Need some hatching buddies - Hatching May 24-28

[fifelakelooper]

Carolynn and womancat....sounds good!
I just kissed my hubby goodbye...he left for a fishing trip and I immediately got to candling! I had 27 eggs....I got rid of 3...one of which had a blood ring and two looked infertile or maybe stopped real early. That leaves me 24....out of the 24 I have two I marked with ? questions...in the past...those with ? have never hatched but I'd be thrilled to get 22 so looking good!

 

[Amarisus]

Me and my wife just got 2 and half dozen mutt eggs we are trying to hatch. This will be out first attempt at hatching which is why we got the mutt eggs. We would love any advice that you all could give us as we are very new to this. They are due the 4th of june.

 

[fifelakelooper]

Just remember to have pointy end down...and turn the eggs 3 x per day until lockdown which is 3 days prior. Then stop turning and up your humidity and voila!!! you have chicks!

 

[Amarisus]

we did the pointy end down even though a few of the eggs were kinda hard to tell what end was pointy and we have an auto turner. Thanks so much for the help my wife will be very upset if we dont get any of them to hatch.

 

[pattgal]

Ok so is this alright? what happens if you use Iodised salt?

 

[Stevenson]

Quote:
I put my salt/water in a lid...separate from the hygrometer.

 

[Stevenson]

This hatching stuff has been nothing but ups and downs for me. Right now is a big time down. I may have just lost my entire hatch. I came home after church and one of the eggs had exploded. Luckily it exploded down and didn't actually get on the other eggs. I don't understand though....it had only been in the incubator for 7 days....I candled last night and didn't see a problem. I am sick about it.

I cleaned up the incubator the best I could with paper towels and water. I then boiled some water and wiped it down with the hot water thinking that that might help kill the bacteria...but from what I read the bacteria is in the air already. I was so pumped last night....now I think I could just give up on hatching all together. We'll see how this goes.

Next year I will have my own eggs....and it won't be as disheartening when I lose some or don't have a great hatch. This year since I have spent so much money on eggs and really have gained an attachment to the breeds that I was trying to hatch, it has been very difficult to lose them.

I do think that in the future I will not try to hatch shipped eggs. I will either hatch my own, drive to get hatching eggs, or buy chicks from someone within driving distance.

...not a good day.

 

[Amarisus]

Wow, that really is unfortunate. I just started trying to do the hatching so i bought mutt eggs for my first time out. I found them from a BYC member within driving distance for just 50cents an egg. I hope it all gets better for you. Good luck!

 

[fifelakelooper]

Quote:
I don't know what kind of incubator you have but it is important to maintain the correct temperature and humidity also. If too dry...the chicks get shrink wrapped and can't hatch out and die. If too wet....they drown . Other than that...the only other thing is to try not to open the incubator very often because it throws off the temp and RH. Good Luck! It is addicting!

 

[fifelakelooper]

Quote:
That is a bummer Stevenson...on a hopeful note...last year prior to my purchase of incubator...my cochin went broody and I stuck about 8 eggs under her. (didn't really know what I was doing...just hoped for the best). One of THEM exploded at some point.....there was goop on several of the eggs....I didn't clean them up...just left them all with mama and 5 hatched! So....keep the faith.