- Apr 22, 2011
- 12
- 0
- 22
Hi! I am NEW to BYC but already have gleaned some AMAZING information here!!!
WOW!!! This is an AMAZING site!!!!
Here's my 'story'......
My dad got our kids an incubator some years ago. It's a Hovabator Circulated air (model 2362N). Honestly, my husband usually 'takes charge' when we've incubated....this is the 4th time....first and second times were 3-4 years ago, 3rd and 4th the past 2 months. Honestly, I have not 'researched' egg incubation. My dad hatched only God knows HOW MANY eggs with AMAZING success. He's just good at it I guess........he NEVER candled. Just put them in, monitored temps, turned them and let them be.
The eggs we use are our own. We are 'chicken sitting' 9 hens for friends who are out of state until later this year and we were given an 'old' Rooster. This is where our eggs come from.
The hatch before this current one we got ONE, yes one, chick! In all fairness, to us, I don't REALLY know how many eggs were even fertile. Again, the Rooster had been recently introduced to the girls and he's 'old'. We candled the eggs a few days after hatch date and none of them appeared to have anything in them. Weird right? Or maybe not?!?!
Alright, well, we decided lets try again...My husband put 22 (?) of 'our' eggs and 8 bantam eggs from a neighbor in the incubator April 1.
We candled them twice. Not ALL of them. Only a few. We didn't want temperature issues, we experienced this hatch one and it was NOT nice. Pretty gross actually. When we candled some were clear.....a good percentage of 'ours' appeared hopeful.
Like I said earlier, my husband usually does this....I'm just 'along for the ride'. As luck would have it, he was called out of state for his job for two weeks the week before our chicks were due to hatch.
I've gotten a crash course in egg incubating and hatching.
He has three thermometers in the incubator. One on top of the eggs, one just sitting in there on the floor (seems to be most reliable) and one that was originally on the turner that I took off when I took the eggs out of the turner three days prior to hatch date. I attached it to the side of the incubator but don't rely on that temp.
Wednesday morning my son called me on my way to work to tell me an egg was pipping. I was EXCITED!! Couldn't wait to get home thinking we'd have a chick. Mmmm, nope. Got home, two were pipped but none hatched. We had two hatch out yesterday but the FIRST pipped still hadn't, though he WAS still moving and peeping. I went to the feed store today to get some supplies and was told I could help him out a little by just breaking some of the shell away. I REALLY didn't want to have anything to do with this but was TORN because I just really didn't want to see this poor little guy die on me. When I got home I got the first two all set up and set off to help #3. I warmed up some washcloths and old handtowels and wet some paper towels to wrap him in and got to work. He was TOTALLY stuck like glue. I chipped away parts of the egg but the membrane was totally dry and STUCK to him. I did what I could and put him back in the incubator to warm up more....within a few minutes he totally hatched out and within a half hour was fluffing up and moving around. In the meantime I THOUGHT a similar type situation was happening with #4 but decided I wasn't going to intervene. I just thought I was over thinking things. I let him be. I spoke with my husband after dinner and he told me to just go ahead and help him. I waited a while and when I checked on him, still not much progress so I decided to help. Well.......this little fella was even MORE stuck than the last. I helped a bit and put him back in the incubator. He's still breathing.....and moves a little but I don't know if he'll make it or not. I guess only time will tell. We'll see.
There is another egg that has pipped...there's a little hole and I've seen it move but that's it. I'm NOT messing with it. I don't have a problem not messing with them until it came to when it clearly appeared he was stuck. And perhaps I should have just let nature take her course then??? Regardless, what is done is done.....
BUT.......what could have caused this??
CLEARLY I should have researched egg incubation thoroughly before beginning such an endeavor and I ASSURE you I have ordered 3 more books that I WILL read before we move on to our next hatch. We have 2 that my dad had gotten but they just weren't as thorough as I would have liked.
Issue #1: The incubator was next to windows. I won't do that again. Now that the weather has been nice I wonder if that COULD have had something to do with things?
Issue #2: We don't have a hygrometer. I WILL be getting one, if only for my OWN piece of mind, before the next batch.
Issue #3: I did open the incubator to add water as I read humidity was supposed to be increased on the last 3 days and I didn't know if there was enough water in the reservoir.
The temperature has been constant 99.5-100 and they were on automatic egg turners up until last 3 days.....
I have learned SO much but I'm ALWAYS eager to learn more so ANY advice or information is GREATLY appreciated. I am ALL about learning from other people's mistakes also!!
I have started a hatching journal. What a GREAT idea and awesome resource!!!
I'm pretty sure I'm becoming addicted to incubating and hatching!!
