Sad, Sad Hatch Rate :(

Oct 16, 2020
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I’m so sad and disappointed. Despite all the advice people give about doing a trial run with cheap eggs first before packing a new incubator with bought eggs, I ran my new nr360 on a bunch of eggs from a hatchery, and my hate rate was abysmal. :(

only about 1/3 hatched. Which is a level of suckage I have not attained since my second hatch ever.

I think the problem is that I ran the incubator on the top shelf in my kitchen. And my kitchen gets hot as blazes when I cook. I guess I imagined that the incubator would have an alarm that told me if it got too hot. But...it does not have that feature.

Le sigh. It’s even more annoying because I have my old ‘bator running right now in the kitchen as well, and I wonder if I cooked half those chicks! (Though it’s not on the top shelf.)

I’m realizing now that my best hatch rate ever was when I ran my old incubator in my bedroom. Not the kitchen. How frustrating. But I guess it’s all part of the learning curve. :,(.

At least I got this adorable, mostly white one out of the hatch.
 

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Yes. I suppose the problem could have happened during shipping.

But there were a couple extra I hand turned because they didnt fit in the incubator, and I at least one of the two hatched. (I should have marked them better.)
Shipped eggs can be a mixed bag. I think about 70ish % of my Myshire eggs hatched, and when I contacted them about some other concerns, he said that was a great hatch rate. My first eggs, I ordered from eBay, and they had a rough trip, I think I received 36 eggs and had 19 chicks. Which is like 57%, but they were lost in the mail for 6 full days and arrived on the 9th day. I think several people ordered from a hatchery in Maine recently, and half the eggs were damaged. It only takes a tiny crack that you can’t even detect, and bam, that egg might be toast. I’d say get some cheapies next time and run another test batch in the bedroom.
 
Have you checked over the unhatched eggs yet? What was you hatch date? Have you given extra time?
With shipped eggs I would not take things so personal. You could have had your new incubator in the bedroom blaming yourself or wondering too.
Cute little blonde chick. Congratulations on what you did hatch and may you have lots of healthy girls.
Also let us know what breed, hatchery, state etc. So we can all take a mental note.
 
Okay. So I cracked open all the regular (non celadon) eggs that did hatch, and none of them seemed fertilized. No blood vessels. I never autopsied before. I’m glad I did. So it‘s not MY fault for overheating them. (Unless they got overheated so early they didnt even start developing. Which I doubt.)
 
Have you checked over the unhatched eggs yet? What was you hatch date? Have you given extra time?
With shipped eggs I would not take things so personal. You could have had your new incubator in the bedroom blaming yourself or wondering too.
Cute little blonde chick. Congratulations on what you did hatch and may you have lots of healthy girls.
Also let us know what breed, hatchery, state etc. So we can all take a mental note.

I’m cracking open the unhatched ones now. So far none of them had chicks in them. No blood vessels, either. Which I guess means they weren’t fertilised in the first place. (Or were too old to hatch.)

I should have checked before blaming myself, that’s for sure!

Now I know, you have to order a lot of eggs to get a decent number to Hatch. Sadly, this round 3 viable chicks died. One because I dropped the egg. Another because it couldnt get out of its shell. The third because I tried to “help” too soon.

But overall, I guessed I managed to hatch most of what there was to hatch.

Wait—you’re in Kekaha?! I thought I was the only person with quail on Kauai!! Glad To know you!
 
I’m cracking open the unhatched ones now. So far none of them had chicks in them. No blood vessels, either. Which I guess means they weren’t fertilised in the first place. (Or were too old to hatch.)

I should have checked before blaming myself, that’s for sure!

Now I know, you have to order a lot of eggs to get a decent number to Hatch. Sadly, this round 3 viable chicks died. One because I dropped the egg. Another because it couldnt get out of its shell. The third because I tried to “help” too soon.

But overall, I guessed I managed to hatch most of what there was to hatch.

Wait—you’re in Kekaha?! I thought I was the only person with quail on Kauai!! Glad To know you!
Yes, when ordering eggs, you have to hope for 100% to hatch, but plan for (or again hope for) 50%. I ordered 50 snowie eggs, I received 60, hatched out like 39, of which, 8 were actually snowie, 3 of which were males. It’s a numbers game, good thing they reproduce so quickly.

Contact the seller and ask for a refund or reship because so few were fertile, my experience was good in that department, once I got to speak to a real person, I quickly received a refund.
 
If they were from the same place you got them the first time, I think there may be an issue with the eggs. My hatch rate from there (up to you to name company if you want) was not stellar either. Some of it I think was beginner error, some of it egg quality.

If you need hatching eggs, just shoot me an email. We can work something out. I'm on Oahu and this last batch from my quail hatched fine. Better yet, if @TropicalBabies has fertile eggs to sell, you wouldn't even have to ship.

(As an aside, I should mention that I really liked the business owner -- I just am not satisfied with the hatching eggs.)
 
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If they were from the same place you got them the first time, I think there may be an issue with the eggs. My hatch rate from there (up to you to name company if you want) was not stellar either. Some of it I think was beginner error, some of it egg quality.

If you need hatching eggs, just shoot me an email. We can work something out. I'm on Oahu and this last batch from my quail hatched fine. Better yet, if @TropicalBabies has fertile eggs to sell, you wouldn't even have to ship.

(As an aside, I should mention that I really liked the business owner -- I just am not satisfied with the hatching eggs.)
If they were from the same place you got them the first time, I think there may be an issue with the eggs. My hatch rate from there (up to you to name company if you want) was not stellar either. Some of it I think was beginner error, some of it egg quality.

If you need hatching eggs, just shoot me an email. We can work something out. I'm on Oahu and this last batch from my quail hatched fine. Better yet, if @TropicalBabies has fertile eggs to sell, you wouldn't even have to ship.

(As an aside, I should mention that I really liked the business owner -- I just am not satisfied with the hatching eggs.)

Yeach, I’m not going to name names, since I like the seller and the chicks I got From that company were great. They probably just keep their male:female ratio lower than Is optimal For hatching.

I made another order, and may try to cancel it.
 

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