- Mar 2, 2009
- 1,133
- 13
- 176
It's not the incubator... it's not the eggs... I really think it might be me.
My most recent hatch was a setting of 14 (not shipped) eggs.
All 14 eggs made it to lockdown... I candled on day 10 and day 17 and they were all really doing great... the eggs were white so I could see the chicks developing inside really well.
Day 21 was great, 7 hatched out beautifully and 1 pipped but then died in the shell. The 7 that hatched successfully all had very clean shells and were very active little guys - they are all doing wonderfully.
So, today is day 24 and there has been no action at all for the past 3 days with the remaining 6 eggs, so I decided to go ahead and end the hatch. I carefully opened 1 of the eggs and was surprised to find a barely alive, but alive chick. The little guy was fully formed, no obvious problems or defects, yolk was completely absorbed and clean... but there was a little blood/fluid and it was gasping for air and extremely weak (barely moving at all). Not really sure what to do at this point, I've left the rest of the eggs (down to 5 now) in the incubator... humidity and temps are still good... but, I don't have much hope for these as I think they are probably going to be in similar shape to the one I opened (and culled).
This is my 3rd hatch. I'm using a Genesis 1588 with auto egg turner... temperature has been a very stable 99.5 degrees... humidity 40% Day 1-17, then 65% Day 18-hatch.
I would appreciate advice on what the pros would do at this point with the 5 in the bator. Also, I would like to know what you would recommend I do differently on other hatches to improve my hatch rates.
Thank you
My most recent hatch was a setting of 14 (not shipped) eggs.
All 14 eggs made it to lockdown... I candled on day 10 and day 17 and they were all really doing great... the eggs were white so I could see the chicks developing inside really well.
Day 21 was great, 7 hatched out beautifully and 1 pipped but then died in the shell. The 7 that hatched successfully all had very clean shells and were very active little guys - they are all doing wonderfully.
So, today is day 24 and there has been no action at all for the past 3 days with the remaining 6 eggs, so I decided to go ahead and end the hatch. I carefully opened 1 of the eggs and was surprised to find a barely alive, but alive chick. The little guy was fully formed, no obvious problems or defects, yolk was completely absorbed and clean... but there was a little blood/fluid and it was gasping for air and extremely weak (barely moving at all). Not really sure what to do at this point, I've left the rest of the eggs (down to 5 now) in the incubator... humidity and temps are still good... but, I don't have much hope for these as I think they are probably going to be in similar shape to the one I opened (and culled).
This is my 3rd hatch. I'm using a Genesis 1588 with auto egg turner... temperature has been a very stable 99.5 degrees... humidity 40% Day 1-17, then 65% Day 18-hatch.
I would appreciate advice on what the pros would do at this point with the 5 in the bator. Also, I would like to know what you would recommend I do differently on other hatches to improve my hatch rates.
Thank you