Thank you in advance for taking the time to read this post and offering ANY and ALL suggestions and advice. I appreciate it more than you know!!!
WOW!!! This is an AMAZING site!!!!
Here's my 'story'......
My dad got our kids an incubator some years ago. It's a Hovabator Circulated air (model 2362N). Honestly, my husband usually 'takes charge' when we've incubated....this is the 4th time....first and second times were 3-4 years ago, 3rd and 4th the past 2 months. Honestly, I have not 'researched' egg incubation. My dad hatched only God knows HOW MANY eggs with AMAZING success. He's just good at it I guess........he NEVER candled. Just put them in, monitored temps, turned them and let them be.
The eggs we use are our own. We are 'chicken sitting' 9 hens for friends who are out of state until later this year and we were given an 'old' Rooster. This is where our eggs come from.
The hatch before this current one we got ONE, yes one, chick! In all fairness, to us, I don't REALLY know how many eggs were even fertile. Again, the Rooster had been recently introduced to the girls and he's 'old'. We candled the eggs a few days after hatch date and none of them appeared to have anything in them. Weird right? Or maybe not?!?!
Alright, well, we decided lets try again...My husband put 22 (?) of 'our' eggs and 8 bantam eggs from a neighbor in the incubator April 1.
We candled them twice. Not ALL of them. Only a few. We didn't want temperature issues, we experienced this hatch one and it was NOT nice. Pretty gross actually. When we candled some were clear.....a good percentage of 'ours' appeared hopeful.
Like I said earlier, my husband usually does this....I'm just 'along for the ride'. As luck would have it, he was called out of state for his job for two weeks the week before our chicks were due to hatch.
He has three thermometers in the incubator. One on top of the eggs, one just sitting in there on the floor (seems to be most reliable) and one that was originally on the turner that I took off when I took the eggs out of the turner three days prior to hatch date. I attached it to the side of the incubator but don't rely on that temp.
Wednesday morning my son called me on my way to work to tell me an egg was pipping. I was EXCITED!! Couldn't wait to get home thinking we'd have a chick. Mmmm, nope. Got home, two were pipped but none hatched. We had two hatch out yesterday but the FIRST pipped still hadn't, though he WAS still moving and peeping. I went to the feed store today to get some supplies and was told I could help him out a little by just breaking some of the shell away. I REALLY didn't want to have anything to do with this but was TORN because I just really didn't want to see this poor little guy die on me. When I got home I got the first two all set up and set off to help #3. I warmed up some washcloths and old handtowels and wet some paper towels to wrap him in and got to work. He was TOTALLY stuck like glue. I chipped away parts of the egg but the membrane was totally dry and STUCK to him. I did what I could and put him back in the incubator to warm up more....within a few minutes he totally hatched out and within a half hour was fluffing up and moving around. In the meantime I THOUGHT a similar type situation was happening with #4 but decided I wasn't going to intervene. I just thought I was over thinking things. I let him be. I spoke with my husband after dinner and he told me to just go ahead and help him. I waited a while and when I checked on him, still not much progress so I decided to help. Well.......this little fella was even MORE stuck than the last. I helped a bit and put him back in the incubator. He's still breathing.....and moves a little but I don't know if he'll make it or not. I guess only time will tell. We'll see.
There is another egg that has pipped...there's a little hole and I've seen it move but that's it. I'm NOT messing with it. I don't have a problem not messing with them until it came to when it clearly appeared he was stuck. And perhaps I should have just let nature take her course then??? Regardless, what is done is done.....
BUT.......what could have caused this??
CLEARLY I should have researched egg incubation thoroughly before beginning such an endeavor and I ASSURE you I have ordered 3 more books that I WILL read before we move on to our next hatch. We have 2 that my dad had gotten but they just weren't as thorough as I would have liked.
Issue #1: The incubator was next to windows. I won't do that again. Now that the weather has been nice I wonder if that COULD have had something to do with things?
Issue #2: We don't have a hygrometer. I WILL be getting one, if only for my OWN piece of mind, before the next batch.
Issue #3: I did open the incubator to add water as I read humidity was supposed to be increased on the last 3 days and I didn't know if there was enough water in the reservoir.
The temperature has been constant 99.5-100 and they were on automatic egg turners up until last 3 days.....
I have learned SO much but I'm ALWAYS eager to learn more so ANY advice or information is GREATLY appreciated. I am ALL about learning from other people's mistakes also!!
I have started a hatching journal. What a GREAT idea and awesome resource!!!
I'm pretty sure I'm becoming addicted to incubating and hatching!!
Thank you in advance for taking the time to read this post and offering ANY and ALL suggestions and advice. I appreciate it more than you know!!!
