Ugh getting worried now, day 21 one hatched, one pipped and partially zipped and nothing happening in 15 other eggs...
Really then there is hope. This is my third incubation, previously they all pipped, zipped and were born by day 20 & 21. This is however my first time incubating shipped eggs. 10 were shipped eggs, and the other 7 were from my own hens. The hatched egg was a shipped one, and the other that is zipping was a shipped egg. They were last candled on day 14 and were viable at that point. On day 18 I stopped turning and raised humidity as usual. With the first hatch I did get quite a spike on the humidity,
I don't really have any insight fir you, but wanted to say how sorry I am that you had this experience. My second incubation attempt was zero. I did not open any if the eggs though, so unsure as to what stage they were in. Again, I'm so sorry.I wanted to post what happened to my incubated eggs, and see if anyone has any feedback on what they think might have happened. So I ordered some eggs from a well known breeder and had them shipped to me. They arrived and looked pristine, well packed in styrofoam and lots of padding and well marked as fragile eggs. I do realize that shipped eggs often have dislodged air cells so I wasn't expecting a 100% hatch. I also grabbed a few of my own eggs and incubated set up the bator.this is my incubator. I also put a hygrometer in the bator
this one shows current temp, current humidity and the high and low temp over the last 12 hours. I waited til I had 99 degrees temp, and 37% humidity in bator and it stayed steady til the next morning, then I set the eggs. On their sides ( I do not use a turner) I turn by hand 3-4 times per day. I should also say that I am in Florida (very humid here) and so I usually do a fairly dry 35-38% humidity til last 3 or 4 days of incubation. Let me say that I have had 3 successful hatches doing things this way with 100% hatches. But perhaps I missed something this time. So I set originally 20 shipped eggs, and 8 of my own eggs. The first 10 days I really didn't do much but turn the eggs, watch the temp & humidity and try to keep it the same. Temp was staying 99 or 100 and humidity was staying in the 30% range low 32 and high 39%. it would drop a hair when I opened to turn eggs. On day 10 I candled and saw that I had several clears from the shipped eggs so I discarded them. My own eggs and several of the shipped eggs had air cells and I could see they were fertile. Opening and closing the bator to do the candling did cause the temp to drop to 97 degrees. I added a touch of hot water right away and that brought the temp and humidity back to normal within 3 minutes or so. On day 14 I candled again, doing only 4 or 5 eggs putting them back and then waiting 15 mintues or so before I did the next batch to try and keep temp & humidity steady. I removed some quitters with blood rings. But still had several viable eggs with moving chicks inside and nice air cells. I had 17 eggs at lock down. I did not candle again, on day 18 I stopped turning, & raised humidity to 68% it fluctuated between 64 & 70% I did not open bator to add water I used one of the air holes and a syringe without the needle to shoot in water as needed. They were locked down. On day 20 I got my first pip, this was pretty normal. On day 21 another chick pipped and started to zip. the first egg that pipped was not making any progress and it had been 20+ hours since it pipped. The second pip unzipped and was born, and there were no other pips in the bator. It was now 36+ hours since the first one pipped. I made the decision to help the first egg. I prepared a small tray with a heating pad and removed the first egg, made a circle around the air pocket with tweezers and made the pip hole a little larger and saw the chick was alive, I placed it back in the bator on a damp piece of paper towel under it. It was born about 2 hours later but I knew right away it had something wrong, it never stood or did anything but chirp and lay on its side umbilicus was still stuck to egg shell. It didn't make it. Meanwhile when I placed it back in bator I saw the humidity spike at about 73% probably because of the damp paper towel. Temp reading said high 100 low 97 degrees, the drop was when I opened to rescue shrink wrapped chick. I left eggs in bator til day 24 (today) then I decided to do eggtopsies. I found fully formed chicks in all my own eggs, dead. In the shipped eggs there were a variety of stages in development, and one mostly formed chick probably made it through most of the incubation. This was a disaster and I ended up going to TSC and picking up a few chicks for the lone survivor of my hatch.
My dad bought me an incubator. I can't believe he actually bought it for me, lol. I live in the city and he lives on a farm and I fill his farm up. First hatch I had a 54 % hatch rate and now I have 31 duck eggs in it. I also have a Silkie sitting on some goose eggs. Yeah I'm addicted to hatching, my poor dad
