It's official- I'm the worst hatcher ever! -Updates-

[BlueEngineFarm]

How is it going 77horses? Anything happening with the eggs?
Lynne

 

[77horses]

Oops sorry! Couldn't finish my post; our computer motherboard always keeps shutting down when I first turn it on.

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Nope. The small Bantam egg is still in there. It's defenitely dead, like I guessed when I candled it around day 12 or something. Will be candling when I go to my dad's house today. Some eggs are planned to hatch this upcoming week, so I need to see if any survived so far. If not, then I will take the bator apart and start from scratch. Since school has started, I'm going to bring it to my mom's house instead. I will build it better this weekend and collect some more splash cochinXameraucana eggs and splash cochinXBantam buff cochin eggs. Have you guys seen the last chick we hatched out? Look at my avatar; she's a splash cochinXamauracana.

Turned out VERY nicely. Hopefully we will get to hatch many more of them. Anyone in Maine or looking to drive want some???

My dad says that it would be a good idea to sell some more chicks to people. PM me if you want to give us ideas or suggestions on this.

But anyway, this Thursday and Friday is when our other eggs are planned to hatch. I'm about to go to my dad's house now and will update you this weekend about the eggs.

 

[KristaChickenWhisperer]

Ohh!! Don't say you are the worst! There are plenty of us out there that have had bad hatching luck!

My two hatches so far have been disasters! My first batch died within the first two weeks of incubation and my second batch had two chicks go until day 17 then die. I haven't hatched a single chick!!

Hang in there!!

 

[walkswithdog]

I think the known record here is SEVEN totally blown hatches, might be more, in a row.

I've had... at least four really bad ones since I started.

It happens. Eventually you do get it and it gets to where it usually goes well, or well enough, and now and then GREAT. Hang in there.

 

[HEChicken]

Quote:
This doesn't quite make sense to me. If the x-rays prevent development, why would the eggs start and then quit after a week?

 

[walkswithdog]

They don't xray packages at the PO. They just don't, hardly ever like a few in billions. And then only particular ones, not a silly little egg box.

Shipping can be hard on eggs just fine without "xrays."

All that shaking, bouncing and heating and cooling just doesn't make for simple hatches. Unpressurized cargo holds, sitting in the sun on a dock, sitting in the cold overnight on the same dock. Those are your culprits - that and the postal gorillas. Fall a foul of the postal gorillas and bad things happen.

It's just the shipping. That's the risk of shipping. Now the benefits... they happen too once you get a feel for how to handle badly handled eggs.

I've had shipped eggs over a dozen times that I remember easily and surely more than that but I'm old and tired... and had many good and great hatches and awful ones.

I've had whole groups not go, in the same incubator with eggs that travelled a different route that 70% of those hatched. I've had 100% on shipped. It's just luck, good or bad, and technique as you figure out how to compensate for all that shaking and temp shift.

Everyone gets it eventually. Very few people don't ever get it. And over time the hatches get better and more often. If you check your calibration. If you use a water-wiggler. If you learn to candle and compensate for what you see that is different from normal, it all gets better.

Can be done. Isn't simple. Is rewarding. You all can do it. I'm not bright, if I can figure it out so can you.

 

[HEChicken]

Quote:
That's kind of what I thought. But if something that occurred in shipping was to prevent hatching, wouldn't it also prevent them starting? In other words, the UP stated that his/her eggs quit after a week "due to the PO x-rays" but my thinking is that if any of the above occurred during shipping to the point that they couldn't hatch, they wouldn't even start, right? Wow, I'm having a hard time making sense.

I guess what I'm asking is: For the person who blamed the PO for their eggs quitting after a week (post on first page of this thread), wouldn't it be more likely that the eggs wouldn't have started at all and that if they did start, its because they survived the shipping and if they quit after a week its because their temp/humidity was not optimum?

 

[77horses]

OK so IF all the eggs I have in there now(which I shouldn't have put in; should have waited...

), are NOT alive, I will clear it out and start off fresh. Things that I need to update/fix:

-humidity system: hum. is steady, but it's just too hard on the eggs to open and shut the bator every 2-3 days to re-soak the wet cloth that I have in there. I'm planning on drilling a hole in the side of the bator and putting a tube in it. That way I can pour water into the tube and it will run down into a bowl/something with a sponge in it.


-Light bulb: it is high enough for chicks to reach it, but I'm still going to put wiring over it just in case.


-Egg turner: I made a homemade egg turner. It's like GopherBoy's Gopher-Bator turner; it's made from a small wooden box and you turn it from the outside handles. But when I turn it to one side, it's facing the light bulb. When I turn it the other way, the bottom if the turner is facing the light. So I think that the light being closer and warmer and closer and warmer is another major problem. I plan on taking the turner out and moving it away from the light bulb a little, or move the light bulb all together.


-Air holes: Instead of opening and closing the bator's window to cool it off, I'm going to make more air holes. I thought there would be enough vent. in the bator without that many holes, and the bator's walls is really hard to cut through(it's a heavy-duty 100q Igloo ice chest). That way I can play around with it once it's finished to find out how to control temp. by leaving one plug in, one plug out, all plugs out, etc.


-PC fan: I had an old PC fan from a broken computer, and my dad wired it up so it could plug into an outlit, but something went wrong with it. Now I need to get another one because I already got rid of that one. This will hopefully make the temp. more even, with no warm/cold spots everywhere.


-Wiring: I may need to put down new mesh wire in the bator. It doesn't quite fit properly and I've just covered it up with that rubbery table liner stuff that everyone uses.


That's about it. Plus I need to adjust it and get all this done this weekend with my dad because after that I come back to my mom's house for school and need to bring it with me. He has more tools there and I could probably finish it up when I leave, but I need his help to do the hard work like drilling through the hard side of the bator, wiring the PC fan, etc.
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On the other hand, if I go there and find that all/some of the eggs are still alive, what should I do? I know that I could do my best to keep temp. and hum. steady now that temp. outside aren't as hot as the last bad hatch, and then I could bring the bator here to let them hatch it. That would mean bringing them by car though. But the good thing is that I can plug the bator in in my mom's car so they wouldn't get too cold. It would be risky, but I know that I can't leave them and I can't fix the bator while they are in it.


Wish us luck!

 

[walkswithdog]

No, there is some sense to those that start and still quit due to major mishandling and overheating. Remember that damage - slightly damaged membranes or a bruised yolk, could take days or a week to actually deteriorate/break down. A chick could start to develop only to have it's support system degrade in that first week.

An egg could "hold it together" longer but have suffered enough membrane damage to "leak" too much water through evaporation and it become non-viable, or there could be damage that didn't break down and immediate become fatal that could later, due to even just normal turning, become infected and die.

A lot of the losses in the last week I write down to too great a water loss from overheating/pressurization problems. They candle very dry in general, often with abnormal aircells as well.

Sometimes you can compensate for those things, often you can't.

Shipping is just a gamble and a project in compensation for damage you can see and often damage you can't.

 

[77horses]

Any suggestions???

And not to be rude, but for those of you carrying on the conversation about shipping eggs, please don't hijack this thread and please carry on your conversation in your own thread. I don't want to be rude or snobby or anything, but I started this thread to talk about incubating eggs, fixing my bator, and posting updates, etc. Sure you can ask questions, but please don't hijack it. Thanks.

And please please don't take it the wrong way.