My incubator is a new Brinsea Eco, hand-turned multiple times a day. Temperature and humidity were where I wanted them to be - right around 99.8 and 40%-50% (which is our ambient RH this time of year - the water in the single well evaporated very slowly and I only had to refill it every three to four days, which is what Brinsea says means everything is correct). The eggs were shipped EEs. 14 eggs candled well on day 7. We had a power outage on day 14 that I didn't know about until hours later and eggs were cold (maybe 4-5 hours?). Got them back up again and candled on day 17. Eleven looked good. So eleven went into lockdown. Seven pipped and hatched just beautifully on day 21. They zipped fast, membranes were slick, they were/are vigorous, they're fat and happy and have beautiful toes and legs. This morning (day 22) I candled the four remaining and removed three that looked like late deaths; I could see almost full development but obvious blood lines and no good veins; none had pipped internally. One last egg is still in the incubator because I couldn't see well enough to reliably remove it. I don't have a lot of hope but I'll give it another day or so. Every air cell was intact, the right size, etc. I'm saying that the late deaths are probably because of bacteria that got a good chance to take hold during my power outage, yes? And that the very successful hatch of the seven indicates that I probably do have the temp and RH right? My next batch will be BLRWs, and a lot higher stakes than the EEs (as much as I love them, little puffballs!), so I am anxious to declare this one a successful test. Do you think I am right, and OK to continue with the BLRWs?
JoAnna: I'm not well versed in chicken breeds and do not know what EE and BLRWs are. I would not assume the three that failed to hatch were the result of bacterial contamination during the power outage. Possibly, the eggs failed to rotate during the outage and the embryo stuck to the internal membranes. Possible due to internal currents, these eggs got too cold. Possibly they have a bacterial disease passed from the hen. Might the three that failed to hatch possibly become dehydrated and the membranes were too tough for the embryo to pucture. Might you have missed some hairline cracks in the shell? All these are speculative possible reasons why the eggs failed to hatch. There is really no way to tell from here. In the future when a situation such as this arises call the state diagnostic laboratory, if your state has one. In fact you might prepare for such an event prior to it occurence. Contact the lab and talk with a knowledgeable individual, such as a microbiologist. Tell them what happened and inquire how should they handle the eggs should a similar event occur in the future. The state diagnostic lab can open the egg under sterile conditions and run some bacterial and viral testing to determine if these truly were the cause of the embryonic death. Depending on the state you live in, there may be some cost. Good Luckwith the BLRWs.
After the last egg is out, clean your bator with anti-bacterial soap and warm water, then set those BLRW's!!!!!
