Incubators Anonymous

[Arielle]

This sucks, day 20 and humidity was low so I shifted 2 eggs so I could add h2o. Then I dropped 1 of the 3 golden polish eggs on the table busting it wide open.

.On the up side now I know they survived the temp. spike last week.

I think we have all done that one-- very painful loss.

 

[serama hen]

There is something called BluKote available at the feedstores that you can use to stop the other chicks from pecking at the scratched one.

I am sorry about the Dead in Shell one, those are always the saddest.

I would take each egg out quickly and listen very carefully for any peeps, candle it with a bright flashlight and see if you see any movement. Any peeps or movement go back in the incubator.

You can also do the "float test". Take very warm water (tap water that feels warm but not hot i.e. approx 100 deg) and fill a bowl. Check the egg to make sure there are no pips/holes in the shell. Put the egg in the warm water. If it wiggles in the water its still alive (wait about a minute). Take it out and wipe it off and put it back in the incubator if it wiggles. If it floats, it may still be alive,check it. If it sinks.. toss it.

On the questionable ones - you can make a teeny hole at the top of the shell. Peek inside to see if you see anything. Make the hold larger very slowly.. if you see bleeding stop immediately and put it back in the incubator. Slowly take away the outer shell until you can see what you have inside.

3 days after hatch is probably the latest I would leave them in - although somebody said they had one hatch on day 27. If you check them all and determine if they are alive or not you can put the ones that just need more time back in.

Good luck, I hope you find more wigglers!

i tried the water trick all of them floated but didnt move the round part floated up and the tip down so what should i make of this.

 

[AvianEgo]

Are you gonna let the fiance Control you now ? WOW Wait till your Sneaking them in and he is then your hubby LMAO Have fun OH i think you have room for 6 more eggs

haha he is pretty tolerant as long as it makes me happy. But once they hatch he is no better than me, he wants to keep only two...than it becomes 4...than what's one more? That being said i will put 4 more eggs in the bator...maybe he won't know until they hatch..

 

[LilyD]

Okay I have a question for everyone here who uses a Hovabator 1588 with a turner in it. I am on my second batch of eggs for the year (slow start for me this year) and in both batches I have had eggs that were cracked. I also noticed this year that the eggs are Large to Xtra Large size. Has anyone had any problems with eggs being too big and cracking one another in the incubator? I am wondering if my next batch I should try without the turner. I had one egg cracked and with a bloodring last hatch. This hatch I had one cracked with a blood ring and another cracked but still growing.

Interested if anyone else has noticed this?

 

[ChickNmamma]

thanks Ill try the water trick hope it works and get the medicine I have noticed one of the babies toes are curved not like its a fist but when it stands the middle toe is a but curved its running and walking fine though should I worry

like this but the middle one!

Wow, you really are running the gamut on hatching problems. Look up curled toes on chicks in the emergency section - there are lots of ways and instructions on how to deal with this. I believe you have to make it some "shoes" to straighten them out or they will stay curled. If it doesn't affect the chick and you aren't going to be showing it- then no - you don't have to worry.

i tried the water trick all of them floated but didnt move the round part floated up and the tip down so what should i make of this.

Those are the ones you need to check, like the next part tells you.

 

[insanity]

Okay I have a question for everyone here who uses a Hovabator 1588 with a turner in it. I am on my second batch of eggs for the year (slow start for me this year) and in both batches I have had eggs that were cracked. I also noticed this year that the eggs are Large to Xtra Large size. Has anyone had any problems with eggs being too big and cracking one another in the incubator? I am wondering if my next batch I should try without the turner. I had one egg cracked and with a bloodring last hatch. This hatch I had one cracked with a blood ring and another cracked but still growing.

Interested if anyone else has noticed this?

I use that setup and the only cracked egg I've had is the one I dropped. If anything it seems the very small bantam egg roll to much in the cups and don't do well.

 

[serama hen]

all the rest of the eggs are dead i threw them out now how do i sterilize.

 

[ChickNmamma]

all the rest of the eggs are dead i threw them out now how do i sterilize.

I am sorry.

Make sure you have everything ready to clean it before you take the eggs out, you will want to do it quickly enough that the eggs don't cool off too much.

If you go back further in this thread somebody else described what they did to clean their incubator when they had an issue very close to yours, except their ducks were actually hatching .. I can't recall exactly what they did. Maybe they will come and post it.

I used to use warm soapy water, scrub it out and spray it with a 10% solution of bleach water and let it dry - but that would take too long and I don't know if the bleach water would hurt the embryos.

 

[ki4got]

Quote: i would just use soap and water, rinse it well and quickly dry with paper towels. don't worry about getting all the water out, as long as there's no soap residue. it'll dry with the eggs in there.

for the eggs, put a towel in the dryer for a few minutes to warm it up, then put the eggs on the towel and cover them with the rest of it. try not to move them around too much, just fold the layers of warm towel over and to the sides. that should keep them nice until the 'bators warming up.

 

[Tammy N]

Quote: http://richmond.craigslist.org/grd/3820088768.html
Redwood Incubator (Amelia)

Redwood Leahy 4 tray incubator holds around 400 chicken eggs holds temp rock solid inside of my barn much better than a GQF sportsman
eggs must be hand turned but not that hard just open it and slide the trays back and forth to turn the eggs
wonderful incubator for goose ducks turkeys chickens

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