Hatchalong! Setting Eggs April 6, 2012. Anyone else in?

[XoJennyxO]

Day 5 today. I came home a little over an hour ago to hear my egg turner making a grinding noise I just bought it on the day I set my eggs (6th) Its a little giant 6300 and i have the newer version of the little giant 9200 I freaked out and took the the temp using the medical thermometer through the plug which was measuring a full degree higher than it has been and my thermometer I have on top of my eggs keeps falling off. So I wasn't sure of the EXACT temp but the dig one on my hygrometer also was measuring a degree higher but It kind of has been when it turns left anyways (still air there are different temps in different places. I'm freaking out. The egg turner is down on all 4 corners the wires aren't twisted I unplugged and plugged back in and the almost mute humming it has been doing the past 5 days is now a solid loud obnoxious grind. I'm so paranoid it is going to overheat and spike the temp right after I go to bed. Has this happened to anyone else. I did however candle my eggs because of this and I see VEINS!!!! I only did 4 cause I needed to get the thermometer inplace on them and decided what the heck and yes, my shipped eggs are indeed GROWING!!! I only got 7 they were packed amazingly came from MI all the way to OK and they are freaking ALIVE! I'm stoked but now my little fantasy of pretty fluffy blue and splash silkie chicks is crashing. I'm panicked and haven't been able to find one post or google about the little giant egg turner making the grinding noise. I was SO looking forward to these chickies I even went crazy enough as to start our coop plans and now....

I just want it to fix itself! I found one thing someone said theirs had spells on google and that they gave it a gentle twist. What do you think they were talking about? The motor is pretty stuck on there and the wires aren't the problem but the instruction manual says don't turn the thingys by hand.....

 

[Zootopia]

I would turn it off and turn by hand 3 times a day, tillt them as much as you can one way then later tilt the other way. Since you are using still air move the eggs around in the bator as you turn them to try to even out the heat exposier. Then order a fan and install it after this hatch before you put anything else in there. I have never hatched silkies, mainly because I read that they are a problem. I only needed a couple for broodys so I went to a guy local and bought 3. So dont panic. We can only do what we can do.

 

[Zootopia]

Zootopia, do you have a picture of what a loosse air cell looks like? I've never hatch any shipped eggs, since I onlyhatch out for friends. I've never had to order any but I'm curious what it looks like when candled.

I had 3 ducks hatch late last night to early this morning so far and 3 are working still. 2 haven't pipped yet. But they aren't due to hatch til tomorrow. I think really it is called dry incubating instead of dry hatching. I waited til they externally pipped then I increased the humidity to 60%. by morning with the 3 hatched ones it was up to 72%. But it could have went higher as the ducklings weren't that wet anymore like when they first hatch. I had 8 eggs in hatcher. 3 hatched 3 working and 2 not pipped.

I don't have any pics but there are some on here, just do a search for air cells .

 

[loves2hatch]

I don't have any pics but there are some on here, just do a search for air cells .

Thanks, I'll do that.

 

[loves2hatch]

Can you return the turner? I would take the eggs out and turn by hand until you get it replaced. Don't want it burning up or stop working and your eggs not turned properly.

Guess I'll candle tonight since so many are seeing veins already! Congrats!

Yay!

Day 5 today. I came home a little over an hour ago to hear my egg turner making a grinding noise I just bought it on the day I set my eggs (6th) Its a little giant 6300 and i have the newer version of the little giant 9200 I freaked out and took the the temp using the medical thermometer through the plug which was measuring a full degree higher than it has been and my thermometer I have on top of my eggs keeps falling off. So I wasn't sure of the EXACT temp but the dig one on my hygrometer also was measuring a degree higher but It kind of has been when it turns left anyways (still air there are different temps in different places. I'm freaking out. The egg turner is down on all 4 corners the wires aren't twisted I unplugged and plugged back in and the almost mute humming it has been doing the past 5 days is now a solid loud obnoxious grind. I'm so paranoid it is going to overheat and spike the temp right after I go to bed. Has this happened to anyone else. I did however candle my eggs because of this and I see VEINS!!!! I only did 4 cause I needed to get the thermometer inplace on them and decided what the heck and yes, my shipped eggs are indeed GROWING!!! I only got 7 they were packed amazingly came from MI all the way to OK and they are freaking ALIVE! I'm stoked but now my little fantasy of pretty fluffy blue and splash silkie chicks is crashing. I'm panicked and haven't been able to find one post or google about the little giant egg turner making the grinding noise. I was SO looking forward to these chickies I even went crazy enough as to start our coop plans and now....

