She said/He said Who's right? Who's wrong? No one!

[RubyNala97]

I have no defense for 55% hatches of my own eggs , I just know that all of my other hatches were 85%+ until I started with these evil little creatures.
Blue/Red does not really pertain to the first 18 days, it's more what you do during the hatch. Candling won't make the eggs hatch any better, it will just give you guys something to worry about for the next few weeks. Needlessly
Women...

I kinda have to agree with you. If I go into this batch with the mind set that none will hatch, don't candle and then see a handful of live babies at lockdown, I might feel a lot better. Instead of candling on days 4,5,6,7 etc. seeing all of them develop, seeing those little feet swim and then one by one watching them all die off and go into lockdown with a few left. I get what you're saying. Then be more red at lockdown and try to save what I can.

Or it gives us something to look forward to, and At

Day 3 candle results: 24 heartbeating eggs, 5 clear, 2 possible early death. Looking for the early death and clear ratios to be high in this case. These eggs arent mine, and i know his drakek ratio is bad, the hens are stressed from the overbreeding.

That's great! Congrats!!

 

[RubyNala97]

One question...if you don't candle until lockdown, do you just sniff the eggs to make sure there are no bad ones in there that might explode?

 

[scflock]

Oh really? You gonna go there with the "women" comment, when you are so seriously outnumbered on gender here? Pa-leeze.

And why did you tell her to "go blue" then?

I'm just saying that personally I know I would worry more if I didn't candle at all. That's all, that's just me.

Yes, I went there with the "women" comment when I'm severely outnumbered. It's what I do

 

[scflock]

One question...if you don't candle until lockdown, do you just sniff the eggs to make sure there are no bad ones in there that might explode?

I do, but I have never smelled a foul egg. I rotate my tray every 3 or 4 days and give them a whiff check then

 

[kwhites634]

Yes, I went there with the "women" comment when I'm severely outnumbered. It's what I do

I got your back!

 

[scflock]

I got your back!

It's easy to talk to them anonymously from hundreds of miles away.
Don't try this at home

 

[WVduckchick]

I kinda have to agree with you. If I go into this batch with the mind set that none will hatch, don't candle and then see a handful of live babies at lockdown, I might feel a lot better. Instead of candling on days 4,5,6,7 etc. seeing all of them develop, seeing those little feet swim and then one by one watching them all die off and go into lockdown with a few left. I get what you're saying. Then be more red at lockdown and try to save what I can.

In all honesty, this may work better for you this time, when you consider all the issues you've had. So if you want to try it that way... go for it! Yes, I will seriously be heartbroken if mine all crap out this week, because I do know how well they are all doing now. So its all in how you look at it. I still want you to have a wonderful hatch, so do what works for you!

 

[WVduckchick]

I do, but I have never smelled a foul egg. I rotate my tray every 3 or 4 days and give them a whiff check then

Can you elaborate? You lift out the entire tray and turn it completely around?

 

[mixedUPturk]

Thanks Gals!

 

[scflock]

Can you elaborate? You lift out the entire tray and turn it completely around?

Oh yeah! I forgot my girl had a 20 too

We never really got to talk about setup. When I got the spot check, I found that mine was usually 1-1.5 degrees lower on the wall side, so every few days I take out the entire tray and rotate it 180 degrees. I forgot to do that on the last batch, since I was running dry, so maybe that had something to do with the low hatch rate. I usually rotate it when I add water. It's really not that hard, I just set the lid on the table, lift out the entire tray, and rotate it 180 degrees and set it back down.
The only other thing I have heard you say that concerns me is how tight your eggs are in the rails. Are they touching? Did you squeeze them down between the rails? I think that's why NT was getting cracked eggs. If mine are touching, I move the rails to the next slot. They rock a little more when turning, but I've never had one crack