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gbc021016

Hatching
Feb 16, 2016
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I have been helping my grandfather raise our girls for about 4 years now. About September of last year, however, one of our hens got broodie and she adopted a clutch of random eggs from the other girls. Only seven hatched, but out of the seven two made it to grow their first feathers. Then we lost one of the two, a pullet, to a hawk and the other, a rowdy rooster, passed as well. Now one of our Welsumers has laid a clutch of 18. I took them in as my first set in a LG 9300 incubator. All were fertile. But we've already lost 6 due to weeping. Problem is that the eggs are a dark tan and dark brown speckled, therefore, proving difficult to candle. Please give me any advice you can.
 
Hi and welcome to BYC. Sorry, i have never used an incubator before and nor do i candle eggs that i set under my broody. I'm sure someone will be along to help soon. There are many threads on incubators (use the search box under the backyard chickens logo), and the Learning Centre should also have some good reference materials for you to look at.

All the best
CT
 
Hi :welcome

Glad you could join the flock! Did you collect and store the eggs prior to setting them in your incubator or did you just leave them in the nest and collect all in one go? How old were the eggs before you set them? With having 6 that have been weeping I would say it's a bacteria or shel quality problem. If the eggs were older than week before setting they won't have been at their freshest.

Wishing you the very best of luck with the rest of your eggs :fl

Enjoy BYC :frow
 
welcome-byc.gif


I've never incubated eggs but Yorkshire coop is a pro at it and she has mentioned some good points.

Good luck with future hatches!
 
Well. Welcome to BYC.... Or sorta welcome for
lau.gif
sorta new!


Something is wrong if they wept liquid. What did you candle them with? Try a brighter light and use different angles. Some can be a bugger to see through. The darker the worse they are. You can try and see light and darker splooches those could be porous eggs. Or if you see "worm" trails they have weak spots or cracks.

Did you weigh the eggs before you set them in the incubator. If I am feeling ambitious I weigh every egg. Normally I just do a random sample so I can check weight loss. On 18 eggs I would do them all. Check the weight around day 14, you should not have lost around 10% weight. If it is over 15% the egg is too porous ( these are my numbers that work for me. I have no idea if others use they numbers. That does not mean I will throw the egg out, I will just up the humidity a tad.

Storing eggs prior to hatch is important. I might go over board a little, but I store mine on incubator trays so they are always turning just like in the incubator. Did you wash the eggs?

I know sometimes you have to either wash it or plant poop in the incubator. I wash and cross my fingers on those. I do not want the bacteria in my incubator. BUT know washing them takes the bloom off the egg. The bloom is there to help prevent harmful bacteria.

Fresh eggs are needed. I have not set eggs in a week, I have 35-40 to go in now. I have decided to go one more day. I am not sure how wise that is, but we had some very cold weather a week ago and the older eggs are most likely dead from freezing anyways.


Good luck! If they are weeping I would throw them out, you do not want that bacteria and yucky gas to kill your good eggs.
 
Speak of the devil. I just got through typing the above welcome speech and I decided to candle for tomorrow setting.

Look what I found on an egg that looked good to me. It was laid during the sub zero weather we had a week ago.

 
Hello!
400

Welcome to BYC and the coop! There's a lot of great peeps here! Feel free to ask lots of questions. But most of all, make yourself at home. I'm so glad you decided to joined the BYC family. I look forward to seeing you around BYC. Sending good hatching vibes you way. :fl
 

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