New to incubating, 2nd failed hatch in 2 weeks. What am I doing wrong???

[dukefan70]

I probably waited too long and now my hens egg production has dropped off dramatically and I lost three hens in the last few months so I'm down to four.. The rooster is still active, and they're all only 3 years old or so. I've wasted 14 eggs in my brand new Brinsea Mini Advance in 2 weeks. I've been meticulous about setup and temp and washing my hands. I let the first batch go for 10 days since I've only candled eggs once before under a broody buff (some of them were developing at first but that ended badly too). My second batch has been incubating for 3 days and I just candled again to find absolutely nothing. I really wanted to perpetuate this flock and I'm very frustrated. Any ideas?

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I probably waited too long and now my hens egg production has dropped off dramatically and I lost three hens in the last few months so I'm down to four.. The rooster is still active, and they're all only 3 years old or so. I've wasted 14 eggs in my brand new Brinsea Mini Advance in 2 weeks. I've been meticulous about setup and temp and washing my hands. I let the first batch go for 10 days since I've only candled eggs once before under a broody buff (some of them were developing at first but that ended badly too). My second batch has been incubating for 3 days and I just candled again to find absolutely nothing. I really wanted to perpetuate this flock and I'm very frustrated. Any ideas?

Three days may be a bit early to tell, I'd give it 5-7 days before giving up. Depending on the eggs, sometimes you don't see growth as early. In my light eggs I can usually see growth as early as 3 days in a good share, but I wouldn't judge my hatch on it and in darker eggs I would give it longer to see anything.

Have you ever checked a sample of the hens' eggs for fertility? What kind of chickens are they?

 

[Noodlez]

I suck at incubating, but I definitely know you won't see anything before day 5-6.

Edit: You won't see MUCH. Sheesh.

This is my first seemingly successful hatch, but I've been neurotically reading and rereading these sources:

Day-by-day: http://www.raising-happy-chickens.com/hatching-chicken-eggs.html
Informative: http://modernfarmer.com/2015/04/how-to-incubate-chicken-eggs/

And this one for good measure: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/363717/eggtopsy-what-happened-to-my-egg-graphic-pictures

Give them a few more days. I hope they start developing for you. :c

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I suck at incubating, but I definitely know you won't see anything before day 5-6.

This is my first seemingly successful hatch, but I've been neurotically reading and rereading these sources:

Day-by-day: http://www.raising-happy-chickens.com/hatching-chicken-eggs.html
Informative: http://modernfarmer.com/2015/04/how-to-incubate-chicken-eggs/

And this one for good measure: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/363717/eggtopsy-what-happened-to-my-egg-graphic-pictures

Give them a few more days. I hope they start developing for you. :c

Not true. Depending on the eggs you can see development as early as three days, but I agree and would give them more time.

 

[dukefan70]

Three days may be a bit early to tell, I'd give it 5-7 days before giving up. Depending on the eggs, sometimes you don't see growth as early. In my light eggs I can usually see growth as early as 3 days in a good share, but I wouldn't judge my hatch on it and in darker eggs I would give it longer to see anything.

Have you ever checked a sample of the hens' eggs for fertility? What kind of chickens are they?

Before I chucked the first batch at day 10, I looked through several candling threads on here just to make sure. I haven't chucked the second batch yet, but I've got a pretty powerful flashlight and it was not looking good...clear and a yolk.

My flock is now 2 buff orpingtons, one barred rock, and one RI red. And the rooster is a red also. I haven't been checking the eggs for fertility. I've just seen the rooster doing his thing. I don't know how much you can tell from failed incubated eggs...most of them were pretty much liquid, yolk and all. There was however one with the yolk still intact, and from looking at pics on here it was definitely fertile, but it was like it never started developing at all.

I don't really have an ideal environment to store my laid eggs in, and the first ones I had rotated/set aside to hatch were probably in too warm of an area. For my second try I took 3 that had been in the fridge a couple weeks or less and four that had been laid within the last few days. I read up on incubating refrigerated eggs on here first. Marked them separately and everything. I'll leave them go a few more days.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Before I chucked the first batch at day 10, I looked through several candling threads on here just to make sure. I haven't chucked the second batch yet, but I've got a pretty powerful flashlight and it was not looking good...clear and a yolk.

