I didn't know how depressing egg hatching could be!!

I started w 12 but only put 6 in the bater. One was infertile, three had darkened yokes but no sign of life-- so i have 2 left. Had I known, I would have put in all 12! I had no idea yield was so low. Now all my hopes are on 2 eggs....

Good luck to you. Don't feel bad, it sound like these buggers are very fragile!

 

My first round of hatching is going pretty good so far. I set 25 eggs, i believe at least 15 of them should hatch. 16 of them were shipped eggs and 9 are my barnyard mutts.

5 eggs hatched so far. Today is day 21 for me.

My 2nd bator is a different story. I set 30 eggs in there and yesterday was day 7 so I candled. Had to throw out 9 of them already.... Will see how many I get down to before lockdown.

Keep trying! I'm happy at least some of mine hatched. At least you have eggs that made it this far, and have a chance!

Good luck!

 

Shipped eggs, even when they look perfect, can have a lot of internal trauma from the shipping process.
Hatching is not for the faint of heart. It sounds so cool, and it is, but there's soooo much that can go wrong even with non-shipped eggs.

And even when you do get a chick, and it can fail to thrive or have genetic issues. So even getting the eggs to hatch doesn't equal a perfectly happy experience.

But if you keep practising, it becaomes soooo worth it. That's why there are so many addicts


Look for poultry shows in your area ( the American bantam Assoc has a good directory of shows, and those are often large fowl as well as bantam).
Go to a show and meet people who have birds you like, then ask about buying hatching eggs from them. Then you eliminate shipping trauma from your list of things that can go wrong.

 

I think I may approach hatching with an entirely different viewpoint than many others. Y'see, I totally expect nothing to hatch. Although I have some Stupid Proof incubators (Brinsea MiniAdvance EX and Octagon20 Advance EX units), I just don't believe that I won't screw something up.

So, any egg that hatches successfully is a miracle. I would prefer TWO to hatch, if one does, so the chicklet isn't lonely, but if nothing hatches, I just try again. I've only had one hatch where nothing survived. Fooh. Gotta spend another 25 days ... Because I do wait until Day 25 before I give up on unpipped eggs.

Each hatchling is a miracle of life and a gift to me. It amazes me something emerges alive from an egg I could just as easily cracked open and scrambled for breffus 21 (or 25) days earlier.

I'm sorry you are finding it depressing. Sometimes it's freeing to not have any expectations.

Keep trying! Here's to happy hatching!

 

Quote:This is the perspective I go into hatching with as well. I generally only hatch seramas, which are difficult buggers to hatch--even when the eggs are just coming from my own birds. I've even had embryos survive all the way to hatch day and then just not hatch. So, I've adjusted my expectations. I expect for nothing to hatch, and when eggs do, even if just a few, I celebrate! And when they don't, I shrug and put more eggs in. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst!

 

Hatching even your neighbors eggs can be difficult. eggs that have been shipped are really a gamble in my opinion, think of it this way

Starting with 10 eggs:

no breeder produces 100% fertility so you lose one -1

The eggs ride to post office so you lose one -1

From PO to Local Term so you lose one -1

From local Term to AIRPORT so you lose one -1

AIRPORT HANDLING so you lose a couple -2

From Airport to local Term so you lose one -1

From Local Term to PO so you lose one -1

From PO to Breeder so you lose one -1

So you end with just one egg!

Don't get discouraged! Try to find fertile eggs as close to home as posible. Follow all directions during hatch! Keep your hands surgically clean, scrubing between fingers and nails.

And most of all keep a log or journal of everything you do regarding the eggs and hatch so if this time doesn't go so well you can look back and see where you can improve your practices, but most of all, have fun and enjoy the learning.

 

The first time I incubated eggs, I set nearly 50 (full capacity) in the bator I was using. I didn't put in enought water, so I ended up with maybe a dozen hatched. Later, when I went to break the eggs to see what stage I had gone wrong at, there were maybe another dozen fully developed that just didn't make it through the hatching stage. I felt terrible to know... I was 17 at the time, and had left them with my family while I was away in Washington DC for a week. A lot of the ones that survived ended up with crooked toes and missing nails. So i havn't messed around with incubating, just letting my hens do it. I'm nervous now that I'm trying it again, thats what prompted me to join BYC.

We live, we learn, and we get better at what we do.

 

Ms.Frizzle :

......., thats what prompted me to join BYC........
.



I just saw how new you are to BYC - Welcome, welcome, welcome. BYC is the best place, ever - if I hadn't found BYC I would have had SUCH a struggle with so many things related to my chicken-keeping experience! Plus, I have learned how to fix many of the mistakes I've made!

Happy hatching!​

 

If I hadn't spent so much money on potential show-quality birds I might be less anxious about the hatch rate. Sigh.. time to move to a farm and get a rooster then just let the broodies do their job.