Mahonri's 3rd Annual, BYC Easter Hatch-a-long!

[CayuseRanch]

Ok everyone, I need all of your expert hatching help... Please read thru my experience and let me know your thoughts.

I have just completed my second hatch in an incubator and my very first with shipped eggs. So I am really new to this. I put in two eggs of my own and 8 FBC Maran eggs. Because all of the eggs were so dark, candeling was near impossible. I had perfect temps, no power outages, I didn't take them out except for twice to candle. So here I am on day 24 and I do an eggtopsy. My two eggs had development my cuckoo maran was the furthest developed probably quit around lockdown time. The other one was an early quitter, probably before day 10. Now here is my thoughts on the shipped eggs and I know that there is risk with shipped eggs. 1) I ordered 10 eggs, but two were broken they were wrapped in bubble wrap that did not have inflated bubbles (was this a shipper issue or could they have been flown and maybe an air pressure thing?) 2) Of the 8 eggs only 1 showed any sign of development 3) two of the shipped eggs I was able to open without busting the sac and found the yolk still intact like a regular egg but there was no sign of fertility, no white spot, no veins nothing. 4) One of the shipped eggs had a green ring which points towards bacteria. There was a very faint stale smell to the incubation.

So my questions are... Do you think that I got unfertilized eggs and 2 what went wrong with the hatch? Could it have been the bacteria in the one egg? If so why the two different stages of development?

I will chalk this one up to an educational experience as disappointed as I am.

 

[Mahonri]

Ah,not quite as active today I see.

I have one of my patients coming over today to get a Marans and an Ameraucana.

She is so excited. I hope they'll lay well for her.

Tomorrow is my appointment with my accountant to get my 2011 taxes done. I never look forward to this day each year, but she makes it palatable.

 

[Mahonri]

Cayuse, if the air cell and yolk was intact it's "possible" that it wasn't fertile, but there are SO MANY variables with shipped eggs. It is always a crap shoot.

I've had good hatches with shipped eggs all the way from GA (bargain) and I've had horrid hatches from as close as TX with zero chicks making it out of the egg.

You just keep trying...

 

[CayuseRanch]

To make matters worse one of my two BCM hens died suddenly today. Maybe Im just not supposed to have marans

 

[NotAFarm]

Cayuse,
Renee (ChooksChick) used to have some pictures on here of how she sanded the really dark brown eggs for incubation. Hopefully, she'll read this and direct you to them. Maybe that could help you.
On shipped eggs, I've had a 5-20% hatch rate from shipped eggs. I think some of the processing centers between some locations just treat the eggs so roughly that they can't recover. Even if they start to develop, they can't overcome the stresses they've already dealt with. If you got the eggs from someone you trust, and they said they were fertile, that, most likely, is not the problem. If you got them from someone you're not sure about, it is possible that they never checked to see if they were fertile before selling them.
It's good to see you trying to figure out what went wrong so you can fix it. I'm sure others will chime in!

 

[sager:)silkies]

or ima join the hatch along if i can

 

[CayuseRanch]

Welcome Sager - You are sure to love this crazy group of Chick hatchers.

I bought them from a BYC auction, I do not know the person, but again not pointing fingers, maybe they weren't fertile because of the cold. I hope that Chooks chic shares the sanding thing, that would be great!

 

[sager:)silkies]

im the only one from canada how cool weres my prize

 

[onawhimfarm]

Ok, back in my proper location! I didn't realize I could tread water for so long!!! LOL!!

 

[gamamachik]

HI....FROM GA....THIS WILL BE MY FIRST YEAR...LOOKING FORWARD TO THE FUN!!