My flock is now 2 buff orpingtons, one barred rock, and one RI red. And the rooster is a red also. I haven't been checking the eggs for fertility. I've just seen the rooster doing his thing. I don't know how much you can tell from failed incubated eggs...most of them were pretty much liquid, yolk and all. There was however one with the yolk still intact, and from looking at pics on here it was definitely fertile, but it was like it never started developing at all.

I don't really have an ideal environment to store my laid eggs in, and the first ones I had rotated/set aside to hatch were probably in too warm of an area. For my second try I took 3 that had been in the fridge a couple weeks or less and four that had been laid within the last few days. I read up on incubating refrigerated eggs on here first. Marked them separately and everything. I'll leave them go a few more days.

Yeah, I chuck my clears at day 10 too. Like I said, I can usually see good development by day 3 in my light eggs, but some eggs are harder. I always toss at day 10, even though by day 7, it's pretty apparent what is going to be and what isn't. From what I've found online, checking for fertility after incubation (I'd assume the reference was in regard to a full incubation cycle), isn't reliable because the blastoderm breaks down over the incubation.

When I store my eggs they are usually room temp as I don't have a cooler "safe" place to keep them and I just tr to keep them from getting over 70F.

I'd crack a couple fresh eggs just to make sure the roo is hitting the mark and is fertile himself. If you're getting fertile eggs and no development the first logical path would be egg storage as you mentioned and the second would be breeder quality/nutrition.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

This is my last hatch for candling pictures, as you can see, depending on the eggs, development is very noticeable as early as day 3, thank you.



And as you can see, even on your candling guides, such as https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...g-candling-pics-progression-though-incubation show how early development can be detected.

 

[dukefan70]

Yeah, I chuck my clears at day 10 too. Like I said, I can usually see good development by day 3 in my light eggs, but some eggs are harder. I always toss at day 10, even though by day 7, it's pretty apparent what is going to be and what isn't. From what I've found online, checking for fertility after incubation (I'd assume the reference was in regard to a full incubation cycle), isn't reliable because the blastoderm breaks down over the incubation.

When I store my eggs they are usually room temp as I don't have a cooler "safe" place to keep them and I just tr to keep them from getting over 70F.

I'd crack a couple fresh eggs just to make sure the roo is hitting the mark and is fertile himself. If you're getting fertile eggs and no development the first logical path would be egg storage as you mentioned and the second would be breeder quality/nutrition.

Ok, I'll crack a couple and see what I can see. I'd be sorely disappointed if he's not fertile...he's been a good flock protector.

 

[dukefan70]

I cracked two eggs earlier tonight, one buff and one average one (red or rock not sure). I'm not good with posting pictures but I looked through a bunch again and I'm almost positive they're NOT fertilized. Like I said before the eggs that one of the buffs started to sit on a couple years ago began developing, so maybe Cogburn's just not hitting the mark lately. I looked up rooster fertility on here before and they should be fertile well beyond 3-4 years old, right?

Also just candled the second set of 7 again and scrapped them.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I cracked two eggs earlier tonight, one buff and one average one (red or rock not sure). I'm not good with posting pictures but I looked through a bunch again and I'm almost positive they're NOT fertilized. Like I said before the eggs that one of the buffs started to sit on a couple years ago began developing, so maybe Cogburn's just not hitting the mark lately. I looked up rooster fertility on here before and they should be fertile well beyond 3-4 years old, right?

Also just candled the second set of 7 again and scrapped them.

Therein lies the problem. I don't have the answer for how old, so I digress to someone with better knowledge on that. All mine are under 2 years. I know sometimes people have issues with the mating actually "contacting" but that's usually with fluffier butt birds from what I've seen and you'd think he'd be able to make his mark on a couple at least. Hope you can figure it out.