We just finished our first hatch
Here's what I did, and here's what I learned:
A series of mistakes:
Once I decided to do this I rushed into it. I won an incubator and an egg lot on Ebay the same night.
The eggs arrived (before the incubator) I had won 13 Buff Cochin eggs- the seller sent 15 and they were well packed and arrived quickly. I inspected them- none were broken but there was a wide difference in the egg sizes. I put them in a cooler with an ice pack and kept them around 60 degrees.
When the bator arrived, I felt rushed and only gave it about 8 hours to stabilize. I also didn't allow myself time to play around with the incubator to figure out how to raise or lower humidity in a controlled manor. I set the eggs without allowing them to reach room temperature.
The first 18 days went pretty well- thankfully the bator (a LG with forced air and autoturner) did a great job at maintaining pretty steady temps and humidity. It maintained 100 degrees and 50% humidity without any wide fluctuations.
I candled on Day 17 and 12 looked good.
On day 18 when I went to take them out of the auto turner, the wells had dried up, and my humidity had dropped to 20%.
Instead of remaining calm I freaked out- quickly spritzed the eggs with warm water, filled all the wells, then I cut strips of damp washcloth and draped them across the wire with their 'tails' down in the wells to create a wicking action, before setting the eggs on and closing the lid.
Of course, my temp had dropped, so I tweaked it a bit-
soon my bator was running at 101, with 80% humidity.
Too hot, too much moisture. I removed both the red plugs to increase air circulation. I kept checking and tweaking- temps stabilized and humidity began to fall. I went to bed. Woke up- temps were Ok, but my humidity had fallen to 55%- the wells were dry already! How would I add water without opening the bator?
I ended up drizzling in water every few hours with a turkey baster onto the washcloth strips. This worked OK but again when I slept they dropped.
On day 21 we had pipping! So exciting but as soon as they started pipping and zipping my temps and humidity went wild and I made the mistake of trying to make adjustments which made things worse. At one point during hatching the wells went dry again and humidity dropped badly, then I had a temp spike so I finally decided to call it, and unplugged the bator.
We ended with 7 chicks- it's a miracle that we got any at all.
4 hatched on their own, 3 with assistance.
Remember those washcloth strips? One of the chicks got a string stuck to her leg. I was afraid it was wrapped around and I spent a good 1/2 hour trying to get it off her using a bamboo skewer poked through the holes in the bator...
They are in the brooder now-
we only have 2 fluffy yellow chicks that look like Buff Cochins, all the rest are scrawny, sickly, runty looking little brown chicks that do not look like they are Cochins at all!
Two of those cannot walk- probably those I 'helped'.
My kids are still delighted, my hubby who was lukewarm on the endeavor has been completely drawn in, but I am just crushed.
It has been a very disappointing learning experience and should I ever attempt hatching again, I will certainly think it all through first, and start with high quality eggs from a reputable source- certainly not Ebay!
ANyway, I thought this might help some of you considering tryong your hand at hatching. Good luck to everyone!
Here's what I did, and here's what I learned:
A series of mistakes:
Once I decided to do this I rushed into it. I won an incubator and an egg lot on Ebay the same night.
The eggs arrived (before the incubator) I had won 13 Buff Cochin eggs- the seller sent 15 and they were well packed and arrived quickly. I inspected them- none were broken but there was a wide difference in the egg sizes. I put them in a cooler with an ice pack and kept them around 60 degrees.
When the bator arrived, I felt rushed and only gave it about 8 hours to stabilize. I also didn't allow myself time to play around with the incubator to figure out how to raise or lower humidity in a controlled manor. I set the eggs without allowing them to reach room temperature.
The first 18 days went pretty well- thankfully the bator (a LG with forced air and autoturner) did a great job at maintaining pretty steady temps and humidity. It maintained 100 degrees and 50% humidity without any wide fluctuations.
I candled on Day 17 and 12 looked good.
On day 18 when I went to take them out of the auto turner, the wells had dried up, and my humidity had dropped to 20%.
Instead of remaining calm I freaked out- quickly spritzed the eggs with warm water, filled all the wells, then I cut strips of damp washcloth and draped them across the wire with their 'tails' down in the wells to create a wicking action, before setting the eggs on and closing the lid.
Of course, my temp had dropped, so I tweaked it a bit-
soon my bator was running at 101, with 80% humidity.
Too hot, too much moisture. I removed both the red plugs to increase air circulation. I kept checking and tweaking- temps stabilized and humidity began to fall. I went to bed. Woke up- temps were Ok, but my humidity had fallen to 55%- the wells were dry already! How would I add water without opening the bator?
I ended up drizzling in water every few hours with a turkey baster onto the washcloth strips. This worked OK but again when I slept they dropped.
On day 21 we had pipping! So exciting but as soon as they started pipping and zipping my temps and humidity went wild and I made the mistake of trying to make adjustments which made things worse. At one point during hatching the wells went dry again and humidity dropped badly, then I had a temp spike so I finally decided to call it, and unplugged the bator.
We ended with 7 chicks- it's a miracle that we got any at all.
4 hatched on their own, 3 with assistance.
Remember those washcloth strips? One of the chicks got a string stuck to her leg. I was afraid it was wrapped around and I spent a good 1/2 hour trying to get it off her using a bamboo skewer poked through the holes in the bator...
They are in the brooder now-
we only have 2 fluffy yellow chicks that look like Buff Cochins, all the rest are scrawny, sickly, runty looking little brown chicks that do not look like they are Cochins at all!
Two of those cannot walk- probably those I 'helped'.
My kids are still delighted, my hubby who was lukewarm on the endeavor has been completely drawn in, but I am just crushed.
It has been a very disappointing learning experience and should I ever attempt hatching again, I will certainly think it all through first, and start with high quality eggs from a reputable source- certainly not Ebay!
ANyway, I thought this might help some of you considering tryong your hand at hatching. Good luck to everyone!
