Opinions please

[raisedinabarnes]

Sorry about the video not working, however, now that I have given them enough time to fluff up and figure out their legs, I think the two that did hatch are fine. yeah! They are peeping away in the living room brooder.

Now, my other 10 eggs that haven't even pipped....

I performed the water test on all 10 eggs and got 10 low floaters. The eggs feel heavy, but no peeping inside the egg can be heard nor scratching or movement felt. I will leave them in the incubator until Sat or Sun in hopes a few will hatch out. I noticed that the temp was at 99, so I pumped it up a bit and made sure the humidity was up too. Not sure what else I can do.

Any ideas?

 

[raisedinabarnes]

I'm actually worried that the humidity was too low at the end of incubation; between 50 -60%

 

[Sgtfirstwife]

I just finished my first hatch. Of seven eggs three hatched. I know that sounds like a low hatch rate, but I had a few issues during my incubation. I almost dropped two eggs. The temp in my incubator dropped one night when the lid on the incubator was not closed. I open the eggs that didn't hatch, two had never developed at all. One had started developing, but that is the one I almost dropped. The last one had developed, but just seemed to stop.
I will be setting eggs this Sunday, Seramas. I will try not to candle as much and pay more attention to my temperatures.
What type of incubators are you using? Also ya'll mentioned taking the chicks out of the incubator as they hatched. I was told not to open until they all had hatched
or 48 had passed from the first chick hatching. Does it not hurt the other chicks if you open the incubator. I really wanted to open the incubator after my first chick hatched but I waited until the others hatched and 48 hours had passed.
I really want to follow along as see how your incubating goes. I will set my next eggs this weekend. I wish I a bigger incubator. My anniversary is next month and I plan on asking my husband for a bigger incubator.Some girls want diamonds, I want chicken stuff

Good luck I the hatchlings. I will be learning from all of you.

 

[stefan333]

I wish I a bigger incubator. My anniversary is next month and I plan on asking my husband for a bigger incubator.Some girls want diamonds, I want chicken stuff

LOL. I feel the same way. I don't know what kind of bator you have now, but I highly suggest a Brinsea with digital readouts. I've had a much better time with that than my styrofoam bator. No problem keeping temp steady or anything else, and cleaning is a breeze. It's a set it and forget it kinda contraption. The only problem is that for a bigger one you're going to be spending about what a diamond costs.

I'm actually worried that the humidity was too low at the end of incubation; between 50 -60%

That humidity is good for hatching. One of the things to remember about humidity is that it's important the entire time of incubation, but it's not as picky as the temp. If humidity is too low at the beginning of incubation it can make the membranes too hard for the chick to break out, and you won't see the effect of this til hatching. If humidity is too high you can actually drown the chicks (I've never had this happen, though). Also, humidity has a direct correlation to air cell size. I prefer to have humidity day 1-18 at 30-40%, and during lockdown I make it about 50%... BUT it's important that you adjust according to how your particular hatches are going for you. That is a good idea to leave them in the bator a little while longer -always do that just to make sure.

Different people have different experiences with hatching (as well as how to raise chickens) and will tell you different things, so it's a good idea to read everything as a suggestion then take what you want and just ignore what doesn't work for you, this includes anything I have to say. I personally do some things that others will tell you never to do -I candle about everyday, except during lockdown. I also remove the chicks immediately after they hatch. I've never noticed any ill effects from doing this. Also, there are soooo many things that can cause bad results. We automatically think it's always our fault for doing it wrong, but I incubate the same way with every batch -some work great and some not so great. Good hatching results start way before you put the eggs in the bator. It can get complicated, but it's not good enough to feed breeder chickens just layer feed, you gotta collect eggs promptly and store them a certain way, if the breeder currently has or has had a disease this can affect your hatch, if the breeders are too inbred fertility can go down or can cause early embryo deaths, shipping of eggs is a major factor in bad hatches, and believe it or not some breeds need their butt hairs trimmed to increase fertility. So, if a hatch doesn't go great don't be eager to think you killed your baby chicks. I'm only telling you guys this, cause when I first started I about cried when one egg didn't make it. I drove my hubby crazy telling him I killed my babies. I don't want you all to be too hard on yourselves.