Incubator Temperature Problems ! ! (Reptipro)

[RedneckG1rl]

I am only letting myself keep 10 hens , everyone else is going to be sold . Thinking I may have to get a larger incubator though once all the hens are laying ! At least one that can hold anywhere from 300-500.

 

[loveourbirds]

10 hens is only about 50 eggs a week, but if you got an incubator like a "sportsman" you will be able to hatch for other people. its not good money but it pays for the electric so you will have less in your own birds.

 

[RedneckG1rl]

The one hen I have now is laying me 10-12 eggs per week , she is such a good layer !! So I am hoping that the other hens will grow up and produce that well ! There is an incubator I am thinking about getting but the freaking thing holds 1500 eggs! They only want $200 for it ...I wish they had listed that one before I got the one I have , which I paid $120 for ! I just can't imagine hatching that many eggs lol !

 

[RedneckG1rl]

OK so 5 out of the 10 eggs hatched . I did have to help one , it had been trying and trying since early this morning and the membrane actually got stuck to it! I had to put him under some warm water to get it off and still ended up with him missing a few feathers! He is doing ok and is with the others now though ! So now I have got the hatch rate up to 50% which is good I candled and did a water test on the others and pretty much came to the conclusion they were duds. Now all 5 did have air pockets : 1 had a yellow circle it in , 1 looked like it may have developed and I seen black and what looked like a possible leg but no movement at all and the others just didn't look like they made it that far and lets just say smelled very ripe. Now I don't go through the membrane , I just puncture where the air pocket should be and look through the membrane there, I just don't have the stomach to open it up all the way ! What do you think could of went wrong or that I may be doing wrong ? I am not collecting eggs every day , more like every other day but am thinking that I should get the eggs every day and maybe not wait a week. Maybe I should be putting them in at day 4 ? I have no clue but I was crossing my fingers for like at least 8 of them to hatch I have 4 due on Tuesday so we shall see.

 

[RedneckG1rl]

OK so 5 out of the 10 eggs hatched . I did have to help one , it had been trying and trying since early this morning and the membrane actually got stuck to it! I had to put him under some warm water to get it off and still ended up with him missing a few feathers! He is doing ok and is with the others now though ! So now I have got the hatch rate up to 50% which is good I candled and did a water test on the others and pretty much came to the conclusion they were duds. Now all 5 did have air pockets : 1 had a yellow circle it in , 1 looked like it may have developed and I seen black and what looked like a possible leg but no movement at all and the others just didn't look like they made it that far and lets just say smelled very ripe. Now I don't go through the membrane , I just puncture where the air pocket should be and look through the membrane there, I just don't have the stomach to open it up all the way ! What do you think could of went wrong or that I may be doing wrong ? I am not collecting eggs every day , more like every other day but am thinking that I should get the eggs every day and maybe not wait a week. Maybe I should be putting them in at day 4 ? I have no clue but I was crossing my fingers for like at least 8 of them to hatch I have 4 due on Tuesday so we shall see.

 

[loveourbirds]

if she is laying that many eggs, I would guess the problems come from nutrition on her. if you haven't done so, add some vitamins and electrolytes to her water. throw her a little cat feed, calf manna, or wheat. and see if that helps.

 

[RedneckG1rl]

I have been feeding them some good layers feed and she also gets wheat bread sometimes and grain . I will try to get some vitamins and stuff and see if that helps . Thanks for the tips , hope it works !!

 

[RedneckG1rl]

I just don't know what is going on ! I have six eggs to hatch and only two did! I checked the other eggs and : 1 was a dud , 1 was partially developed and 2 were fully developed but dead ! What the heck is going on ! Temps are at 100 , humidity when they get ready to hatch is about 50% ....grrrr

 

[loveourbirds]

has the temp been exactly at 100 the whole hatch? the only other thing I can come up with is, temp to high; not enough ventilation. what day # did you check the eggs on?

I think the problem in your case is more incubator related than your fault.

 

[RedneckG1rl]

Same temp the whole time and I make sure and open the incubator up a few times a day to make sure some air gets in there , but it does pull air in from the fan . I haven't been candling and will just let them hatch and then check the ones that don't hatch out. It seems like the fewer eggs at put in the better the hatch rate. I am going to try and sit them in egg cartons until time to hatch and see if that may help and solve the problem but I do have around 28 chicks now ! Getting ready to sell some of them this Saturday . I am also going to try and not put the water in there for the humidity when they hatch out and see if that helps . I really want to get my rates up . So far I have put in 36 or so eggs and only 16 have hatched. Might think about making my own incubator if things don't change but the temperature stays steady . The top will be at around 100 and then the middle is about 99 but the bottom I do not use because it is only like 95-98 . What I have been doing is keeping them all up top and then when I have some ready to hatch I will put the ones that aren't ready on the middle shelf and then keep the others on top and once they hatch I will move them back up on top. Maybe that is the problem ?