Incubators Anonymous

[ozexpat]

Those are some really sad results..... man. I would be crushed to have spent that much money on eggs and shipping to get so few to develop. BUT I know they have an extra trip.... but still......

I was happy with the 52 chicks.

Patterns emerge. There is one supplier in there of famous reputation with some of the worst failures. Including the hatch before this one, I have had 10 doz eggs from him without one hatch, He is off the list.

Local eggs that I pack and ship have similiar or slightly better day 10 results but the hatch rate is way higher. - i pack in foam and swear by it.

Some eggs in there from "the standard" in shipped eggs also all failed to hatch with low numbers at 10 days.

Some eggs travel in my golf bag with special handling. Others go in checked luggage and through the xray. No statistical difference.

Fotunately I am hatching locally from the chicks I have raised so I only need to fortify my breeds now.

We are up to 50 eggs every 4 days being incubated. Most of those I will be giving away on "the chicken mission"

 

[ocap]

question: Temperatures at my location are forecast to be between 32 and minus 9 for the next ten days and nights, how long can an egg withstand those temperatures and still produce a healthy chick?

here is a link for my forecast:
http://www.weather.com/weather/tenday/Smithville+MO+64089:4:US

 

[ki4got]

I hatched from 7 Breese 6 chicks. I still have 2 pair at point of lay so NO that is not normal. I got mine from madamwlf and had a great hatch. Maybe the best I have had from shipped eggs. I am going to get mine separated soon.

Some eggs just don't travel well..... sometimes it comes from the way they are packed. I find eggs fair better when shipped upright.... like you hatch them. The air cells are better that way. I also think the time of year it is, fertility is spotty..... and the cold may have had some impact during shipping.

I am going to be in serious trouble with eggs. I sold 4-5 doz to one person yesterday and 1 doz to someone else and still i had 120 eggs to get

I must sell some hens ASAP! AND THEY ARE NOT ALL LAYING YET

if you decide to thin out the blrw let me know. also, a friend locally is interested in some of what you have, so maybe might be worth a road trip if we have enough to split... pm me when you decide to thin the ranks.

 

[ki4got]

question: Temperatures at my location are forecast to be between 32 and minus 9 for the next ten days and nights, how long can an egg withstand those temperatures and still produce a healthy chick?

here is a link for my forecast:
http://www.weather.com/weather/tenday/Smithville+MO+64089:4:US

eggs that freeze usually don't hatch. with our single digit numbers, I was collecting 2-3 times a day, had 0 develop out of 40+ eggs. so the sooner you can collect after laying, the better the chances. with temps back up out of the arctic range and into more normal ranges for us here in sw Virginia, I'm more hopeful for the eggs I've collected this week. tho frozen mud does have a few advantages over the gooey liquid variety of mud. LOL

 

[gimmie birdies]

if I check to see if they laid they won't lay because they think I am bringing a treat.

 

[ocap]

eggs that freeze usually don't hatch. with our single digit numbers, I was collecting 2-3 times a day, had 0 develop out of 40+ eggs. so the sooner you can collect after laying, the better the chances. with temps back up out of the arctic range and into more normal ranges for us here in sw Virginia, I'm more hopeful for the eggs I've collected this week. tho frozen mud does have a few advantages over the gooey liquid variety of mud. LOL

thanks, I will take ten days off the collecting for the incubator

 

[Penny Hen]

eggs that freeze usually don't hatch. with our single digit numbers, I was collecting 2-3 times a day, had 0 develop out of 40+ eggs. so the sooner you can collect after laying, the better the chances. with temps back up out of the arctic range and into more normal ranges for us here in sw Virginia, I'm more hopeful for the eggs I've collected this week. tho frozen mud does have a few advantages over the gooey liquid variety of mud. LOL

I had a thought about that. Since I have only one nest (only 3 hens) I was thinking of putting a heating pad under some old towels in the nest box to keep the eggs from freezing until I could get to them.

 

[rnt2005]

Hi there, I am on day 11. Opened vent plugs last night. Humidity was a 29% so I added water. This is my first hatch and I didn't weigh or measure air Cells this time. Does anyone think I should be concerned with the humidity at this point? What I've read is very inconsistent. Thanks for your help.

 

[gimmie birdies]

I am on day 11 too. the eggs ARE supposed to lose weight- and that is a good thing or you get wet mushy dead chicks. you are okay.

I dry hatch and don't worry about it.

 

[Whoops]

Hi hatchaholics! I am hoping you can help me figure out what I am doing wrong, so I can join your ranks. I am feeling like the chick Angle of Death right now.

I have just started hatching and have had two hatches. I tried to buy a good incubator (Brinsea mini advance) and followed the instructions. Each time I set 7 eggs. I have ended up with only one chick hatching each time, and the chick that hatched in the second hatch just never kicked it into gear. It did not thrive, and died at a week of age, too small and too thin despite every effort I made to get it to eat. It would only drink when it stumbled into the waterer. Fortunately, the chick that hatched with the first batch is thriving. I really hope it's a pullet.

I did eggtopsies on the unhatched eggs from the second hatch and found fully formed chicks that seemed to have absorbed their yolks, but they never externally pipped. It's like they suffocated before they could get out of the shell, or they just couldn't break the shells. The shells did seem very hard.

Yes, they were shipped eggs, but packed very well, fat end up, and the ones I could see into the airc ells weren't detached. I was hoping for a 50% hatch rate, not a 1 in 14.
They were marans eggs, and most of them were too dark to see into. I used a very powerful flashlight, but I couldn't see into them well enough to trace air cells.
I live in the high desert, so the air here is thin and very dry.
Other people with eggs from the same seller had a better hatch rate.

Any ideas? Someone suggested dry incubation, but the climate here is very, very dry desert, and my understanding is that can lead to skull deformities. I was planning on raising my own chicks for my flock, but I can't do that if the hatch rate is, at best, one chick per hatch. They need a little chick buddy and I can't stomach all those eggs full of fully-formed dead chicks. I am trying to work my courage up to try it again, with some local eggs, but I want to know what I did wrong, or at least have a reasonable working theory.