maybe i shouldnt try and hatch

[ChickieBooBoo]

I personally would never use an LG, you'll waste more money on eggs then what you saved buying a cheap incubator. Get a Brinsea or even a Hovabator. They are MUCH better incubators.

 

[clairabean]

I hear you, OP. I set 2 dozen and two weeks in only 2 were growing. Makes me almost want to cry. I know there is something up, but pin pointing it is hard!

 

[clairabean]

The great thing about this forum with billions of people in it is that you will have a billion opinions and a billion answers to questions. You need to sort out what works best for you and go with it. Some will say rubbish, others will say awesome. What works for some will not possibly work for others.

Just keep on keeping on and trying to get those chickies!

 

[Lightfoote]

Quote:
Bob - do not become discouraged by the challenges you have encountered up to now. I built my own 38" x 38" x 24" cabinet-style incubator (for under $50) from scrap pieces of OSB and dimension lumber taken from pallets I salvaged, and purchased eggs via auction on BYC.

The first three batches - over 50 eggs in all - yielded a ZER0 hatch.

I don't think you'll do worse than that - and I can promise you - as determined as I was, and as much as I had done to insure a successful hatch - I was extremely discouraged about incubating another batch - almost ready to simply quit, and resign myself to buying hatchery stock for a backyard flock. But I am not very good at quitting, and I don't accept failure, so...

After doing an "egg autopsy" and taking photos that I forwarded to 2 fellow BYC-ers more knowledgeable and experienced than I, they independently concluded the same thing. All the air cells had been either shaken or jolted loose during the course of shipment, and there was nothing I could have done to salvage them, or make them viable.

When I got a line on a batch of eggs from within my region and had them picked up by a friend, then retrieved by my mom, driven 360 miles in one day (she was coming for a visit) and hand-delivered, I knew I would have eggs that had not been grievously mishandled. But that still doesn't account for the "native" fertility rate of those eggs - which in nature can still be from zero to 99%. After letting those eggs sit 24 hours with air cell ends pointed upward, I "set" them in my incubator, and monitored them almost obsessively for the next 21 days...

Some (not all) of the eggs began peeping and jiggling, then rocking and rolling on day 19, and continued through day 21. The first small pip appeared late that day, and the first zip and hatch came on day 22, the next two pipped and hatched in the late afternoon on day 23 within half a minute of one another...

Two other chicks hatched, but were lethargic, not thriving, and did not survive a second day...they were "interred" in my backyard veggie garden.

'Failure'...even mixed with "my" successes...

I have come to acknowledge that it is all part of the process of incubating/raising/owning chickens. Distill the advice you are receiving here, take a cold-eyed, objective look at what you may have done wrong in the process, understand that some of it is completely outside of your control. If necessary, be willing to change almost everything you have done in incubating, with the goal of a successful hatch in mind.

I hope you keep at it, hope you reach success.

Lightfoote

 

[extraordinaryfowl]

Quote:
To respectfully disagree, I have had good hatches with my LG - I wouldn't write it off, especially if you can't afford the more expensive ones. I plan on building a new body out of wood and transferring the heating unit once the foam is shot.

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

Quote:
To respectfully disagree, I have had good hatches with my LG - I wouldn't write it off, especially if you can't afford the more expensive ones. I plan on building a new body out of wood and transferring the heating unit once the foam is shot.

Some people have gotten lucky with them, but from what I've heard on here, there are more people who have had bad experiences then good. You are one of the lucky ones.

 

[Arielle]

WHen you are ready, try again.

 

[al6517]

Quote:
To respectfully disagree, I have had good hatches with my LG - I wouldn't write it off, especially if you can't afford the more expensive ones. I plan on building a new body out of wood and transferring the heating unit once the foam is shot.

Some people have gotten lucky with them, but from what I've heard on here, there are more people who have had bad experiences then good. You are one of the lucky ones.

The real truth is all the LG owners say the same thing it's the best they could afford, but then end up wasting more $$ on wasted ruined hatches and expensive shipped eggs than they would have saved buying a real incubator, It's a poor excuss but they like it. And yes the fact's state the LG is the most unwanted bator in the hatching industry, I do feel bad for the owners of them, always having to rationalize for buying one and not admitting they stink.

 

[extraordinaryfowl]

Quote:
Some people have gotten lucky with them, but from what I've heard on here, there are more people who have had bad experiences then good. You are one of the lucky ones.

The real truth is all the LG owners say the same thing it's the best they could afford, but then end up wasting more $$ on wasted ruined hatches and expensive shipped eggs than they would have saved buying a real incubator, It's a poor excuss but they like it. And yes the fact's state the LG is the most unwanted bator in the hatching industry, I do feel bad for the owners of them, always having to rationalize for buying one and not admitting they stink.

I have had no less then 70% of chicks hatch with my Little Giant.

 

[Gypsy07]

I'm really tempted to buy myself an LG to see what all the fuss is about! The fact is that some people on here manage to get amazing hatch rates with them, so obviously they're not all total junk. And some people with top notch Brinseas still manage to make a royal cock-up of incubating, so obviously just having a good bator isn't enough to ensure good hatches. From what I understand of LGs, they seem to be more difficult to set up and get the temp regulated, and less forgiving of minor mistakes. Which isn't great when you're a beginner, but might have the not-immediately-obvious advantage of teaching you how to fine tune your incubations in a way that you'd never learn if you had a fancypants incubator that basically took care of everything for you.

I bet some people on here who have really good hatch rates have just been lucky. I bet some of them have great hatch rates without actually understanding WHY they have great hatch rates, and if you took away their good bator and replaced it with a poor quality one, they wouldn't have a clue what to do with it. I know I'd be like that myself if I hadn't spent a couple of years struggling to figure out my own first crappy bator. Okay, so I might have a fancy Brinsea now, but I know if it broke down tonight with my precious rare breed eggs in it, I'd be able to transfer them to my cheap styro box, hand turn them the rest of the incubation, regulate the humidity myself, and still get a good hatch rate. And if I hadn't gone through the earlier cheap incubator woes, I absolutely know that I wouldn't be able to do that.

To Bobzant: You bought an LG and that's what you've got to work with, so instead of being discouraged by all the negative reports, choose to see them as a challenge. Get in touch with the people on here who CAN and DO get good hatches with them, and continue to use them by choice. Chookschick is the first person who springs to mind here. Take some advice from the LG fans on here. Yes, there are quite a few!

And start from the beginning and run through your incubating checklist again, just in case there's a problem you're missing that's actually nothing to do with your bator. Check your hygiene procedures. Make sure your thermometer is accurate. Ditto your hygrometer. Maybe think about getting yourself a cheap digital thermometer that records max and min temperatures, so you can see if your bator is having any temp drops or spikes. Think about weighing your eggs so you can monitor weight loss and adjust humidity as required. All that kind of thing. And lastly, get hold of some local eggs that you know are from healthy and fertile birds. You really need to perfect your incubating technique on eggs that actually have a chance of hatching, which isn't guaranteed with shipped eggs.

Good luck!