Please help! Do I need to put coconut oil on pip?

[HeatherKellyB]

We don't hatch very many, but when we do want to add to our flock we just let one of our broody Silkie's take care of the eggs... they are great mom's and we've luckily had 100% success with our Silkie moms.

Hi! I have one silkie pullet and she's an amazing mom. She's raising some little Dutch Bantams right now. She came out of broodiness without any babies (no fertile eggs) for about two and a half to three weeks, long enough to start laying again for a week only to go broody again. So I ordered some eggs for her. This is her first time and I am so impressed with her but worry about her not taking care of herself because she's so focused on her chicks. I was able to sneak in one more chick the night hers hatched and she accepted it, without any problems. So yes, you're right about that being the easiest. I need more silkie pullets and hens

 

[HeatherKellyB]

Just curious what you did.

I left the pipped eggs where they were. The next morning I got the other eggs that were not ready to hatch out and then removed the turner as quickly as possible and then added a very warm moist washcloth to the incubator. I had one chick to hatch and the other one had some problems. I tried to intervene, but I was too late plus there was still blood in some of the veins. The last egg was clear. The 2 eggs that I moved didn't hatch, but I don't believe that one of them was alive when I moved it. I checked for development and not movement. I check for development, movement and, veins now. Plus there was a few things early on that possibly made the hatch rate so bad. I did get an incredibly sweet and adorable chick out of the hatch. She is a bit spoiled and even seemed offended when I brought home some chicks that I purchased from a local farm, for her at Day 3. She's still wants to be with myself and my daughter more, but I think she's coming around to her flockmates

 

[mopalia]

THANK YOU SO MUCH! This is the easiest way I found this explained! I'm not an idiot but I have really bad ADHD and reading things that have lots of instructions can be a challenge, especially now that I have taken a break from adhd meds. Thank you so much! I will be checking them all after I get chickens and ducks up tonight. I can't thank you enough for this. I realize that I probably make myself sound really uneducated but I get all messed up every time I try to learn about checking for accuracy/calibrating.

FWIW, I have the same problem with detailed instructions (and ADHD), I manage things like recipes by copying them into a word processing program (I use Libre Office writer, it's free) and breaking every step down into a numbered step. So instead of a confusing paragraph, I now have a series of steps. Adding some spacing between the steps helps, too. FWIW. It's the only way I can follow a recipe, the same would be true for anything else hard to follow.

 

[JRWFarm]

Gosh best of luck! we had mixed results this time around and our eggs were from our own flock. Shame these incubators are so finicky. I hope everything works out well! Beautiful blue baby!!

 

[kodster]

@MGG I just got to look at the egg's air cells. I ordered 6 and received 8. One egg is cracked, one is detached and rolling, any and every which way all over the egg and it has bubbles in the air cell and the remaining 6 look surprisingly well. I don't believe I've ever received more than one egg per shipment that was only saddled. I am wondering if you have had more luck with washing the eggs or setting them as is? I've used a slightly rough (non damaging) kitchen Sponge to buff off any soiling. These eggs aren't really dirty. I believe that maybe 2 have a very thin line of soiling. I am so impressed with the air cells! They're all a bit saddled, but I'm always dealing with rolling/detached/bubbles in nearly all of the eggs!

Ah... that might be a part of the problem, Heather. I've been reading your posts since you started, but only this morning. You shouldn't be washing the eggs at all. You're washing off the bloom that protects the eggs during incubation from any bacteria entering into the eggs. That may be why you've had some early quitters. In the future, don't wash them at all, even if they're badly soiled. (Just trying to help out here, reading the posts, and analyzing, using my own experience of hatching for 8 years now.)

 

[MGG]

Ah... that might be a part of the problem, Heather. I've been reading your posts since you started, but only this morning. You shouldn't be washing the eggs at all. You're washing off the bloom that protects the eggs during incubation from any bacteria entering into the eggs. That may be why you've had some early quitters. In the future, don't wash them at all, even if they're badly soiled. (Just trying to help out here, reading the posts, and analyzing, using my own experience of hatching for 8 years now.)

She isn't actually washing any of them. I agree with you though, washing is usually not good to do.

I haven't been washing any of the eggs I've received. I don't handle them with unwashed hands though. Sometimes I put on a medical glove to handle. I just scratch off whatever I'm able to get off. I've not had a lot of dirty eggs.
That's really interesting about the air cells. I figured this was normal for shipped eggs. Out of probably 30 eggs, all but maybe 10, have had completely detached rolling air cells and tiny bubbles that move alongside the detached air any and every way the egg moves. This could probably be a part of my issue too, maybe. I nearly fainted at the amount of eggs with intact air cells out of the 8 Spitz eggs. Most are slightly saddled, but this is a HUGE improvement from the normal here. What are your thoughts about this? That's why I was so adamant about keeping them upright. With so many factors against the eggs, it's no wonder I've only hatched 4 eggs (the showgirl I should include on that count because I truly feel like she could have made it if I had intervened before I did, whether it meant taking Fancy out so the egg wasn't rolled around all over the incubator or just assisting with the zip) actually 5 if I include the showgirl that almost made it.

