I feel like a shmuck ):

[yourhighness]

Hi guys! Big sad rant coming up!

This isn't my first rodeo hatching chicks, I've done it a handful of times with decent success! However this is my first time where I'm in a situation to keep some of the chicks instead of give them away- we moved more rural and lots of neighbors have chickens here

So I bought 2 dozen mixed laying breed eggs from a local hobby farmer for $10, knew it was a lot but ya know? I really wanted to be surrounded by an ocean of fluffy chicks Already knew a couple potential homes for them besides mine.

I'm now 2 weeks in and down to 6 eggs, and half of those look dead. I feel like a monster. Really guys. It has to be my fault. Hobby farmer said he had a really great hatch rate the times he's gave it a go, and I don't see a big reason for him to lie to me. Two eggs went leaky/pre-explosion, I've never seen that before. Many I candled in the first week looked about 80% shadowed, and many of them went stinky. Every time I opened the incubator (good ol lil giant) to turn them, I'd be hit with a wave of stench. So I started throwing some out.

Now I don't know if I threw out viable ones? Or were a bunch of them just going bad? I feel so incredibly guilty. I tried to figure it out, had them marked (in pencil) if they were one of the huge-shadow-eggs-too-early, if i could see a chick, etc. But I don't know. Can't know for sure. I felt rushed, hubby was absolutely over the smell. Did I basically abort any needlessly? Ugh. UGH. I still have another week left but I feel like just dumping them all in the trash so I don't have to face the fact that probably none of them will hatch.

I would like the idea of hatching again but I got some bantam chicks and I'm not sure it'd be easy to introduce baby chicks to them in 4+ weeks

Anyway, thanks for listening.

 

[JaeG]

Poor you! That's a lot to deal with. I know that the quality of the food the chickens are being given can affect the health of the embryo, as can the age of the chickens and over winter fertility usually isn't as great.

What are you seeing when candling? I normally incubate quail and I'm good at picking what's alive and what's died now. If you can see veins under the air cell that baby is still alive, same if the egg is full and dark. If the embryo dies I've found it looks black rather than dark red/pink and it sinks towards the narrow end and looks lumpy. There will be a gap between it and the air cell that looks clear - no veins visible.

Hopefully someone else can help you figure out what's going on.

 

[Chickassan]

Sounds like the hobby farmer sold you old eggs, maybe he didn't know?

 

[lazy gardener]

Or your incubator was contaminated.

Did you calibrate your equipment before putting the eggs in? How did you calibrate? What were you using for a temperature? Fan? No fan? Humidity level?

 

[yourhighness]

Incubator was on for 4-5 days before the eggs got here, kept it between 99.5-102 at the highest- I think there was a short spike of 104 at one point, couldn't have been more than half an hour, and a few times it went below to 95 or so. Humidity between 40%-60%, really sat around 50-52% most often. Still air, no turner. Basic stuff. Using a traditional thermometer that's steered me right in the past (though awhile ago), and a digital thermometer/humidity reader who's temp I don't trust for beans. I'm wondering if contaminated incubator is the problem here ): Very well could be, I cleaned it after last hatch but that was a few years ago.

Some of the ones I'm sure are gone look like a blood ring on steroids surrounding a much-too-small chick shadow. The ones I'm not sure... I can see a few veins, but it's very hard to distinguish much else. Crossing my finger that one of them at least looks like it has potential.

Very possible he sold me old eggs. He gave me 6 extra and said they had been in the fridge for 2 weeks and probably wouldn't hatch, but I could give them a go. Those went straight into my own fridge lol.

Thanks guys.

 

[Gray Farms]

Sounds like you got bad eggs to start with to me.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

A clean incubator is nice but a sterile incubator is best.
Incubators are commonly sterilized by burning a chemical agent in a non reactive dish, like a terracotta pottery dish.

Any egg that is stored at 40 degrees Fahrenheit (the temp in a refrigerator) is an egg that is not going to hatch.

Your hobby farmer's name wasn't by any chance Mr. Haney was it?

 

[Skipper81]

Sounds like you've done what your supposed to I bet hobby farmer has great hatch rate himself because he pays attention to how old the eggs are that he's hatching he probably gave you older eggs or eggs that have been washed

 

[Birdinhand]

my guess is that something got brewing in the incubator, that either came with the eggs or got breeding in the days leading up to setting. since you are so close, I'd just ride it out and see if any hatch. I'd talk openly with the hobby farmer and see if he is up for giving you some credit towards future eggs if you choose to try it again. I would not be too hard on yourself or him, just learn and improve as you go, there are no guarantees, we are all just doing the best that we can and no matter how good we get, sh+t happens on occasion. I always think it's good to understand that most eggs out in the wild do not reach adulthood, they become land plankton for the myriad of predators up the food chain that depend on the excesses of an imperfect system in order to survive. Once you get the hang of it, you will be giving your eggs a much better chance of survival than they would get in the wild. a little bit of bleach goes a long way when it comes to homesteading and giving an incubator a cleaning is very important as you are creating the ideal environment for microbes to grow.
chin up, and as they say in sailing, and keep tacking!

 

[lazy gardener]

While I agree that bacterial contamination is definitely an issue, I see no mention of calibrating the thermometer or hygrometer. A still air should have eggs incubated at 102* with the measurement taken at top of eggs.