Help? What did I do wrong?

[WillowChick]

Help?

I went to do lockdown on day 18 and candled. It looked like completely nothing, so I cracked an egg... then another, then another. They ALL looked like this:








A reddish ring the size of an eraser tip, NOTHING else. No smell no nothing. Just looked like breakfast with a mark on it.

I've done a successful hatch before, even got a nice 75% hatch rate with a hova bator and no experience whatsoever. I figured this time would be a cinch!

I want to try again, but I want to know what went wrong so this doesn't happen again either! HELP!!!!

 

[sumi]

It looks like they quit within 2-3 days and some didn't develop at all. There's a few possible reasons for this. Have a look at this troubleshooting guide:

http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/8127.pdf

and see if there's anything you did or didn't do or think might be to blame. I'm sorry you went through all this for this to happen

I think next time you should candle at day 7 and again at day 10 to see if they are developing. Good luck!

 

[brownfoxfarm]

Aww! I'm so sorry. That is disheartening. I agree with Sumi - try again & candle at 7 days to see what is happening in there.

Joyce Brandon
http://brownfoxfarm.weebly.com

 

[Bill 101]

I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't see anything that indicates that thee eggs were even fertile. Even at 7 days there should be a pretty big blood mass. Unless your birds are lighted, there is little chance the eggs would be fertile this time of year. It normally takes 12-14 hours of light before chickens will produce fertile eggs.

 

[brownfoxfarm]

Our chickens hatch their own eggs in December & January - fertile as can be in the dark winter here in NW Illinois. We had a hen hatch 6 just before Christmas & they are doing great. Fertility just requires a willing rooster (and what rooster isn't willing?) and a hen who is laying. They will absolutely breed all year round if they have the chance.

Joyce Brandon

 

[Bill 101]

Well OK, I live on the West Coast & rise Bantams. Bantams tend to be seasonal breeders & layers, so obviously there IS a difference. My birds aren't even laying this time of year. I still don't think the eggs shown were fertile. If they had died within the first couple of days there still would be some indication, after all that time in the incubator they probably would have been really rotten.

 

[WillowChick]

Thanks for your reply!

I'm pretty sure they were fertile... I had 1 roo and 4 hens and I watched him mate them 3674256855 times a day! LOL!

That being said, they were all pullets who had only been laying for 2 months. Could that make a difference? 4 were from my friend who also has pullets from the same batch, but 2 extra mature roos. Also, one of the 4 eggs was from one of her mature hens. All 4 roos couldn't possibly have been sterile.

I've seen a few people on BYC who have had the same success with pullet eggs as hens?

Could it be the weather here? It's pretty cold, but I also read people have success with refrigerated eggs????

I also candled the eggs. They seemed to gain a little mass in the yolk, but no veining whatsoever, which I was not used to.

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Im trying to rack my brains to think of what could have happened at day 2-3, I did notice some water had spilled out of one of the resevoir, so I took the turner out of the bator for about 2 minutes... [/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]could the extra moisture, or the temp dip at an early age have caused it?[/FONT]

 

[WillowChick]

Well I figured out what went wrong!!!! I asked hubby to pick up a hygrometer for this next batch because I was worried it might have been the humidity that was messed up. The hygrometer also has a thermometer on it. I couldn't figure out why the hygrometer said 82 degrees and my glass bulb thermometer attached to a plastic backing said 99.5 until I realized THE STUPID THING SLIPPED OUT OF THE BACKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So the eggs were "incubating" at 82 degrees for 18 days... Not very productive.

I am so mad that our flock of 4 will have no babies because of this stupid thing!
(we got rid of our rooster 2 1/2 weeks ago, so I still threw 6 of our own eggs in the bator with my friend's yesterday, but not much hope)

 

[Cinnylove]

i must agree!!!

 

[Bill 101]

Quote:
OH, you mean a "carded thermometer"??? Worst thermometers ever. !!! As long as they don't come loose, their not bad, but they always come loose.