Rooster infertile or just not doing it right?

[aart]

They look fertile to me. Non fertile blastodisc is usually just a small white dot.

You know about adding all the eggs to the incubator at the same time, right?
So they hatch on about the same day.

 

[Beth0202]

They look fertile to me. Non fertile blastodisc is usually just a small white dot.

You know about adding all the eggs to the incubator at the same time, right?
So they hatch on about the same day.

Okay, well I hope your right! And yes, I will put them all in at the end of the day today or tomorrow morning. Just giving the girls a chance to lay a few more eggs to add to my clutch this afternoon before I put them all in.

 

[rebrascora]

I agree. All except possibly the last one look fertile to me.

Good on you for grasping the nettle (at least mentally) regarding the excess males.... I know it's not easy and you are right we are getting ahead of things, but better to be prepared.

Good luck. I hope you have a successful hatch and the next photo we see you posting are fluff butts in 3 weeks time.

 

[Ridgerunner]

A Wheaten Ameraucana rooster with an assortment of hens. You will get a nice assortment of chicks, get ready for a lot of cute because you will be getting chicks. There are a lot of fertile eggs there.

 

[Beth0202]

I agree. All except possibly the last one look fertile to me.

Good on you for grasping the nettle (at least mentally) regarding the excess males.... I know it's not easy and you are right we are getting ahead of things, but better to be prepared.

Good luck. I hope you have a successful hatch and the next photo we see you posting are fluff butts in 3 weeks time.

Thank you! I sure hope so! I'm trying not to get my expectations too high since I still have a lot to learn about this process. I know there are bound to be some losses.

A Wheaten Ameraucana rooster with an assortment of hens. You will get a nice assortment of chicks, get ready for a lot of cute because you will be getting chicks. There are a lot of fertile eggs there.

I am excited about the possibilities and hoping for some olive/green eggers in my future! Long way to go but I'm hopeful!

 

[Beth0202]

UPDATE:
Okay, so... I candled all 10 eggs today and unfortunately there was no development in any of them

Disappointing but I'm going to try again. Just hoping to figure out what went wrong! The only two things that come to mind is the fact that the eggs were stored for 2-5 days at room temp before incubating which was between 66-70 degrees (cooler at night). I've read it's better to store them a bit cooler but not refrigerator cold! Could this be the problem?
Also, I had a temp spike of 102.8 on day 2 of incubation, it lasted for at most an hour but could have been less. Was this a deadly temp for early development? Other than that one time the temp stayed fairly steady between 99.8 - 101.2 F. Humidity has been very stable at 45-46%. I only opened the Bator twice during the last week; once when I saw the temp spike, I held the top open for a few seconds to cool it down. And on day 5 I couldn't resist and opened it to candle 2 eggs (of course didn't see anything) and put them back.

I bought the 'upgraded' temp probe from the HovaBator manufacturer when I ordered my bator. Maybe its wrong? Is there a good way to test its accuracy? BTW I did also buy the automatic egg turner that seems to be working well, so don't think thats an issue.

Anyway, I took all the old eggs out and cracked them and didn't see ANYTHING that looked like developing chick..

I put 5 new eggs straight from the coop, all layed today, in the incubator just now so this will eliminate any 'storage' temp issues I guess. I also lowered the temp on my Bator a bit, its holding at 99.1 right now. Maybe I'll have better luck with this batch

Any suggestions/ideas welcome!

 

[junebuggena]

Still air or forced air?

 

[Beth0202]

Still air or forced air?

It is a still air incubator

 

[junebuggena]

There's your problem. Still air incubators need to be kept between 101 and 102. Your incubation temp was too low.

 

[Beth0202]

There's your problem. Still air incubators need to be kept between 101 and 102. Your incubation temp was too low.

And here I was thinking I killed them with the higher temp! Here is a picture of the inside of the bator showing the location of the temp probe, just incase that matters. Does the rule of higher temp in still air bators apply when your temp probe is at egg level vs the top portion of the bator? Thanks!