I am so sad....my 1st try at Silkies was a disaster!

[4boysmom]

I won 12 eggs off of Ebay - She sent 18. Of these 8 showed growth when I candled at 7 days. I was fine with this since some of the others "problems" could be fertility or damage by the Post Office ( a couple of the "air holes' looked loose - they moved when I moved th egg ).

I lost 1 somewhere between day 7 & day 10. So I expected 7 to hatch. Only 1 did! I had a temperature issue over night on day 21 & the others died. ( I had tried to wake up a few times to check & adjust the temp, but I was not feeling well & my 1yr old actually slept all night!!! )

Anyway, 1 other had pipped, so that was my clue that the temp actually had stayed up too long! I opened ALL 18 of them today ( plus 2 guinea eggs that my dh's uncle sent to try ) and the ones I didn't think were viable weren't - so I felt good about my candling ( a positive I guess ).

The one I thought I lost between day 7 & 10, looked like it was about that far along when I opened it. The other 6 ( of the original 8 ) had fully developed chicks. 1 of course had pipped through & died, and of the other 5, 4 had broken through the membrane. I am so sad that my stupidness at trying to get the temp up ( it had fallen to 98.something) killed them.. They probably would have been better off at the cooler temperature!

I am trying to learn how to incubate eggs so that I can SUCCESSFULLY do this for my kids classrooms. I have the teachers hova-bator that I've been working with. So...I believe I will start saving my $$$ and get the one on McMurray that has the electronic thermostat....has anyone gotten this & had any luck with it?


Thanks for "listening" to my rambling!

 

[fowlweatherfriends]

I'm sorry-I know it can be VERY disapointing!

 

[hinkjc]

You said you had a temp issue..was it too high or too low. 98 something is not a bad temp at hatch time and too low is less fatal than too high. So I'm thinking you tried to get it up and it went too high? Anyways, if it wasn't too high, then my guess would be a humidity issue either during incubation or during hatch. You didn't mention your hygrometer readings, type of incubator you're using or what day they were on when they pipped. That would help determine what went wrong. If you got chicks to grow, I would not give up on the incubator...I don't think that was your issue. It is usually temp or humidity or a combination of both that cause failed hatches.

As for the Hova Electronic bators. I have 2 of them and like them very much. We only incubate in them for the first 18 days and have separate ones for hatchers, but hatches are always on time and go well. I like the forced fan bators better than the still air. The temps are easier to regulate and maintain. jmho

Jody

 

[4boysmom]

I did try to adjust it back up....it went up to 102 ( per the regular thermometer...my water weasel read 100.9 ( after my dh had lowered the temp )....

My humidity ranged from 70-80 %

 

[jackiedon]

I'm sorry about your chicks!!! Also maybe your humidity was a little too high.

I hatched 3 bunches of eggs for different classrooms and it was such a wonderful experience. One of the bad things we did was open the lid too much during hatching. I had bought a webcam and when one was about to hatch we would open the lid and put the camera on it and display it on the projector. It was a really cool experience!! Even I did have a great hatch rate the kids got to experience so much.

Good luck.

jackie

 

[Smoky73]

When I had the electric thermostat, it worked great, the first time or two but, like the regular one, it slowly stopped being so good. The problem I faced with electric thermo or not is not really the fact that the temp goes off on its own. Whenever you DO open the lid, the temp drops several degrees, and it takes what i consider a really long time to recover, same with the humidity. Then you just never know, plugs in? Plugs out? One? Both? My electro had 3....
The incubators themselves were very sensitive to change.

 

[hypnofrogstevie]

My 1st try with silkies I had nothing. second try with silkies We had a power outtage and 15 hatched 3 days after. It will get better with time I promise. I cant wait for my 3rd try with serama's

 

[cgjsmith]

Hatching is much harder then it looks ha ha. My daughters first grade teacher was given eggs by tyson and every one hatched. she didn't do a thing to the bator and didn't know anything about hatching ha ha. When its time to go into the class room I would suggest a more hearty breed. (and have some chicks lined up to slip into the bator incoase non of them hatch ha ha.) C

 

[katmae77]

I haven't had any luckwith silkies either. I've tried 3 seperate times with eggs from different poeple and had no luck. I've had no problem hatchig other eggs silkies just don't want to cooperate with me.

Kathy