Questions about incubation. What went wrong?

[lisaequine1]

Out of 29 eggs, 15 made it to lock down. 5 poults hatched on day 26 without any trouble. 1 pipped and then later started oozing goo, didn't make it. Yesterday (day 29) I candled the remaining 9 eggs, 2 still had movement so I put them back in the incubator. The other 7 I opened up. Most had internally pipped, a couple looked a little gooey. As of today only 1 is moving. It doesn't look like it has gotten into the air cell yet. How long should I let it go? And why do you think I had such a terrible hatch? I'm using a genesis incubator, kept temp steady at 99.5 and humidity (according to gauges) at around 50% for the incubation period. I lowered temp to 98 and raised humidity to around 70% for hatch.

 

[Arielle]

THe humidity is too high.

My suggestion is to candle at the days 7 , 14 and match the size of the air cell up with the diagram on cancling turkey eggs. YOu can google that. Or look in the turkey hatch along thread. Keep a copy of it as a hard copy near you while candling.

I have better luck with dry incubating, Meaning I usually put NO water into the incubator. Use the size of the air cells to tell you if you need to add waer or not.

If the air cell is too big on day 7, add water. If it is too small on day 14, remove the water.

YOu are likely to have a better hatch using the "dry hatch" method as most of us do. Get some eggs and try again!! ANd candle those eggs. LOL

Good luck !

 

[lisaequine1]

I suspected that it was a humidity problem. These were shipped eggs and most had saddle or wacky shaped air cells but they seemed to be in general, the right size.

Thanks for the reply. This was my first attempt with this incubator, I used a brinsea mini for some chicken eggs and had great results.

At least I got the five poults out of it, better than none!

 

[lisaequine1]

What about the one egg that still has movement? Is it not unusual that five hatched on day 26 and this one is now going on day 31? They were all started at the same time.

 

[Arielle]

What about the one egg that still has movement? Is it not unusual that five hatched on day 26 and this one is now going on day 31? They were all started at the same time.

THe quirks of nature. If it is still alive, you can give it a chance. Maybe it was in a cooler section. Others in a hotter secction. Nice that you did get a few!!

Each machine is a little different. GOod to practice to get it right. WOrrill wrote about his experiences with incubating and how he stumbled upon the method of dry hatching. I use my own cooler bator, and even with that one I find the seasonal weather effects its function.

WOrth trying again.