Help!

[featherhead007]

My advice, is: Never give up, Never surrender! but wait till spring for better chances.

 

[Gray Farms]

My advice, is: Never give up, Never surrender! but wait till spring for better chances.

Agreed

 

[dougieee]

Ok so I had bought eggs from Amazon and eBay and I've candled them and I don't see anything! They are going on 8 days old what do I need to look for? Or is it too early to tell?! I'm about to give up on trying to incubate chickens I'm having such terrible luck. Unless I can get eggs that are know to going to make it. I was so looking forward to hatching and raising chickens. But Everytime I try to hatch them they die in the hatching process or just don't hatch at all. What am I doing wrong?

Shipped eggs are difficult to hatch and come with their extra problems, the biggest being detached air cells. You also have no idea how long they have been in transit nor the conditions.
I dont know about anyone else but my cockerel doesnt tread the hens regularly in the winter either so fertility would be lower.
For your first hatch i would try and source some eggs locally, pick them up yourself, you will have a much better hatch rate and its an easier place to start.
I personally have driven up to 180k away to pick eggs up rather than have them shipped.

 

[Pyxis]

I agree on getting your own thermometer that you know to be accurate and putting it in there to test that the temperature the incubator says it is, is indeed the temperature it is. The built ins on the cheaper incubators can often be inaccurate.

Also, the humidity is very important for hatching eggs - what humidity have you been keeping the incubator at?

Here is an article I wrote about how to incubate eggs, it should help you out:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-beginners-guide-to-incubation.73350/

 

[Granny Hatchet]

My advice, is: Never give up, Never surrender! but wait till spring for better WEATHER.

 

[Phunktacular]

Those incubators seem to be very mixed with the reviews. Only about 50% of them are 5 stars while 1 out of every 5 are 1 star. I probably would have gone with a different type of incubator with a better rating. I'm not a fan of small incubators but, many people seem to have good luck with them.

 

[Jessicaellison3860]

Hello! I’ve never incubated eggs, but I learned how to on BYC. Sorry you’re not having luck incubating your eggs. Shipped eggs tend to have a much lower success rate, and shipping eggs during winter risks them getting too chilled, jostled, etc. etc. During the winter, hens molt and reduce laying, and roosters molt and reduce breeding. So eggs shipped during winter will have a lower hatching rate. If these eggs aren’t viable, I would hold off trying to incubate eggs until early to mid spring.

where are you located? I’m sure a fellow BYC member would give you some eggs if you’re near them... if you wanna hike on over to WV, I’ll give you some

I'm located in Iowa

 

[Old McRonald]

I'm located in Iowa

Where at in Iowa? I could set you up with eggs, chicks or a young pair if you'd be interested in silver laced orpingtons. In the spring of course!

 

[Jessicaellison3860]

Well everyone I finally did it!!! I've got 7 out of 8 baby chicks going to be hatching on the 5th of January!!!! They are developing properly and everything!!!! Super duper excited!!! I can't wait to see my little babies!!!!! I never gave up and I kept trying as stubborn as I am I finally did it!!!! Yay me!!!!

 

[Old McRonald]

That is great, hope all goes well the next few days!