Help!!

[luvmycritters]

It's really heartbreaking. I have decided I am going to try and incubate my own fertile eggs rather than ordering specialties for now. I have my roosters separated from the Hens right now. I have too many roosters to hen ratio so I need to re-home 2 of them (or wait for my DH to take care of that when he gets home from out of town) and then I can put the one roo back with the hens. I will try my own eggs and go from there. Both times I tried it was with shipped eggs, but I really thought I was going to have success this time. Pretty devastating.

Are you trying again? There is so much useful information on this site. I found it is easy to get side tracked from one method to another. I wish that I had someone come to my house every day and help check on things and make sure I am all good - Just until I learned the ropes. I am using a hova bator and that might be the problem. I had hard times with the humidity (and I heat with wood so that didn't help). I have a feeling if I can nail down one method that I might have better luck as soon as the weather improves. I plan to keep searching and try and come up with the best method for my area/climate. I am open to all input!!

I kept the bator in my kitchen so I could keep a good eye on it. Perhaps I should have put it in the basement (but it is cooler there, and that's why I didn't).

 

[loveourbirds]

a 75% hatch is pretty respectable in a Styrofoam incubator. especially if it was your first hatch.

luvmycritters, don't get discouraged. my first hatch was an almost total loss due to a homemade incubator that was not put together right. the temp would be 85 degrees and an hour later be 110 degrees. out of 300 eggs I had 6 hatch. my next attempt I bought 2 little giant incubators, first hatch was 50% and some of the eggs had gotten really cold. about the 4th hatch I was hitting 80-85%, then I noticed a decrease in the numbers. several people have told me that the Styrofoam incubators gather bacteria over a period of time and are almost impossible to sterilize. I would disassemble mine and soak it in bleach between batches. I later moved on to sportsman incubators, for the size and price they are wonderful, but kind of big for a small flock.

I don't think humidity was your problem, I truly think your temp was a little low. also egg shell thickness can make or break you.

to determine what your problem was, I need to know a little more. what type of incubator, digital, solid state, or wafer thermostat?. forced air or still air? did you have a turner? also how old were the eggs when you put them in? if your willing to try it again I will get you hatching.

 

[loveourbirds]

ok I asked all of that then seen the other post LOL. got the hova bator part.

another thing to keep in mind, in nature when it gets below freezing I would be willing to bet that the hen isn't able to keep the eggs a perfect 99.5 degrees. a couple of minor temperature drops typically wont hurt you. a little bit of low humidity wont completely kill a hatch, its the last few days that seem most important to me. people talk about that 3 day lockdown, I don't do that; I open my incubator 15 mins a day every day but hatch day. my basic numbers on my farm are about 85% fertility and about 92% hatch rate on the fertile eggs. that is a little lower in late winter and early spring, due to the fact that eggs get cold.

since your willing to try again, I will give you my best advice. keep in mind there are people who know a lot more than I do, im just offering assistance as a fellow chicken owner who has been there.

brian