So disappointed in my "Hatch"

[BrahmaMama]

I had 10 blue copper Marans eggs, and then some EE eggs from a BYC'er here that had beautiful birds. Nothing.

I haven't hatched for over a year, and granted, I just got the incubator going again (Brower top hatch) and they were shipped eggs, but still, nothing.

I had some temp drops (power outages

) and a few spikes; kept water in the incubator, though I was not monitoring the actual humidity. I have yet to open them up, but I do know there was some development (more so in the EE eggs, then the Marans eggs) I can't afford to spend $60+ and get absolutely nothing, so I'm packing the stupid thing away and I'm seriously tempted to throw it.

It's my own stupid mistake for buying eggs I guess-no chickens of mine to lay, but maybe I should have tried to find locals first, before I tried to go with breeds I wanted.

 

[jcfuente51]

WAIT WAIT Wait Wait

tell us what yout incubator its? canu trow it in front of my door?

not if is Lg still air

well tell us
what was your tem?
why not getting a hygrometor?
did u turn the eggs?
what was your highes spike? and for how long?
power outages for how long and what was yout tem?

what day are you in?
did u do eggtopsy?

if u didnt know what your humidity was during incubation and had water in like u said it was probably too humid!!

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

Shipped eggs are always - always - a gamble.



Do not give up.



Hatch some local eggs to dial in the 'bator plus your confidence and then try again with the breeds you want.

 

[BrahmaMama]

Thank you for the support. My incubator was a Brower top hatch-very unstable temps, I've found out. The first one I used, had excellent hatches...took it outside to clean up a couple years ago, and dropped it. Bought a new one (too many things cracked/broke, to fix) and have not been impressed. I used a hygrometer before, but this time, honestly...I couldn't find it, and thought I would be okay just keeping water in the incubator, going by the owner's manual. Highest temp was 104, lowest temp I think, got down to 95. Just two different outages, and not for long, so I assumed they would be okay yet. No eggtopsy yet, just haven't had a chance with the kids running around driving me insane.

 

[colebarnhart]

Sorry to hear, I'm right there with you. I got a batch sent and all 12 eggs were packaged great. I put them in my little store bought "bator", had 4 temp & 2 humidity gauges, kept it at 99.5 deg and 50%, never opened up to candle or mess with at all, then on day 17ish I came home from work and the temp was at 104 deg, well I didn't know how long it had been that high, but I got it back down, then when it came time for lock down I got the humidity up to 70-80% the temp stayed constant and I waited 25 days and got nothing. It wasn't the shippers fault, because I did an eggtopsy on them and they were all fertile and formed up to a point. So anyway tried it again and the exact same darn thing happened, however, I did get 1 out of the 15 on day 23 and I checked them and they were all fertile and looked to be developing good. So the only thing I can think is that the temp spike killed both batches. It's so frustrating and like a punch in the gut and/or kick in the groin to watch your temps and humidity levels and constantly check and then for no appearant reason have a temp spike kill everything. I can't put the blame on shipped eggs because the packing was great and all were fertile, but my "bator" sucks, well it works great until around day 16 or 17.

Can anyone offer advice on what might be going on with me??? Should I actually give them a daily heat break and maybe candle them everyday, since mom would get off to eat and take care of her other business daily. Is it something with getting close to lock down that the eggs themselves start a temp spike that I need to watch out for???

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

Quote:
I am no expert, and every place - location - is different for hatching/humidity; but seems to me your humidity was too high for days 1-18 and way high for lockdown. Your eggs might not have lost enough water in humidity that high. I run generally about 35% humidity days 1-18 and bump it up to 55% or so for lockdown.


With shipped eggs - I do NOT candle but for day 18 to pull the quitters and nondevelopers - shipped eggs are very fragile so I handle them as little as possible.

 

[BrahmaMama]

I wonder if I candled too much. I just opened them up-none of the Marans eggs developed, but I had 9 of the EE's develop-all quit at different stages, several were pretty small, two looked a bit bigger with the start of feathers coming in, and one was fully developed. I wonder if I should have let the bator go for a day longer, maybe it would have made it.

 

[chics in the sun]

I feel your pain. This is my first time with shipped eggs, and I had 11 Speckled Sussex eggs under two different broodies - NOTHING!, then 12 PICKED UP LOCAL ones that were my friends, a few under the still-broodies and a few in the incubator - got 2 chicks, one with leg deformities (granted, I may have one more that I belive was eaten by one broody - not sure what happened for sure). Now I'm down to two Spitzhaubens and one La Fleche from a dozen shipped ones that may or may not make it. They are rocking, I hear chirping, but no pips yet.

When I retire I will buy a camper van and drive around the country picking up and delivering hatching eggs that people want. It will be our own personal BYC egg postal service - the BYC TLC truck.

 

[BrahmaMama]

That is a wonderful idea, chics! That's my problem, I want different breeds then what's around here...

Sorry to hear you are having trouble too.

 

[StevenW.]

I've never have had luck with Marans eggs... I don't know what it is but they are just so darn hard to incubate and hatch! Ugh!