Setting the week of August 22 (or so... ) Everyone join!! You know you want to!

[JodiLynn]

I had 17 eggs to start with; 15 shipped & 2 of my own. My two and 10 of the shipped eggs went into lockdown. I have 5 shipped eggs and 1 of my own that hatched. Day 21 was on saturday and I candled this morning but all I see is dark egg (hard to tell if movement) but I do see the air at the top. I kept my humidity between 40 -50 through day 18 then around 65 through day 21. Are these numbers acceptable? I am sad that no more have hatched, I have seen on here that shipped eggs do not do as well. Any advice on what I may have done wrong? Also how much longer should I leave them in before throwing them out (plan to open them up to see as well)? Thanks !

 

[Chucklecluck]

My chicken eggs go into lockdown tomorrow yippee

 

[wahmommy]

I had 17 eggs to start with; 15 shipped & 2 of my own. My two and 10 of the shipped eggs went into lockdown. I have 5 shipped eggs and 1 of my own that hatched. Day 21 was on saturday and I candled this morning but all I see is dark egg (hard to tell if movement) but I do see the air at the top. I kept my humidity between 40 -50 through day 18 then around 65 through day 21. Are these numbers acceptable? I am sad that no more have hatched, I have seen on here that shipped eggs do not do as well. Any advice on what I may have done wrong? Also how much longer should I leave them in before throwing them out (plan to open them up to see as well)? Thanks !

I just did my first hatch, so I hope someone with more experience answers you. But I was doing everything by the book with dry incubation per Bill Worrell and I was able to stick to it pretty closely. I had a lot of the local eggs hatch with no problems. My shipped eggs didn't fare so well, I only got 1 out of 13 eggs hatch. I candled, I weighed eggs at the beginning etc I checked the incubator and tried to keep it around 99.5F, humidity 30-40% (mostly between 30-35%) and I'm pretty sure I was on target or a little bit higher as most hatched the night before day 21, and the one shipped egg hatched on day 21. All eggs that pipped hatched fine with no help. I do think I know where I went wrong with my shipped eggs, if I did it again I would have started to incubate them immediately and just not turned them in the beginning (air cells had some problems). Instead I left them out at room temperature for 24 hours. Looking back I think they could have been getting on the older side, so that was a mistake. I also would have only incubated one breed and egg size at a time so I could make more minute humidity adjustments based on air cell size/egg weight. I think the shipped eggs evaporated their weight too much compared to the marans eggs (which were younger and so had more egg weight to lose than the Ameraucanas). And of course the shipped eggs just get mangled by being shipped. This is pretty obvious when you are candling shipped eggs and non shipped eggs. So even if I had done all of the above I still may have had the same results.

Nothing looks that wrong with your humidity and temps, what your humidity should be depends on your incubator and on your climate. But when you candled before lockdown how did the air cell size look? Air cell size is the best indicator. You had some hatch on day 21 so that confirms your temps were right on. Are you using forced air or still? If you are using still air you could have some cold spots which could delay hatch in those areas. If your air cells in those eggs weren't big enough that could be the problem as well. And of course, even broodies don't have perfect hatches.

I am also going to do eggtopsies, but I decided to leave the eggs in the incubator til day 25 just in case, although since most of mine hatched a little early and I have forced air, I don't think they're going to hatch. But I'm a newbie, so I am going to wait a little longer.

 

[mstricer]

So today is day 22, and I just candled the rest of the eggs that hadn't hatched or pipped yet (4 Ameraucana eggs, and 2 Black Copper Marans eggs). None of them had movement of any kind. I put them back in the incubator anyway, and I guess I will just give them one more day just in case I'm wrong, but in my heart I know they won't hatch

The marans eggs did much better than the Ameraucanas. I started off with 13 Ameraucanas and hatched 1. Please let it be a hen, otherwise its going to be a very expensive rooster that I will have to find a home for. Out of 12 marans (I really should say out of 8 marans because 3 eggs were pullets or weirdly shaped) 6 hatched. I am hoping I get at least one hen out of the six.

I'm not sure whether the Ameraucana eggs just took too much of a beating in shipping - I did have four that I saw movement in at lockdown...or maybe I needed more humidity -but if I had upped the humidity the marans wouldn't have made it, and the Ameraucana that did hatch lost 13% of its weight which is the ideal...

Oh well. I thought I was doing well with the shipped eggs but now I find I was mistaken. But at least I have 7 little fuzzies in the brooder

Did you get them from Bargain?

 

[wahmommy]

Did you get them from Bargain?

The Marans eggs or the Ameraucanas? The Marans eggs I got locally from a breeder, the Ameraucanas I got from a very reputable breeder, but it wasn't Bargain (I did try to order Welsummers from Bargain but they couldn't get me eggs at the same time as the Ameraucanas and I wanted to incubate both at the same time). They did have to come all the way across the country, but they were packed very well and none were broken.

 

[mstricer]

I had 17 eggs to start with; 15 shipped & 2 of my own. My two and 10 of the shipped eggs went into lockdown. I have 5 shipped eggs and 1 of my own that hatched. Day 21 was on saturday and I candled this morning but all I see is dark egg (hard to tell if movement) but I do see the air at the top. I kept my humidity between 40 -50 through day 18 then around 65 through day 21. Are these numbers acceptable? I am sad that no more have hatched, I have seen on here that shipped eggs do not do as well. Any advice on what I may have done wrong? Also how much longer should I leave them in before throwing them out (plan to open them up to see as well)? Thanks !

