School Hatching Eggs!Help!

[Teacherchick18]

TeacherChick, did you get any more after that first baby came out?

I just have the one. My husband and I candled the eggs and I couldn't see any movement. Also, after the chick hatched the temp dropped about 10 degrees and never came back up. I think it was my humidity. Any suggestions on a reliable hygrometer adn where I might get one? I was also considering maybe a different incubator. I just have an LG because that is all I could get quickly. At my previous district we all did hatches and we used this brand incubator. None of us teachers had any idea what we were doing and several teachers had about 3-5 hatch.

Wolfandfinch-I think as long as you are there on Monday the teacher will be fine by herself Tues. You can set everything for her and then she and the students can just watch. I have first graders and they were all ok with the other eggs not hatching. They were just so excited to have the one and we talked about the possibility that they would not hatch. Good Luck!

 

[wolfandfinch]

oh and with this the incubator was more full but I removed 12/24 eggs today so they wouldn't explode. they hadn't developed.

 

[serama hen]

when it was in its egg it already made a huge hole but one of the already hatched chicks made the hole face the wire and i guess it got scratched. Poor thing what should i use and were may i find it.also one was dead in its shell its its 3 2 days past hatch date how many more may hatch.I see no movement should i leave them. I also need to sterilize their are duck eggs in there. The hatch date was mamorial day may anymore hatch?

 

[Sphinx]

thank you so much sphinx for all this useful information. I went and candled today - day 16 and had to get rid of 12 eggs. i checked them at home and most of them were never fertile (9) 2 seem to have had an infection early on (day 1-3) and the last had an embryon , maybe day 6 that was stuck to the shell and obviously dead. 8 eggs look good and 4 seemed small. I'm going to check those ones again on Friday before lockdown and remove them if they haven't grown any more.

my air sacs seem small though, so I've not added any more water. I'm a little worried about it. I'll post a picture in a bit for some advice on how bad you think they are...

I've never much worried about the air sacs- I do dryish incubation- 35-40% until lockdown, and then bump it up then.

Also, as long as I see veining, I never, ever take an egg out. Sometimes they seem smaller, but end up hatching right on time. I've always erred on the side of leaving eggs in the incubator and I've never had one explode.

 

[serama hen]

5 out of 16 hatched and lived the rest were dead

 

[Teacherchick18]

I've never much worried about the air sacs- I do dryish incubation- 35-40% until lockdown, and then bump it up then.

What do you use to measure the humidity? I believe the gauges I have are off. I am setting 11 black australorp eggs today and I am hoping to improve my hatch. This one will not be done in the classroom as school ends this week. But I am hoping that I can figure out what I did wrong over the summer, so that I can have a better hatch next year for my students. I plan to try measuring the weight and marking the air sac as well. Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

[serama hen]

can i use purina start and grow medicated on my ducklings

 

[lcammack]

Nope, ducklings should not have any medicated feed. Just use a chick starter with no medication in it. Most brands have both options available. If you can't find a non medicated chick starter you could use an all flock crumble with about 18% protein.

 

[sunsetvalley]

Sounds like your humidity is to low. They have a hard time piping when the air cells are to small.

 

[serama hen]

im on another school hatching every year will hopefully be one this time on serama eggs cant wait! last year was 7 ducklings out of 15 eggs and 5 chicks out of 15 eggs maybe it will be better this year