I just want it to fix itself! I found one thing someone said theirs had spells on google and that they gave it a gentle twist. What do you think they were talking about? The motor is pretty stuck on there and the wires aren't the problem but the instruction manual says don't turn the thingys by hand.....

 

[loves2hatch]

Update on my ducks. 6 hatched. 50% Not very good hatch rate, so now I don't know how to tweak it for the chickens.
They hatched a day early so I adjusted the temp down a bit for the chickens in the incubator. Air cells were all different sizes when I put them into the hatcher. The one with the large air cells, by large I mean normal size according to the charts, hatched quick. The ones with the smaller air cells took FOREVER! The one with the smaller air cell externally pipped first. I noticed it Saturday night. It didn't hatch until yesterday around 4. (I ended up helping this one and another at 4 pm last night when they had been pipped and not zipping, they just kept making the whole bigger in one spot, and stopped moving or trying at this point, so I assumed they couldn't turn since the rest were already out.) I just got their head out and left the rest of them in the shell. They had kicked that off within an hour after getting the heads out. The membrane was stuck to his fluff by his wing on his back and the top of his head. Around the top of the one that had been pipped since Saturday It's beak and eyes was kind of slimy or gooey, not sure of the word. the other ones eyes and beak looked good, but membrane was stuck also on it's back/wing. Humidity was at 70-75% every time i checked it and it had a lot of moisture on the windows.
The two with the large air cells pipped Sunday night and were hatched Monday morning when I check on them, two more hatched during the day one in morning about 8 and one about 1 o'clock. The other two are not pipped so I candled them this morning to see what was going on, I'm pretty sure they're dead. I can see yellow looks like liquid, just under the air sac, no veins, no movement. I left them in just in case and will clean it the rest of the way tomorrow if no change. I took out all the shells, ducklings and cheesecloth I had on bottom . Oh and I started with 12 duck eggs, and threw out 4 earlier due to dead embryo's only one was completely clear. The other 3 stopped developing during different stages early on before day 10.
I was reading on here that alot of people had bad luck with their last hatch of duck eggs this time. Maybe it was that crazy full moon Friday!

So with them being incubated in a forced air, you would have thought that all the air cells would be the same size. They definitely were NOT. Also the one with the largest air cell and the one with the smallest air cell were on the same side of the incubator (left side) but one rack from each other. I only had 12 eggs in the icy with no heat sinks. just the eggs.
they were set like this in the turner.
x x
x x x
x x
x x x
x x
in the middle of the incubator when I was down to 8, skipping every other hole. I took out the last 2 racks closest to the wall, two eggs each rack.

So for the chicken eggs, what would you think I need to adjust? maybe rotate the eggs changing the racks and sides of inc every couple of days even though they are in a forced air?
the humidity I'm still going to try and adjust according to air cell. but maybe if i see a bigger cell in some change them with the one with smaller air cells in the rack? Or just let them all be where they are and number them where they are in the rack and see what happens since I have more eggs in the incubator this time?
Also I'm still going to try this dry Incubation for these chicken eggs too, but if the cells get to big to fast add some water. Maybe it doesn't work so well with ducks??!!!! But none of them were shrink wrapped. I think it really had to do with the air cells not being big enough on those 2 I helped out, but why were they so much smaller is the mystery.

 

[j and bs hens]

OMG!!! My husband just dropped an egg on another egg. There is a largish indent on one of the eggs. Anyways, while I was at the store, My husband dripped wax on the indent.

Ever had something like that happen? Will the wax work? Will the chances of hatching drop?

