Setting eggs this evening, and I'm nervous and torn!

[Pineywoods Peepers]

A few months ago a friend of mine told me she had an incubator and that I could use it, so that set my wheels to spinning, and I decided a couple of weeks ago to finally pull the trigger and order some eggs from Pips and Peeps. After I placed my order one of my Delawares decided to go broody (for the first time) - kinda. I keep finding her off the nest much more often than my Silkies. I've been collecting Welsummer eggs to put under her, and today my Ameraucana eggs came in the mail. (The post office delivered them even though the box was CLEARLY marked not to deliver and to call.) I spoke to my friend earlier today about the incubator, and she told me that out of her last batch of chicks only 6 of the 25 checks she set hatched. EEEEKKK!!!

Now I'm not sure if my odds of getting the eggs to hatch would be better if I put them under a first time mama who doesn't seem as devoted to sitting as my Silkies or use an incubator that delivered less than a 25% hatch rate the last time it was used.

 

[JulieNKC]

Maybe do half and half? If you do use your broody make sure you have the incubator up and running in case she abandons the eggs, that way you can put them in the incubator. I haven't hatched before, so I trust my first time broody silkie more than myself or my incubator. Gave her 8 and me 4.

Good luck with your hatch!

 

[Pineywoods Peepers]

Yeah, I think I'll probably do that. Surely my broody's hatch rate can't be any worse than 25%! I wish I'd known that my friend's incubator was having such terrible hatch rates before I ordered eggs!

An acquaintance told my friend that her incubator was too hot. She had her temps set at 99.5 and had water in the incubator, but the chicks weren't hatching out correctly. (She's a fellow accountant so she was following instructions to the T.) He suggested she turn the incubator down a couple of degrees.

 

[1muttsfan]

99.5 is the correct temp, the question is more if the thermometer is correct, they can often be off +/- 2 degrees. Did your friend raise the humidity at the end of incubation? Were they shipped eggs?

 

[Denninmi]

You can't automatically assume it's the incubator. A lot of things contribute to a successful hatch, including egg source, whether they were shipped, skill of the person doing the hatching, etc.

 

[Pineywoods Peepers]

Quote:
They were eggs her hens hatched. I don't know what she did to the humidity at the end. I'll have to check with her.

 

[1muttsfan]

Check out the thread at the top of the incubation and hatching index, scroll down to see guides for incubator use, they will answer many of your questions. Good luck