Mine do better with 70-75% humidity. I also do the dry hatch, not as elaborate as wahmommy, I just don't add water until day 15 and slowly get it up to 70 - 75%. It works for me. I don't have perfect hatches, unless they are my eggs. Shipped eggs I'm now up to about 50-60% hatch rate. I'm going to see what hatch rate my hen has, She started with 14 eggs at lock down she had 12, today is day 21 so we will see. My BCM is hatching also I don't know what her day 21 was but now I assume she sat at the same time I gave to the EE. The BCM is hatching what we will call Olive Eggers. My BCM are running with Olive Eggers, Lavender Ameraucana's. 3 rooster of each breed. The EE has DMrippys Blue Barred Rocks.

 

[Roxannemc]

I had 17 eggs to start with; 15 shipped & 2 of my own. My two and 10 of the shipped eggs went into lockdown. I have 5 shipped eggs and 1 of my own that hatched. Day 21 was on saturday and I candled this morning but all I see is dark egg (hard to tell if movement) but I do see the air at the top. I kept my humidity between 40 -50 through day 18 then around 65 through day 21. Are these numbers acceptable? I am sad that no more have hatched, I have seen on here that shipped eggs do not do as well. Any advice on what I may have done wrong? Also how much longer should I leave them in before throwing them out (plan to open them up to see as well)? Thanks !

The all dark is full of baby...!its day 21 it still might hatch.
I think you did pretty well on the shipped. .Dont think you can do more than you did. Maybe up the humidity to a little higher at lock 70 maybe. Possiby a little lower like 40-45 to day 18.Try some different tactics .I did much better when i waat 40-45 and 70-75 on lock.No shrinks or dead b bies at the end,I realize for thre manranyuneeded it that humiditt though Cant be helped.
The all dark if it doesnt hatch COULD be shrink wrapped but if you didnt have any trouble with the others maybe not. Might up the humidity a little for the last one thats dark in case it might try and hatch. Cant hurt to go to 68.
If I get one or 2 of shipped i feel happy.Estatic is if i get... say 5!!! Just how it is.
My 8th hatch now ...got 18 eggs. shipped ...I only saw 3 look viable when i candled a few days ago.Hope some look all dark at lock b/c then i know those 3 grew and might hatch . BUT hard to tell. hope to get 2 anyway.BUt dont know until tonite when I candle.I didnt watch my hunidit that well this time Had it WAY too high on day 1 and 2...and then its dropped to 22 probb;ly 6 times. AND been up to 56 at least twice!! POOR babies!! some could be my fault this time as some looked part formed day 14 but early formed That still can easily be shipped also though so may not be me.

 

[Roxannemc]

Dont pitch them until day 23 sometime.

 

[wahmommy]

So just went in and checked the incubator with the unhatched eggs- yes I'm an optimist and/or living in denial-and temp was 97. It's set for what it was before (I have a pencil mark just in case it got knocked), and I'm suspicious that the temp may have fallen because the eggs are no longer generating heat because that's that. Anyway, I turned it back up but I really think its a moot point.

 

[JodiLynn]

I just did my first hatch, so I hope someone with more experience answers you. But I was doing everything by the book with dry incubation per Bill Worrell and I was able to stick to it pretty closely. I had a lot of the local eggs hatch with no problems. My shipped eggs didn't fare so well, I only got 1 out of 13 eggs hatch. I candled, I weighed eggs at the beginning etc I checked the incubator and tried to keep it around 99.5F, humidity 30-40% (mostly between 30-35%) and I'm pretty sure I was on target or a little bit higher as most hatched the night before day 21, and the one shipped egg hatched on day 21. All eggs that pipped hatched fine with no help. I do think I know where I went wrong with my shipped eggs, if I did it again I would have started to incubate them immediately and just not turned them in the beginning (air cells had some problems). Instead I left them out at room temperature for 24 hours. Looking back I think they could have been getting on the older side, so that was a mistake. I also would have only incubated one breed and egg size at a time so I could make more minute humidity adjustments based on air cell size/egg weight. I think the shipped eggs evaporated their weight too much compared to the marans eggs (which were younger and so had more egg weight to lose than the Ameraucanas). And of course the shipped eggs just get mangled by being shipped. This is pretty obvious when you are candling shipped eggs and non shipped eggs. So even if I had done all of the above I still may have had the same results.

Nothing looks that wrong with your humidity and temps, what your humidity should be depends on your incubator and on your climate. But when you candled before lockdown how did the air cell size look? Air cell size is the best indicator. You had some hatch on day 21 so that confirms your temps were right on. Are you using forced air or still? If you are using still air you could have some cold spots which could delay hatch in those areas. If your air cells in those eggs weren't big enough that could be the problem as well. And of course, even broodies don't have perfect hatches.

I am also going to do eggtopsies, but I decided to leave the eggs in the incubator til day 25 just in case, although since most of mine hatched a little early and I have forced air, I don't think they're going to hatch. But I'm a newbie, so I am going to wait a little longer.

I have a Havobater Gensis 1500 series with auto egg turned and a fan. Air cell size seemed to be fine but then again this was my first hatch so I could have mis-calculated. I also waited about 30 hours before setting my eggs after the arrived so I will be putting the next batch in sooner. I also am going to TRY and get eggs from somewhere near SC so they do not have to stay in the mail as long. Thank you so much for your answer! This makes me feel a little better about the situation!