How many people were successful on their first try?

[Bethanne84]

I just finished my first hatch at the beginning of the week. I used a brinsea octagon eco and had 15/16 hatch. After reading so many stories of hatches gone wrong, I consider myself very lucky for having so many hatch on my first try.

Forgot to add that they were eggs from my own birds.

 

[Ridgerunner]

What is success? I set 27 eggs, laid by my flock and collected over 6 days. I did not set any that were dirty. I took the turner out of the incubator, plugged it in, and stored the eggs in it until I was ready to set them.

When I set them, I followed the instructions that came with the incubator, even when I had some temperature concerns. Of the 27 that I set, 17 hatched. Four eggs were clear, one developed about two weeks then stopped, and it looks like the others that developed but did not hatch drowned. The humidity shot way up there after the actual hatch started and my 1588 only had one vent which I think was not enough to get the humidity down to where it needed to be.

For my first time, I consider that a success. Here are some of them on the way to the brooder.

And here are a few of them at 5 weeks age.

 

[Julie08]

9 out of 12

 

[SilverPhoenix]

My first hatch was semi-successful! Semi because I took the eggs out from under my broody (she wasn't sitting very tight one week), put them in the incubator for about a week, and then back under her when it was time to hatch. Two chicks made it and are now a gorgeous serama cockerel and pullet! They still sleep under their mama even though they're almost the same size as she is.

I had two unsuccessful hatches after that due to badly timed power outages and using small quantities of serama eggs (which are notoriously hard to hatch), but then my third hatch (of eggs shipped across the country) went quite well and I have eighteen chicks and a duckling as a result! Even if your first hatch doesn't work out, don't give up! It's a constant learning process, and it's so rewarding when there are chicks popping out everywhere!

 

[mrbstephens]

I'm on day 16 of my first hatch...........

 

[Suburban Sprouts]

I will be SUPER pumped if I get a 50% hatch rate... But all my eggs were shipped, some from very long distances... I'll be setting several FBCM, several Olive Eggers (they're the ones that started this whole incubation endeavor!) and several bantam barred olive eggers. If I end up with one of each I'll be like

Especially if I get pullets... Although I wouldn't be upset if I had a nice FBCM Roo to keep on my country property in case I get ambitious and want to make my OWN hatching eggs...

 

[Suburban Sprouts]

Quote:
OMG GOOD LUCK!!! Let me know the results!! Shipped eggs or your own??

 

[mrbstephens]

Quote:
OMG GOOD LUCK!!! Let me know the results!! Shipped eggs or your own??

My own, well their own.

 

[esthermgr]

My first hatch was great- 11 went into lockdown and 10 hatched. One chick died after hatch, so I ended up with 9 healthy chickens from 11 fertile eggs.

Second hatch was a disaster- only 2 healthy chicks from 11 fertile eggs. I inspected the duds and concluded that the temp was too high.

Planning my third hatch and will be much more careful about the temp. I've decided it might be tougher to hatch in the hot Georgia summer cause of temp spike issues.

 

[chickintexas]

Quote:
Don't be too worried about the long distance shipping. I had one batch shipped from one state over from me that were handled much more badly than the eggs shipped to me from the East coast! I learned that you can always tell a badly shipped egg by the way the air cell.

This is my first hatch as well and everything is looking very good, imo. 28 eggs shipped from 3 different regions. First batch of 6 incubated 11 days-five have been tossed out as of yesterday due to bad shipping. Second batch of 10-2 tossed out. One had a loose air cell from since day one and the other was an early quitter. All the rest are looking very good.