Temp spike, dead eggs?

MaTanner1

In the Brooder
6 Years
Apr 22, 2013
18
1
26
Ok, so the temp in my hovabator spiked 3 times during this last 3 weeks. Not sure why, maybe cuz the house got cold? (62-65 degrees) Should that have mattered? The incubator was bought brand new this season.

That being said, out of the 36 eggs, 5-6 were added a week after the first. I have marked the date on them so I know their not ready yet. (my 5 yr old son said they must go in
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to the incubator. Such a farmer already...)
What I am wondering, (cuz I know the high temperature spikes have killed some
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) how do I know which eggs to cull so they don't affect the healthy hatchers? Or should I just wait? I have thought about candeling them, but most of the eggs are dark colored so it's really hard to tell which ones are still alive. Some eggs are coachins and some are medium white hens. I was told they were leghorns. I thought leghorns were much bigger than that??? Supposedly, the chickens we had when I was a kid were leghorns, but they were huge for chickens. Almost small turkey size! So imagine my dissappointment when these grew up to only be about a pound and a half fully grown! Anyway...

I have 5 pips and all are peeping nice loud peeps. I just don't want any dead ones to get gross and make the healthy ones sick.

And some of the chicks are backwards in the shell. Should I help if needed? Or would that make it so that any hens that were backwards in the shell make more backwards babies? Is that a genetic thing? Or did they just find out one day that they couldn't turn around anymore?
How big of a deal is it really???

Ma Tanner
 
How is 62 to 65 degrees hot ? Seems cold to me

She means her house temp dropped to that not the incubator... ... If I am correct we keep our house at 68... Am I correct MaTanner1 that that is what you meant or did I misread it? The question is when you say the incubator spiked what did it spike to? I've read some stories on here of chicks surviving some situations like this of temps fluctuating etc.. I would say don't give up hope yet.
 
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Just wait. Your risk is that bacteria get inside the porous shell and multiply. That can happen whether the egg is fertile or not, alive or not. Just because the chick dies in it does not mean that bacteria will get inside.

I understand about your candling problem. I have some green eggs I can’t see a thing inside. The way you tell if any are bad and have bacteria inside is to sniff each egg. If you get a rotten egg smell, carefully and quickly get it out of your house. If you don’t get that smell, you don’t have that problem even of the chick inside is dead.
 
That was the temp of the house... The incubator temp got to 106, I think maybe because the house got so cold on those nights. The usual temp for the house is about 75...

MaTanner1
 
Yes, Wabbit, thank you... Our norm is about 75 during the spring without ac or heater, but it fluctuates depending on the weather. We don't really like to run the ac or heaters if we don't have to; cuts down our utility bill.
Yes, I will wait they were collected from different days and stored in the storage room (60*-65*) till I got enough to incubate. (about 10 days,cuz we just have 11-12 hens and they werent laying enough yet with spring just starting. And with temp spikes, I'm not expecting real a high hatch rate)
Thanks Ridgerunner, Wabbit and Harleyx2.. Sorry for the double post,
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Still figuring out how to work the posting here on this forum...

Update: one little yellow chick hatched, which will probly turn white. 2 pipped, and 5 more trying to push out.
So it's better than I had expected, already. We'll see what happens by morning...........
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Ma Tanner
 
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I looked in the incubator this morning! There was 7 little yellow chicks! I looked again an hour later! THERE'S 10!!!
And another one has pipped and chipped a hole! I'm so excited! The temp spikes didn't kill them!
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There's one that the umbilical cord isn't ready to come off yet and the oldest 2 chicks are pecking at it. Once the older one was dragging the poor little one around by it. I put her in a bowl so she wouldn't be picked on while the umbilicord dries and then should I cut it off about a 1/2 in away from the belly button?
MaTanner1
 
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I'm new at this but I believe I heard that a temp spike isn't as problematic as a sustained rise in temp. It takes time for the eggs to absorb the heat so that internal temp gets too high.
 

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