phesant hatching egg question

[danman123]

Got this little guy and one more on the way!

 

[RuzichFamily]

Mu hatch rate has been terrible. First year trying to hatch. Eggs came from my personal ring necks. They seem to get really close to pipping then die or die right after they've piped during their hatch phase. Even have had a few that hatched then seemed so exhausted they only lived minutes. I've only successfully hatched about 6 from 30+ eggs that were good right up until about day 17-hatch.

 

[Pheasantguy2010]

What type of incubator do you have?

 

[Pheasantguy2010]

If it is a little giant or one of the Styrofoam incubators I hear no good things from them. Even myself had major problems with it. I thought it was my birds and it wasn't. It was trying to keep the temp Perfect the humidity Perfect air flow Perfect turning the eggs Perfect. There are so may things that could mess up a hatch that's why I bought an incubator that does everything to make it Perfect.

Honestly its cheaper to already buy them hatched out, just my opinion.

 

[RuzichFamily]

It is a Farm Innovators 4250 pro series, forced air, digital bator w/ turner. It's very similar to the Little Giant incubators but it has a hard plastic shell around the styrofoam. I guess I could buy more chicks but my hens are spitting out the eggs by the dozen so why not try to hatch? I love it, kids love it, fun stuff. What kind of incubator would you recommend? I'm going to build a nice one this year.


http://www.farminnovators.com/poultry.html

 

[Pheasantguy2010]

You might have better luck building your own. I hate to see people with high hopes for great hatches and then get disappointed with little or nothing with bad incubators. I have the sportsman 1502 and its great. My hatch rates are 50%-68%. I get about 60-80 chicks a week.

 

[footballtim32]

Its day 25 and i havent heard anything. Humidity is at 50 temp stays between 94 and 101. Any idea wat i did wrong

 

[Pheasantguy2010]

Inconsistent temperature.

 

[Therrm]

I recently hatched some pheasant eggs a buddy of mine gave me in my cooler incubator I built. Went 9 for 11 but two died within a day or two of hatching. He said he was getting a 50% hatch rate so he started feeding better feed and it bumped it up to a 70% hatch rate. All i know is it is something the local farm store mills in house so im sure it is fresh and has quality ingredients.

 

[Therrm]

If it is a little giant or one of the Styrofoam incubators I hear no good things from them. Even myself had major problems with it. I thought it was my birds and it wasn't. It was trying to keep the temp Perfect the humidity Perfect air flow Perfect turning the eggs Perfect. There are so may things that could mess up a hatch that's why I bought an incubator that  does everything to make it Perfect.

Honestly its cheaper to already buy them hatched out, just my opinion.

Im sure you have hatched way more than me and i get that every thing being perfect helps but sometimes they just die. There is no way a hen sitting on a nest keeps a 1/2 degree variance in temp and maintains a perfect humidity. I know with my last hatch there was things I could have changed to make it better (my 3 chicken eggs that didnt hatch pipped internally but never broke the shell) but i didn't have a bad hatch and I wasnt nearly as attentive as some of the people out there. Used a cooler incubator i built, my turner was two 2x4 scraps I alternated sides being propped up. All 4 of my quail eggs hatched while still being turned, 7 of the original 11 chicken eggs hatched (one wasnt developing and was tossed when lockdown started) and 9 of my 11 pheasants hatched (two died after hatching). I started with 6 pheasant eggs and 4 quail and added 11 chickens and 5 pheasant 4 days later. Also on day 14 the power went out for 8 hours and incubator temp went down to 75 degrees. Even if everything is perfect sometimes they just die and in my case even is you do everything wrong they make it.