So Depressing! All dead

[ChickenJill]

Well I started out with 41 eggs and none of them made it. My daughter accidently turned up the heat at 10 days and at 14 I saw movement in most of them. However they must have died about that time because most were dead and very small. There were 2 that were still alive. After 24 days I decided to attempt to help them hatch thinking they were weak from the temp spike in their early development. I think my attempt to "help" them actually killed the only 2 that made it that far. I feel so awful. I have terrible visions of all of the dead bodies (I had to look in the shells to be sure...) It is like a horror movie! Not sure I am cut out for this at all! I was so excited to see them hatch. Is it always this difficult when they don't make it??

Why did it take the two that made it so long to develop? At 24 days the yolk was still attached.. Is it because they were Marans? someone just told me that they take longer......?? or could there have been some other problem besides the temp spike that could have caused the slow development?? maybe the temps were too low all along and my thermometer was not working?? I don't want this to ever happen again!

 

[SkyWarrior]

So sorry to hear this.

I generally don't look at the eggs if they don't hatch. I started with an incubator that didn't hatch many, so after a bunch of eggs that didn't hatch, I stopped until I got a better incubator. Now, I'm getting good hatches and don't have to worry about them much.

Good luck with your next eggs. Keep your daughter away from the incubator.

 

[ChickenJill]

Thanks so much! Is a little giant good?

 

[CapricornFarm]

It gets better, just perservere. You will be hatching out chicks like crazy after a while getting the hang of it.

 

[SkyWarrior]

Quote:
I really don't know. If it's like a hovabator, I'd say it's pretty generic. My hatches with a hovabator were 3 out of 12, 1 out of 9, 0 out of 9, 0 out of 5, 1 out of 12. My hatches with a Brinsea mini advanced have been 7 out of 7 and 6 out of 7. I have 7 more set.

Obviously, I've had better luck with the Brinsea. Do you have a turner and forced air fan? That may increase your odds. One thing I like about the Brinsea is the temperature is all automatic, as is the egg turner and the forced air. YMMV, of course.

 

[CakePrincess21]

Quote:
Yep I'm using it right now and just finish candling only 2 eggs were rotten. Day 14

 

[JD4570]

I went through the same thing back in June except mine was messed up by a power surge . I had 14 in my little giant and on day 10 the power flickered off and on four times that day and I didn't discover the spike until after 10.00 pm, it got up over 110 degrees . Only 1 made it out of the 14. I always do eggtopsies to discover what went wrong but this time it was brutal to see that they all died between day 12 and 14.

Since then I'e gone to the dry incubation method and had better than a 90 percent success rate and I watch the temp like a broody old mama hen! Don't give up, sometimes it can be a steep learning curve but it will get better with time and experience and seeing the fuzzy butts makes it all worthwhile . By the way the one that made it is named Nugget, as in gold nugget.

 

[BigDaddy'sGurl]

You will hear many say that little giants are huge pieces of doo doo. However, I have had great success with them once I "tweaked" them just right. Very sensitive to adjustments, and temps tend to rise around day 8-10 (presumably because the embryos create their own heat at that point to some degree), but I own 3 LGs and know the "temperament" of each and what to expect. I did buy a cabinet style incubator back in the spring thinking I was "stepping up" and was horribly disappointed: it died within 3 weeks, called the company and got another, then it died within 30 days too and I finally had enough and got my money back. It killed some very important eggs I spent a lot of money on, and now I just trust the LGs.

 

[chickenlove74800]

Im so sorry

I feel the same way. I got 14 Old English Game eggs in the mail from virginia. So far I only have one egg alive.

I'm hoping that this egg hatches

and that its a hen. Good luck with your next hatch!