 

[kodster]

Whenever i received the Incuview back on June 12th, I unboxed it and set it up right away. I let it run 3 to 4 days and it ran too cool. I moved it to a spare bedroom and after 2 to 3 days, it seemed to stabilize. I chalked it up to being a bad location. I set 11 showgirl eggs (my daughter's most desired breed that she's been begging for). Whenever Fancy decided that she was going to hatch in the NR360, I needed to move some eggs that were only about halfway through the incubation period and I didn't want the high humidity hurting them, so I moved them to the Incuview. Last night after I got the Spitz eggs set in the NR360, I was going to check the humidity in the Incuview. The thermometer read 104°. I opened it up and changed thermometers, closed it and the next therm also said 104°. I tried two other therms and everyone of them read 104°. Temp would go down from opening but quickly go back to 104°. I have no idea how long it was like this. I took the eggs out but 104 is probably enough to do serious damage. Throughout the entire time, the incubator thermometer read 99.5°. I emailed the company and expect to hear back tomorrow. Incubator Warehouse seems to have excellent customer service, so I'm confident that we'll get something figured out. I just hate the amount of money that's lost from this. I can't be mad at anyone but it is frustrating. I'm just going to concentrate on using the NR360 for now and hopefully gain more knowledge and positive experiences. I have some amazing support in @MGG and I am so grateful for it!

There's your problem. Yes, it's too high. I have one that I had problems with, but in the opposite direction. TOO cool. Talked to a few others and it appeared that this was common to this particular brand. Bumped it up above the 99.5 pre-set, to 102.5 on the thermostat, and the thermometers I have inside then registered right where I needed it to be, and after that I started having better hatches. You might try bumping the Incuview down a couple of degrees, doing a couple of tenths of a point at a time, letting it stabilize, and then testing with the thermometer inside to see where it registers at, to bring it down to the ideal of 99.5.

 

[MGG]

That's exactly how I acquired my NR360. I called around to every store that I could find. I missed the last one at my local TSC by one day!!! I finally found one a little over an hour away and immediately got in the car to go pick it up. Once I got it home I was a little sad because I thought that ver. 1.0NU was an older version and I knew they'd updated a lot of things. After more digging around on the internet, I found that this is the latest version.
Incuview contacted me and we're trying to get to the bottom of what is going on. I am the type that immediately thinks "USER error" anytime something goes wrong, but I have checked everything.
@MGG
To add to that, I was looking over my planner and noticed that tomorrow is Day 18 for 6 of the eggs that I had to move into the NR360, when the Incuview started overheating. I moved any egg that looked like it had development and figured I'd deal with the losses, later. Well, after realizing that lockdown was tomorrow, I figured I'd go candle the eggs just in case. It's a good thing I did! At least 3, possibly even 4 of the now Day 17 eggs have live chicks moving around!!! I am beyond excited but nervous because the risk of losing them is still so high. What should I do? The Incuview hasn't spiked again and I've kept it running, just to see what happens. I don't know what else to do, except for put them back into the Incuview. I don't want to ruin my Spitz eggs with high humidity needed for lockdown of these eggs, if it's needed (I messaged the seller to find out typical hatch day and lockdown humidity used in best hatches for this breed). Any ideas?

I hope you can figure out what's wrong with your Incuview, I know it's a pain to have a faulty incubator. I would leave the day 17 eggs in the NR until tomorrow, and watch the Incuview. I would then (tomorrow) candle every 4 or 5 hours and watch for internal pips. Once you see an internal pip move them to the incuview. No point in moving them before internal pips, since humidity doesn't need to be raised until internal pip. So leave them in the NR until you see an intermal pip, and then move them to the Incuview. Watch it close, fingers crossed it stays steady for you. What breed are these eggs?

 

[JennyHeidewald]

I had a really hard time getting my NR360, I kept calling the different TSCs who kept telling me call back Wednesday, when the shipment comes in. Well, after a week, " it is out of stock at the warehouse and will be a week before they get one, and another week before WE get one." This was at a store about 45 min away. They couldn't get one transferred from the one store that DID have it because it was a little too far away (I am in AZ). So my husband went there and got it, about an hour and a half away. I'd called ahead and had them hold the LAST one, and when he got there there was someone else trying to get one!

I don't really trust the thermometer on it, but then I don't really trust any thermometers I put inside either, because the first time around the ones I'd put inside read it as low, so I bumped it up (100.5), figuring it would average out. They all hatched a day early. I had four that pipped externally before pipping internally.
The second hatch I put it at 100 degrees, and I had a really awful hatch rate, only seven out of the 22, but none of them pipped the wrong way, and they hatched closer to the right time. This time around I am leaving it on 99.5, and seeing what that will do.

What helped me out a lot were the assisted hatching articles here on BYC: Guide to Assisted Hatching for All Poultry and Step by Step Guide to ASSISTED Hatching

 

[HeatherKellyB]

I hope you can figure out what's wrong with your Incuview, I know it's a pain to have a faulty incubator. I would leave the day 17 eggs in the NR until tomorrow, and watch the Incuview. I would then (tomorrow) candle every 4 or 5 hours and watch for internal pips. Once you see an internal pip move them to the incuview. No point in moving them before internal pips, since humidity doesn't need to be raised until internal pip. So leave them in the NR until you see an intermal pip, and then move them to the Incuview. Watch it close, fingers crossed it stays steady for you. What breed are these eggs?

These eggs are Olandsk (dwarfs and so cute). They traveled from TX to NC. I went back through and have 5 of the 6 Olandsk Eggs left. Two of them are moving often and look to be in draw down (?) but I didn't see an internal pip. It is time to go and check them so we'll see. Today is Day 18 for them. Are they OK being turned up until internal pip? I am still very shocked that they survived as I honestly thought I had lost every egg in the Incuview. It's a good thing I listened to my conscience and transferred them to the NR360. I heard back from the seller and they stated that they typically hatch on Day 21 (I asked about this since I've heard that a lot of the smaller breeds hatch as early as Day 18 and then throughout until the actual Day 21) for him although there's a chance I will have some hatching any time now. They also said that they raise the humidity by 10 at lockdown