Sadly I didn't have a great hatch this time round (I'm using the
King Suro 20).
This is my fourth time at incubation and each time, my experience seems to have gotten worst and worst.
This time round, I had set the Suro on 'factory settings' and had only 1 chicks out of 16 bantam eggs and 1 chick out of 2 LF eggs.
At the beginning (the first time I've used this Suro), I didn't have the instruction sheet at hand because it went missing on me *I suspected that one of my little kids took off with it while I was unpacking the box* I had to googled for information on incubation (time consuming and definitely not easy to find at the time) but I remembered having the settings higher than what was recommended on the instruction sheet (after it was finally found) and I think I had the Suro at 103.5F?
By the time I found the instruction sheet, I've already had a reasonably good hatch with my 1st experience at incubation (I did had 2 chicks stuck on one side on their shell (interior). But then I saw that 'my settings' were much higher than what was stated on the instruction sheet? *I'm still so kicking myself for not noting down what I've done.*
The 2nd and 3rd attempts at incubation weren't that great because I tried to find the 'happy medium' between the Suro's factory settings and my 'trying-to-guessed-what-it-was' settings (I was, at that stage, trying to avoid having chicks getting stuck on one side their shells).
This time (the 4th time), I've decided to go by 'factory settings' and let the Suro do its work, allowing myself to get involve only to stop the rotation and rise the humidity on the 18th day.
On the 21st day, only one chicks hatched! darn!
Day 22, one LF chick hatched.
Day 23, I decided to candle unhatched eggs and saw that none got pass the 1st membrane. I, carefully, opened one egg up and found one chick dead. I checked the next one and the next ine after that, and so on. They were all dead. Urghhh!
I was at a crossroad when thankfully one of the breeders (very supportive) was still willing to provide me more eggs (or chicks).
I've decided to give incubation one more go but this time I've invested in a proper incubator hygrometer/thermometer device to monitor the interior conditions of my Suro (I'm currently waiting for its arrival through the post). I will not use 'factory settings' as it is probably no good for doing bantam eggs(?).
So out of interest and curiousity, for incubating 'true' bantams' eggs, what settings did you have your Suro for incubation during 18 days and after rotation stops? Are the settings different for doing large fowls' eggs?
*sorry for such long-winded post, I just wanted to 'let go!'*
i love my king suro 20 after a really bad start. It is truly a plug and play bator. i have my 6th lot of eggs in and they are due to hatch 7th DEC. i have failed 5 times. but for the first time when i candled these eggs i saw movement i nearly dropped the egg. some of the air sacks look wrong to me. but having nothing to compare it to i'm winging it so fingers crossed.
