Well, now I am totally upset! You all are talking about pretty drastic temp changes that haven't affected the hatch much. I have temps in my homemade bator that have never been lower than 97* and never higher than 102*. The temp in the water wiggler is consistently between 99* and 100*. I think I have lost my whole hatch. And I am only 4 day in! Yesterday I had nice spiders in at least half my eggs. Today those eggs look like they died overnight. What went wrong? How could that have happened?
In my bator, the temps vary by 2* from one side of the bator to the other and I have been assuming that it was just a difference in the thermometers, but I have now moved my water wiggler over to the cooler side and it is showing a cooler temp. So maybe they are both right and it really is that much cooler on that side, but should that have killed all my babies???
Quote:
I am by NO MEANS an expert in any of this... heck, I thought I had COOKED my eggs the first FOUR DAYS. The temps were at 104! If this hatch has taught me anything is that those little eggs are hardier than we think! Just adjust the temperature as much as you can, monitor it and hope and pray for the best! I say this, because at this point that's all I can really do.
One should always wait at least an hour or two after adding cool eggs/water to an incubator to allow it to stabilize.
Only adjust the thermostat after that point. Move it a little, and wait an hour. If it's still not right, move it a little, and wait again.
Yeah, that's what my husband repeated to me like a gazillion times already. I am always tempted to go move the knob and he comes back with... WAIT AT LEAST AN HOUR TO SEE WHAT TEMPERATURE IT STABILIZES AT. I'm just too dang impatient! I have done well today and only gone to the incubator at the times when I turn my eggs.
I've never used one of the Springfields. I usually use the wireless remote sensor from my weather station, so I guess my thoughts on digitals are biased. Sorry if I misled anyone. I've just tried to use the liquid thermometers and had them prove to be very inaccurate.
I guess I would follow the basic rule of thumb... if they're hatching early, turn the temps down a bit. If they're late, turn it up, and note the temperature that it needs to read to get hatches at the right time.
But as far as the original question goes, the answer still stands. We hereby order you to keep hatching until it doesn't freak you out anymore.
LOL At this point I think you would have to pry the incubator off my cold dead body before I gave up hatching! It gives me the baby fix I so badly crave!
Quote:
Oh lord, no... NEVER TOSS EGGS DURING THE FIRST WEEK. When uncertain, leave them in. The only reason to toss an egg is a) it's broken badly i.e. membrane is broken and it's leaking, or b) it's weeping (looks like sap oozing out). There are soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo many times that I almost pulled an egg, and thought better of it... mark it with a "?" and watch it. If there are no changes by day 14, THEN feel free to toss it. I don't know how many times I've had "?"s in my hatcher...
And I've done thousands of eggs now. So... don't freak. Yes, there is a chance that something happened and they all died, but I highly doubt that. There will be times that you will look at eggs and not see a bit of movement and think, "oh, I guess that one died... I'll toss it."... but then an hour later there's a pip. Long-time hatchers will candle the first time at day 7 and mark any they're not sure about. At day 14, candle them again. Any that are clear, toss. Any that you're not sure about, leave them in. What do you have to lose? It is the worst feeling ever to crack open an egg that you thought was gone, and see a living breathing embryo in there. (I know from experience). So...
Don't stress it... it sounds like you're doing just fine. I have 5 homemade incubators, and they will oscillate about 4 degrees in either direction depending on when the light is on or off. It's normal with those thermostats. But if you have a probe in a water wiggler, you will see that the temps inside the eggs will only vary by a degree or so. And as I said before, the hen will get off the nest once or twice a day... the eggs cool off then, and hatch just fine.
Quote:
Yeah, that's what my husband repeated to me like a gazillion times already. I am always tempted to go move the knob and he comes back with... WAIT AT LEAST AN HOUR TO SEE WHAT TEMPERATURE IT STABILIZES AT. I'm just too dang impatient! I have done well today and only gone to the incubator at the times when I turn my eggs.
Thank you Bird Brain (feels really rude to call you that, but what else to call you?).
I appreciate your words of encouragement. I will wait until Friday to candle again. That will be day seven. Well, actually Saturday will be. If they are clear then, should I still leave them in there??? Shouldn't they have some veining in them by then?
Have you really had clear eggs develop after day 7? What about blood ring eggs. Don't I want to get those out?
The only thing I keep thinking is that yesterday many of them had a spider of veins and an embryo that was moving and today those eggs don't. Doesn't that indicate that they have died?
LOL!
I usually wait at least until day 10 to clear out any non-developing eggs, but that's only because I need the space for the next set of eggs.
And unless you're really sure you're seeing a blood-ring, I'd leave those in until then, too. I've been surprised by a couple of eggs that I thought had BRs and didn't. They should have a small floating embryo at day 7, with some veins, though sometimes in the darker or more porous eggs they're not readily visible. So don't give up on them quite yet. I would resist opening the incubator until then, too... keep them warm and stable unless you're hand turning or need to add water.
If they're fresh eggs, you really don't even have to remove the clears at all... they just won't hatch. It's the ones that have been cracked or are really dirty that are in danger of getting bacteria build up so bad that they explode. It's good to candle to watch for stuff like that, but it's rare. I've only had one egg explode on me in 2 years.
Only adjust the thermostat after that point. Move it a little, and wait an hour. If it's still not right, move it a little, and wait again.
