help with last days of incubation

[hairdye]

Hi
i am new to this forum and i need your help please.
I posted in the pheasant forum first and i think it should have been posted here.
I have hatched quail and duck eggs before with a really old incubator that i had to turn the eggs by hand. Even thought the incubator was poorly built i had good results.
Right the problem i have now is a am trying to hatch ringneck pheasants in a new automatic incubator, things seemed to be doing ok at first, after 12 days two of the eggs were bad so i threw them out and the other seemed ok.
I stopped turning at 21 days and im now on day 23 but there is nothing happening and if i put them to my ear i cannot hear anything. the shells are too dark to candle. Am i being over eager or is something wrong? How long would i leave them for before deciding its all failed.
Any help please, i have chance of another 30 eggs but not sure i want to try them if i may have done something wrong with this batch.
Regards
Wayne

 

[help4me]

Answer:
Day 1 - 20 (Incubator) the temperature should be 99.4 F and the humidity should be 83-84 F wet bulb (53% relative humidity).

Day 21 - 25 (Hatcher) the temperature should be 98 F and the humidity should be 83-84 F wet bulb (53% relative humidity). NOTES:

1. When chicks actively begin to hatch (approximately 23½ -24 days) increase humidity to 91 F wet bulb (75-76% relative humidity).
2. “actively hatching” is when the majority of the eggs are pipped and a few chicks may have already hatched but are still wet.
3. Increasing humidity prevents chicks from sticking to the egg shell membrane.
4. Temperature and the turning of the eggs are the two most important factors in the hatching of pheasant chicks.
5. Extremes in temperature (high or low) and not turning the eggs for periods of over twenty-four hours will severely reduce hatchability.
6. Humidity has much less disastrous effects, but can become a factor when extremes occur over long periods of time (e.g. 7 plus days at humidity plus or minus 10%)

Hi,

Well I am a total rookie put maybe I can at least ease your mind a little. I have never hatched pheasant eggs but from the info above it can take 25 days, so you still have some anxious waiting to do.

This is only my 2 second time hatching chicken eggs (the eggs are from my daughters chickens that hatched last year for her Birthday.). My kids are 11 and 8, they are due to hatch tomorrow, and I may of made a fatal mistake two days ago.

(So, no pressure here.

) Why would I do what I did? Well the first time I knew NOTHING and although we checked on the incubator to add water, if necessary we were not expecting anything to really happen till day 21. It was set for manual, you know set it and forget it. Well they went off to school and suddenly I was hearing things. I thought it was the birds outside. I got up a few times trying to figure out what I kept hearing. Not one of us had even remembered that it was day 21. Finally, I walked over to the incubator and heard that the noises were coming from the eggs! Wow, then the excitement hit and the waiting became unbearable. This time I know "a little" more as I have spent so much time here. This time, I keep trying to candle, and now that it's lock down I keep trying to listen for peeps, watching for movement and nothing! See. I don't think any of that happened the first time either, except I wasn't looking for it, this time I am, so I keep thinking something is wrong. Moral of the story sit tight and let God do what he does, and try and keep your hands off and go do something else. (Said, as I get flashlight and try to see the littlest movement, holding ears up to incubator listening, looking for pips, nothing.

 

[hairdye]

Thanks for the reply, just hoping all goes well if not i will have to try again but be more careful i think especially with adding water.
cheers

 

[help4me]

Well. how did things go?

 

[hairdye]

total disaster, 3 died as they were pipping and the others were formed but dead in the shell. i started another thread under pheasants and quail at the time as i wasnt getting many replies. i was totally gutted and dont want to make the same mistake again.
I have just started another thread tonight under the incubating and hatching eggs forum.
many thanks
wayne

 

[help4me]

I am so sorry. It is such a hard thing after all the waiting, and then to have them pip and die. I only set 4, and thought I had killed them. (Incubator mistakes, lock down mistakes, ect...) 2 hatched but late, one was a dud, but one was a fully formed chick dead too. I think the humidity was too high. Either way they are tough loses. Hope your next hatch goes better.