Serious Hatch Issues?? - **Sad Ending**

[love-my-wolves]

Quote:
Ok, first to everyone with wacky hatches, I'm so sorry, but I'm also glad some are hatching.

Simple life, I have a homemade bator, it is my first time. I turn the eggs by hand when I fill the water, and all I do is gently roll them with my hand. Turning and filling takes me no more than 30-45 seconds. I do this 3 times a day. I have never seen my humidity drop more than 2 degrees. My temps do not move. My kids were told up front about what may/may not happen, and they know we may end up with no babies at all. They will be sad if that happens, but I hope your son's class was informed this also. I have also heard that the small bators do not work too well, and I didn't want to use one, as I have a better chance to get 2 or 3 babies out of 13 eggs, as opposed to possibly getting none from 3. My kids have been watching the whole time, and I think they understand the conditions. When I had 2 eggs fail, they were a little upset for the babies, but I reasured them about the fact that hatching eggs is not a guarantee, and gave them the whole "don't count your chickens before they hatch" line.

Even my 5 year old understands. Good luck!!! Steph

 

[JimnJanet]

Wow Em, followin yer thread makes me think you were spyin on me this week and repeated all the wrong things i did with my pheasant eggs. I felt the same emotions, went brain dead and made some unessecary and REGRETABLE choices. I helped two out and i didn't need to at all thinkin back now. One died the next morning and the other, allthough doin pretty good, has the curled toes foot like yours but also has a gimp leg, both of which i feel are my fault.
I jist put 10 eggs from our girls in the bator about and hour or so ago. I'm gonna go up to McConells mills and hide in a cave till day 22 lol
Well , actualy, i'll take along my pan and sluice box lol
Guess even the pros had to learn jist like we are huh?
BTW, did hubby git ya those pheasant eggs yet ?

Jim

 

[mangled]

Well, the hatch is over. I have 7 chicks out of 25 eggs, and I'm fairly sure the last one to finally fight out of the shell will have to be put down.

I decided to pull a couple eggs and see what was happening and when I "pipped" the end of the shell, there were dead chicks. I checked every one of the 18 eggs unhatched. 5 had chicks that had pipped internally and died, 4 were turned and died in the membrane, the other 9 never turned around in the shell or were unable to, I don't know.

I feel awful.

Any ideas of what I did wrong? I'm wanting to set more eggs but I certainly don't want 18 more dead chicks.

Em

 

[hinkjc]

I am sorry to hear your hatch didn't go well. Here is a good troubleshooting link that may help.

http://www.msstate.edu/dept/poultry/trouble.htm

Jody

 

[mangled]

Well, I don't know, even looking at the chart.

I set the eggs at the same time. All the eggs were fertilized by my Buff Orpington roo, Brutus, who is approx. 1 year old. He is from Ideal. My 9 SLW hens are from Ideal, the EE is from a local farm, and the other hens are from a local hobby farmer. There's no chance of interbreeding.

The temperature in the incubator was maintained at 101-102 for the entire incubation. It is an LG still air. The humidity was maintained between 40-50%, with drops as low as 26% when the unit was opened for turning.

The first pip was at day 18, a few hours after I stopped turning. I had 4 hatch on their own, I assisted 3, and I'm pretty sure the last one who I helped isn't going to make it.

The air cells were huge, and it seemed like they were glued into their membranes, so humidity is most likely the culprit. I've splinted to one with curled toes and it's doing fine, even with big wafer feet, lol.

Is there any chance it's bad genetics on the rooster's part, or is it most likely a humidity issue? I'm going to get myself another turner, so there won't be the drop in humidity for hand turning.

TIA-
Em

 

[equine chick]

Mangled, I'm sorry about your hatch. It sounds just like my first one and it was in the lg. IT seems they do really well til you are ready to hatch them and they die. I got rid of my lg and bought two different hovabators and one is the genesis which has given me the best of it all. I think for some reason the humidity does not hold well in the lg. If you can get a better incubator, the genesis is worth every penny.

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

I got rid of my lg and bought two different hovabators and one is the genesis which has given me the best of it all.

I have only heard good stuff about the genesis 1588 which is what I ordered last week

Glad I'm still hearing good news about it.​

 

[coopist]

Mangled, I'm really sorry about your hatch too.

Another thing to consider is how long did you save the eggs out before you set them? I've noticed that if I save eggs out for more than a few days (especially in warm weather if I don't store properly in a 45-50 degree environment), hatch rate will go down, with more quitters and more dead in shell, even in my RCom. This depends on two things: health/age of the breeders, weather. But, for instance, if I set a 1-year-old hen's egg that's just been laid, that thing will hatch. If I save out a 4-year-old hen's egg and keep it for even 4 days, it very well might not. I've particularly noted this with one of my Buff Brahma Bantams. I can't save her eggs for more than 2 days or they quit around day 10 (and, I've tried this about 3 or 4 times). So I stagger her babies. As soon as I get an egg from her, I put it in the bator, two days later, I get another, and I put it in the bator, LOL. They hatch fine like that. There could be a genetic component there too, because she's one of my better bred birds. But basically, anything that weakens the embryo could be at least partly responsible. So, age of eggs, ventilation, etc. Just a thought. I know you're trying to identify causes, and I think that's the right approach.

 

[littlelemon]

Em, I'm so sorry about your hatch.
I ended up losing the chick that I helped out of its shell, so my final count was 13 out of 18 chicks. The 5 that died all died at the same time, as they were pipping, after I opened the bator. I blame myself for opening that bator. I DO have a Genesis 1588 and I think I would have had a 100% hatch rate if I just would have left it alone that last day.