 

[XoJennyxO]

THANK YOU ALL FOR THE ADVICE!! Okay, So i ran around to four different stores before I was able to find my brand of egg turner and then came home and switched the eggs into it. I was too scared to take them out and have the temp drop and then raise back to where they need to be only to shock them again an hour later so I just kept the noisy one running until I got the replacement. It makes a slight noise but it sounds like the working inside of a clock (not the ticking, the turning noise but not the chainsaw obviously something wrong with it noise) so I'm returning the chainsaw one tomorrow. I hope me opening and closing the incubator so much wont mess the hatch up or kill any.. It took it a good 5 minutes to warm back up to temp. The thing I was told about silkies via a breeder with 90-95% hatch rate is they require a higher temp of incubation. I wasn't sure either since the only other time I incubated was in 9th grade I hatched 36 standard sized eggs for a science fair project ( i injected some of them with food coloring to see if it'd affect the birth rate- which it didn't they all hatched on day 21 just 10 were natural yellow 10 were blue and 10 were green and the six extras they gave us were purple) I had no clue what I was doing and the guy at the store said keep it filled up with water and that the best temp was 99.8 so I didn't even read the instruction booklet and just kept it at 99.8 in a still air without anything other than the incubator just kept it filled up and turned by hand three times a day and all 36 hatched. So I listened to this breeder and have the eggs on a single row in the turner with the thermometer on top of them and keeping them at 101 she said 101-102 so I chose 101. My booklet for this incubator says 99.5 for chicken eggs though..... They seem to be alive so far but now I'm still paranoid about having disturbed them so much. Then I started thinking about when I would turn those other eggs I had the lid off for a solid 3 minutes to turn each egg gently one at a time and how chickens jump off the eggs and go eat so I'm not candling again until day 18... tomorrow is day 7 so I was going to then but I think I'm just going to add some water and let them be. Everyone seems to be having incubation mishaps. I'm really interested to see if the candle wax works on the one that j and bs hens poor hubby dropped.

 

[loves2hatch]

It looks like there are 10 of us, so far, involved in this hatchalong. How exciting! I'm curious to see all the results. A couple of you have cracked eggs that you tried to fix so I'm curious how that goes too as i always throw out eggs that look funny when candled before I set them. So please keep us updated on them.

I'm doing a little experiment with a thermometer. I took a real egg blew it out, soaked in bleach water for 2 days then, soaked it in clear water a couple a days to rinse it. Then I filled it with aloe vera gel that has no fragrance or anything added. stuck in a terrarium thermometer the yellow one that is shown on top of my incubator in the picture I posted. put a piece of paper over the hole then sealed it with wax. I put it in about 7 p.m. last night. I went to check on it 3 hours later at 10 and was planning on candling a couple of eggs since some of you were already seeing veins, when I noticed all the thermometers were reading about 82! Yikes!

I noticed I must have somehow unplugged the incubator cause the cord was just laying there next to the plug-in. So either I unplugged it when I opened the lid or my Yorkie did when she followed me in. Either way, I hurried and plugged it back in made sure the temps were rising and went to bed. Needless to say, I didn't candle. So I will wait to candle on day 10. I'm not going to panic yet, I'm just going to pretend it was like the hen got off the nest and left for awhile and took a loooooong walk! There is a robin on a nest outside my front door and I noticed every morning she is off her nest and the temps outside are in the 30's all this week. So I'm praying all is good

Several of us had something minor go wrong and a few have shipped eggs. But I'm hoping somebody gets at least 80 - 85% hatch rate. Chickens I haven't had very good success in the past. I think I've only try to hatch chickens about 4 times, they just don't seem to work for me. Now quail, they seem to be the best those babies just pop out for me, it's almost like watching popcorn pop! Ducks this last one was my worse hatch at 50%. I don't know if it was the dry incubating, the new incubator with the fan or higher temps. But the 6 little ducklings seem to be very healthy, soooo cute and fun to watch.

 

[kahlua]

I set 18 eggs on 4/6...some of the silkied ameraucanas from this forum. They came all the way from TX! They made it here in 2 days and were really well packed. Some do have wonky air cells but a lot look okay. I haven't candled yet, but will see how they look tomorrow. This will be my 2nd time hatching...last time I had about a 50% hatch rate on shipped EE eggs.
I let them rest for 24 hrs in an egg carton after I unpacked them, and then set them in the carton in the incubator and haven't turned them, as suggested on another thread. Tomorrow will be day 7 so I'll start them turning after I candle.
Really hope I can get some to hatch!