5- just under 100.5 ish. We'll see how long it stays that way.
Hey Ruby are you doing this hatch in the Hovabator or the Brinsea??

No, I meant rotating the eggs from the hotter side to the colder side once a day. Sounds like you've got it figured out. You're a champ with that LG! Only one more pip to hatch and I'm done. This hatch is in the brinsea 20. I bought the hovabator in spring because I was hatching the ducks for myself in the brinsea's and had a lot of orders for chicks. I searched websites for that model after we talked and went with the cheapest site. But it took 6 weeks to arrive! By then all the ducks were done and I honestly only used it once for incubation and have never hatched in it. So it's basically brand new sitting on my dresser. It's so big compared to what I'm used to. I think that next spring if I get a lot of orders it will come in handy. From the one time I used it I really liked it. Temp was rock solid and humidity was easy to control. Instead of following the directions and filling the biggest well first, I filled the smallest well and that was all I needed, plus I added a little shot glass on the rack that I topped off daily. Your gonna love it. No babysitting required!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

No, I meant rotating the eggs from the hotter side to the colder side once a day. Sounds like you've got it figured out. You're a champ with that LG! Only one more pip to hatch and I'm done. This hatch is in the brinsea 20. I bought the hovabator in spring because I was hatching the ducks for myself in the brinsea's and had a lot of orders for chicks. I searched websites for that model after we talked and went with the cheapest site. But it took 6 weeks to arrive! By then all the ducks were done and I honestly only used it once for incubation and have never hatched in it. So it's basically brand new sitting on my dresser. It's so big compared to what I'm used to. I think that next spring if I get a lot of orders it will come in handy. From the one time I used it I really liked it. Temp was rock solid and humidity was easy to control. Instead of following the directions and filling the biggest well first, I filled the smallest well and that was all I needed, plus I added a little shot glass on the rack that I topped off daily. Your gonna love it. No babysitting required!

Ohhhh....I was rotating the top every few hours so that the element that was hotter would be on one side a few hours and then on the other...lol

I bet you'll love the extra space next year! My bday is February, Cayden's is March, so Jan-March all the funds I can squeeze out go for his day, but I am thinking hopfully April/May I can pull enough to replace it and call it a late bday gift....lol

 

[WVduckchick]

Ohhhh....I was rotating the top every few hours so that the element that was hotter would be on one side a few hours and then on the other...lol 

I  bet you'll love the extra space next year!   My bday is February, Cayden's is March, so Jan-March all the funds I can squeeze out go for his day, but I am thinking hopfully April/May I can pull enough to replace it and call it a late bday gift....lol

I was wondering if maybe leaving it alone and expecting half the hatch to be a little later would be easier. Well, not just easier on you, but less fluctuating up and down on the eggs?

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I was wondering if maybe leaving it alone and expecting half the hatch to be a little later would be easier. Well, not just easier on you, but less fluctuating up and down on the eggs?

I'd rather have the temps average out, but so far turning the top sideways seems to have done the trick, at least for now. It's staying in a comfortable range across the bator. If it stays like this it might be ok.

Question for the guinea hatchers. About what day do you start seeing development. I'm thinking about a week???

 

[slordaz]

yep, they were gonners when I candled, next time even with it hot won't wait to do it. This leghorn wants to brood she's just not good at it think for her to successfully brood it'd going to take locking her in something and only letting her out a couple times during the day for a few then right back in. Good Idea or not, she is determined to brood just impatient for babies, at least this time she made it past day 3. The BR is doing awesome though she gets off maybe 15-30 minutes and right back to brooding she's got 6 days left to go on 9 eggs

 

[AmyLynn2374]

yep, they were gonners when I candled, next time even with it hot won't wait to do it. This leghorn wants to brood she's just not good at it think for her to successfully brood it'd going to take locking her in something and only letting her out a couple times during the day for a few then right back in. Good Idea or not, she is determined to brood just impatient for babies, at least this time she made it past day 3. The BR is doing awesome though she gets off maybe 15-30 minutes and right back to brooding she's got 6 days left to go on 9 eggs

15-30 minutes is completely normal. I think one hour would be my limit before I pulled them to the incubator. You can always give them back if the bird returns and stays sitting.

 

[SunHwaKwon]

I'd rather have the temps average out, but so far turning the top sideways seems to have done the trick, at least for now. It's staying in a comfortable range across the bator. If it stays like this it might be ok.

Question for the guinea hatchers. About what day do you start seeing development. I'm thinking about a week???

Usually by a week, sooner if you have a very good light. I wait until at least two weeks to toss any, just in case (unless it smells, oozes, etc,as you know).