Has this ever happened to you?

[BigDaddy'sGurl]

Back on July 21 I bought two dozen BO hatching eggs from this local guy. Candled them a few days later, developing a little too well, lol. Didn't think much of it, just thought they were extra healthy. Now, on day 13 I have one hatched chick (needed assistance because the humidity hadn't been adjusted because it wasn't time to up it, or so i thought), and one pipped. Who knows about the rest of them and their due dates because they are all showing good movement but now my time system is skewed because they had obviously been sat on before he sold them to me. It looks like I'm going to have a staggered hatch with this group whether I want to or not, lol. Wasn't expecting fuzzies just yet and am now at work worrying about what's happening at home...this is nerve wracking! Don't know whether to be overjoyed or frustrated with this seller because I still have to open the incubator to turn other eggs and I'm afraid I could lose the ones that are early as they hatch because I can't maintain the desired humidity with opening it several times a day....this is a new one for me.

 

[Kedreeva]

Time to get a spray bottle of warm water and mist the inside every time you open it

 

[oesdog]

I had issues with hatching but mine was the other extreme. Got the Temp too high to start with and lost a load of eggs! Think I cooked them? Maybe I got over worried and turned it too far down after that?

Then the ones under the Hen hatched out but the ones in the incubator didn;t?????????? I thought oh I got the dates messed up but I didn;t cause they all went in the same time! But Elly - one hen died and her eggs went cold and I put them in the incubator because Bertha couldn;t sit on anymore. - So it well all got messed up with the timing.( Then I couldn;t remember which eggs were bought and which were Ellys? Only new for certain the blue eggs were not ours?

I was spot on 21 days for Bertha's babies but then nothing happened for 6 days in the incubator even though I knew there would only be two days difference at most? - Then I got one pip and it died over night - ouch felt really bad because I didn;t realise it was in trouble and I didn;t step in when I could have saved it. Then we got another pip and nothing happened for hours - we were now 6 days after the other babies were hatched outside. We had to intervine and we were soooo worried. But DH stepped in and did the dead and little blue hatched out( From a blue egg!) I was told to ditch dead eggs so I ditched a load but 4 were still live so I put them near the heat and turned them and left them again?I candled the others , they were all empty! Think I fried them when the heat was up and they just didn;t develop at all.

I mean I was so unsure of the dates by then that I didn;t know to turn or not????? Blue just looked so sad and lonely on top of a bunch of eggs not doing much. Then on the 28th day! I was checking thinking I am giving up or they will explode goo any minuite! I saw a pip! We didn;t wait to see what would happen we just wailed on in and got the chick out because we knew it was sooooooo late. It was really tiny and incredibly weak. We thought it wouldn;t last the night. So of course there we were opening the incubator all over again to drop feed the we critter water every hour and wondering about the other eggs. Should I turn should I not /should I open should I not? In the end we just thought we have two live chicks we need to go with what we have and if something else turns up good but if not - sad but we kept feeding omlet water every hour and after 12 hours he finally moved! Those chicks blue and omlet are now 8 weeks old and spent their first night outside in the coop last night!!!!!!!!!! -

Sadly the other 4 eggs had dead. The chicks inside were Fully formed but dead? Humidity - not sure ? Temperature ???? They were wet when we opened the shells but it could have been that they were dead a while??? were as omlet and Blue were really dry. We feel so bad about it as in all we lost 5 in the incubator that developed ( survived the frying! ) and 1 of Bertha's as it was hatched with its guts out. Had to be a cull. So we started out with 21 eggs in total from Ellys nest ( She died half way through brooding - had a prolapse! ) Bertha's eggs and the incubator eggs we bought as a back up! Out of all those we got 6 live chicks and at least two of those are Roos that we can;t keep -

It is so hard to know what best to do when the hatch is all screwed up? DH and I have been so put off - we don;t think we will incubate again - and will try to use a broody in the future. Actually it was so much better for the chicks outside with mum than it was for blue and omlet in a box! They missed out on such a lot of stuff!