Hatch date after some incubator hiccups?

renk777

Songster
6 Years
Apr 28, 2017
557
556
247
East Coast, NJ
Hi! I placed a bunch of eggs in my homemade, still-air bator on the evening of 3/10. I consider the first day to be 03/11. They went into lockdown Wednesday night as that would be the end of the 18th day. That said, we had issues with the bator. Ever since a brown-out last year while incubating, it's been temperamental. Last year, all chicks pipped...one expired that I didn't help. Seriously made me question not helping as that little chicked worked hard for over 24 hours. I decided to give it one more hour to go by the rules and it died :( The double made it almost to the end. I did my best to remove the shell and assist and they were still moving but I had trouble locating the beaks due to excessive veining and I guess my air holes weren't positioned properly :( The rest all hatched :) This year, I'm having the same issue I did last year after the brown-out....the bulb suddenly stops working...but if I place it in our chandelier, it works fine. And if I take a bulb from the chandelier that has never been in the bator, that bulb works. But the bulb that was in the bator that stopped but still works in the chandelier, will never work in the bator again. It's the oddest thing. I posted here or in another forum...can't remember...and the advice was I need to switch out the dimmer but I can't do that mid incubation. So the bulb has gone out on 3 occasions...always in the middle of the night...and the eggs have dropped in temp to the low to mid 70s for hours. I even go to bed late and check on the bator before bed but that's not enough. I was worried I'd lose all the eggs as they weren't the freshest eggs and had been sitting for a bit. I ended up pulling 4 early on that expired but the other 8 have miraculously continued to grow. I just don't know when to expect them....can I assume I might still see some activity in the night or tomorrow or should I assume some random Murphy's law is in effect and all will start hatching Sunday when I'm hosting Easter? HAHA Just wondering what others' experiences might have been with eggs going cold, seemingly surviving, and hatch dates....
 
Hi! I placed a bunch of eggs in my homemade, still-air bator on the evening of 3/10. I consider the first day to be 03/11. They went into lockdown Wednesday night as that would be the end of the 18th day. That said, we had issues with the bator. Ever since a brown-out last year while incubating, it's been temperamental. Last year, all chicks pipped...one expired that I didn't help. Seriously made me question not helping as that little chicked worked hard for over 24 hours. I decided to give it one more hour to go by the rules and it died :( The double made it almost to the end. I did my best to remove the shell and assist and they were still moving but I had trouble locating the beaks due to excessive veining and I guess my air holes weren't positioned properly :( The rest all hatched :) This year, I'm having the same issue I did last year after the brown-out....the bulb suddenly stops working...but if I place it in our chandelier, it works fine. And if I take a bulb from the chandelier that has never been in the bator, that bulb works. But the bulb that was in the bator that stopped but still works in the chandelier, will never work in the bator again. It's the oddest thing. I posted here or in another forum...can't remember...and the advice was I need to switch out the dimmer but I can't do that mid incubation. So the bulb has gone out on 3 occasions...always in the middle of the night...and the eggs have dropped in temp to the low to mid 70s for hours. I even go to bed late and check on the bator before bed but that's not enough. I was worried I'd lose all the eggs as they weren't the freshest eggs and had been sitting for a bit. I ended up pulling 4 early on that expired but the other 8 have miraculously continued to grow. I just don't know when to expect them....can I assume I might still see some activity in the night or tomorrow or should I assume some random Murphy's law is in effect and all will start hatching Sunday when I'm hosting Easter? HAHA Just wondering what others' experiences might have been with eggs going cold, seemingly surviving, and hatch dates....
I don't have any actual dates to give you that are 100% guaranteed, but I would say they should be 2-3 days late. :)
 
That would be awesome...then I don't have to deal with family and hatching chicks. Wouldn't want family to feel ignored...cuz chicks come first LOL
Well, I woke up a little after 3 and went to check on bator and glass is full of condensation. So one or more have pipped internally. Even thought i heard cheeping. Thinking family is going to feel the pain of playing 2nd fiddle haha
 
Well, first little chic is out :) Woke up at 1:40 to its cute little self steaming up the bator. Humidity was as lost 80% so I used grabbing the little nugget as my opportunity to get her and to bring humidity down a bit. It's a little closer in range now. 3 others are pipped as of yesterday. Guess it's going down today. ...Happy Easter!
 

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