I bought the FI 4200 because it seemed reasonably priced, I'd read a lot of people have success with it and our local TSC carries it.
Three hatches and almost 100 eggs later I have ONE chick. I've had 3 different sets of shipped eggs along with home eggs each time. The second hatch the shipped eggs did not develop but the first and third hatch the shipped eggs developed fine, air cells were fine. They were from Texas and traveled by truck, since they only came from 5 hours away.
The first time I tried a dry hatch and didn't bump humidity until lockdown. I believe that was a problem and that most of the chicks were shrink wrapped. My quitters seem to be in stages, all quitting around the same time, in groups, which makes me wonder if there are temp issues (spikes) that I'm not catching but I check it numerous times during the day/night and it always seemed steady. The first hatch I messed with the eggs a lot, candling and trying to learn. The 2nd and 3rd hatches I left them alone and rarely candled, didn't help. The temp and humidity gauges are off but are steady, I used extra thermometers and another humidity gauge.
I did notice the incubator seemed loud the first hatch and either we got use to it, its in our master bedroom, or something in the unit changed.
I strongly feel that the failed hatches have to be because of the incubator. Now I have to decide if I want to spend the $ on a different one or just stick with ordering chicks.
PLEASE tell me I'm not the only one who's had problems with the FI 4200...
Three hatches and almost 100 eggs later I have ONE chick. I've had 3 different sets of shipped eggs along with home eggs each time. The second hatch the shipped eggs did not develop but the first and third hatch the shipped eggs developed fine, air cells were fine. They were from Texas and traveled by truck, since they only came from 5 hours away.
The first time I tried a dry hatch and didn't bump humidity until lockdown. I believe that was a problem and that most of the chicks were shrink wrapped. My quitters seem to be in stages, all quitting around the same time, in groups, which makes me wonder if there are temp issues (spikes) that I'm not catching but I check it numerous times during the day/night and it always seemed steady. The first hatch I messed with the eggs a lot, candling and trying to learn. The 2nd and 3rd hatches I left them alone and rarely candled, didn't help. The temp and humidity gauges are off but are steady, I used extra thermometers and another humidity gauge.
I did notice the incubator seemed loud the first hatch and either we got use to it, its in our master bedroom, or something in the unit changed.
I strongly feel that the failed hatches have to be because of the incubator. Now I have to decide if I want to spend the $ on a different one or just stick with ordering chicks.
PLEASE tell me I'm not the only one who's had problems with the FI 4200...
