Help want 2see ur operation,rutine, and how the eggs are in there PiCs

[9farmgirl9]

Ok so since i have never had a good hatch i want to know how you do it. Like these are some things i want to no: What humidty, How you put the eggs in, how much sucess you have. Mainly focusing on how you put the eggs in--- don't no what it is but i can't get my guinea eggs to hatch and im so frustrated!!!!!!

Ive killedso any babies and im tired of i want to no what im doing WRONG!!!!

Please post piks if possible. I will put piks of mine tm. THANKS!!!

 

[pdsavage]

What are you using to incubate eggs?

 

[9farmgirl9]

The Front

The side

How i store my eggs-71 degrees turn once a day

The inside

 

[LilMissPetie]

I used the dry incubation method. I kept my humidity between 35 and 40 % until lock down then increased it to 55%, then 65% at first pip. My first hatch I got 7 outta 8, with my second I got 4 outta 4. Also I was turning my eggs 3 times a day. I now have an automatic turner that has 38 eggs in it. I know that 8 of them are growing right on track, the other 30 where just put in 2 days ago.

Good Luck.

 

[9farmgirl9]

Those trays turn---i will take a pik when i through all those eggs away

 

[Debbienmousey]

We use a tabletop HovaBator incubator, and we've slowly been getting better hatches with our guineas. First off though, let me say that you are not alone- guinea fowl are just plain hard to hatch!

When I start collecting guinea eggs for hatching I make sure to only use the ones that are fairly clean. A little dirt is ok but no poo. I try to remember to turn them in the cartons but generally I always forget. I don't collect eggs for longer than a week (10 days at the very maximum!) and I always make sure my bator has had a few days to warm up and stabilize temperature. I used to fill each water-way in the tray with a little water but now lately I've just used the middle with a bit of water until hatch day. We have an automatic egg turner so I don't have to worry about turning the eggs once they're set, but I leave them sitting in the turner (with it off) for the first day, then after that start turning. I mark them with a number on the top, bottom, and sides in pencil (so that I can write down when each egg starts pipping & hatches). I try to only candle the eggs 2-4 times throughout the whole hatch. Once at day 12-14, sometimes once at day 19 or 20, and then around day 22-23. My guinea eggs normally start pipping on day 25. It doesn't matter whether they're under a guinea, a chicken, or in the bator, that's when they start. I think it's normally day 23 in the incubator that I take them out of the turner and fill up all the water-ways, and add 1-2 sponges. We've always blamed our poor hatches on not enough humidity because we'd have a lot of eggs make it to the hatching stage, quite a few pip, but not many actually hatch. So I'd get the humidity as high as I could..but now I've been thinking that my humidity may have been too high during the hatch. Because I read somewhere that if it's too high the membrane becomes like rubber and they can't break it.

I haven't done a hatch of guineas indoors yet this year, but I'm thinking about doing one after my Silkies/Buttercups come out, so we'll see.

Also it can take a full day for a guinea keet to hatch. And be sure to give all the eggs a few extra days to hatch - because sometimes they just need a little more time. If we're having a good hatch, then we normally take the keets out after 8-10 have hatched and been in there for awhile, or whenever it looks too crowded.

ETA: Oh, and are you candling them at all before throwing them out?

 

[9farmgirl9]

I can't hatch chicken eggs either! And yes i am candling b4 throughing--some just had a little baby about the size of my pinkie nail--and the yolk was scrabbled but i'm very careful with my eggs? I just don't understand. I'm going to try this one way and only put in a dozen instead of 80 eggs, plus i have people buying my guineas eggs right now too. And question--how long is their egg season?

 

[9farmgirl9]

How would i clean that incubator? And i have 3 styrfoam ones, how would i clean those?

 

[loprettaerin]

Quote:
I use just about any cleaning but little bleach and water would kill any germs or mold or anything like that then just set out in sun to air dry.

Im also learning that sticky chicks and shrink wrapped chicks happen not just by too much humidity but too high of temps during hatching. I have started lowering the temp one degree once they start pipping because the heat from them also drives up the temps in the bator.

i bought some guinea eggs from some on last year that I met at there work and hatched them out my first time pretty easy just like most chickens.

have you tried to put and temp guage on eat shelf to make sure temp is staying correct on each shelf. I have home made on that I just can not use the bottom shelf becuase it is too low of temp most of the time.

 

[zookeeper15133]

Have you put in another thermometer and hydrometer to check the calibration on your unit?