This is the first time I have had 100% fertile. Of course, I had two blood rings, but yay! on fertility! Week two come on!!I also had some clears..quite a few. Thought I only had three viable from a friends eggs..but..I only had two. :/ Also have some in from shipping with some not so fun looking air cells. Guess we'll see what happens..can you believe we are going into the second week?
So my DD, 8 years old, comes to me and says, "momma, something is wrong with the incubator, it just crashed". Now, I can see the incubator from where I am sitting and it looks just fine. She then says "you know, like the turner crashed". So I go look and sure enough the turner trays 90 degrees and dumped 1/2 the eggs onto the bottom of the incubator tray! At this point I was pretty perplexed since I couldn't figure out how that might have happened.
We carefully fished out 40 button quail eggs, 30 cot eggs, and a couple dozen chicken eggs. Looked like only 1 cot egg got cracked (I tried the nail polish trick, but think I might just chuck it since I don't like to risk rotten eggs). The eggs are now in carton bottoms for the moment and getting back to temp. I will hand turn the eggs and cut carton bottoms out tomorrow (I needed to move fast to get these eggs back in the bator and get the temp back to normal).
Examination of the turner revealed that the rod that links the trays to the turner came off where it attaches a the motor. It shouldn't have been able to do that since it is in a channel and then I discovered that the bottom of one side of the channel had broken apart (it was still hanging there, but had shifted enough to release the rod. How did it break????
I am so irritated with this turner. It is from hovabator and the first time I used it two of the posts for the trays had stress fractures where they attached to the tray before I even got to use it. Hovabator sent me replacements without issue. It appears that the plastic is really fragile on these and the turning and/or any abnormality in the plastic and it causes it to break.
I am going to call them to see if I can replace the turning rod. It is the first time I have purchased shipped eggs and to have 1/2 of them dropped to the bottom tray cannot be a good thing for these babies. UUuuugh. Not to mention that I now have to hand turn them.
Thank goodness that I have a kid who is tuned into the hatch and that pays attention to what is going on around her. She ran to get the items we needed to effect a rescue and carefully took each egg as I passed it to her and marked it with an "X" for me as I took them out so we can hand turn them.
I have never hatched with hand turning. Can I keep them in the egg carton bottoms until hatch? Should I cut the bottoms off for circulation? What about those dollar store baskets with the shelf liner on the bottom of them (I often use them at hatch, can I use them until then)?
Thanks for listening to the rant!!!
I don't know what this is but it's truly awesome![COLOR=B22222]Incubator Wars![/COLOR]
Day 6Sorry it is so late, but we are finally back, folks, and it has been an exciting day! Let's bring you all up to speed. Three incubators are going head to head to see which has a better hatch rate. Contestant #1, Mom, and her store bought incubator with automatic turner. Contestant #2, DSx3, and their homemade incubator. Contestant #3, Amber, a broody hen. The title is still up for grabs in this point and it is anybody's hatch. Yesterday began with the unexpected find of a mystery egg the contestant #2s' incubator. The Judge ruled that the egg could remain, however, the outcome of this egg would have no bearing on the results of these determined young men. The surprises didn't stop there. A challenge was issued and accepted. Testing the strength of eggs. The results are finally in and we will get to those in just a moment. First we are making an unscheduled visit to the coop. *whispering* A safe zone has been set up in the coop for young Amber and her eggs. It was decided to wait until very late in the evening to gently move the hen into a special, open air crate.It is hoped that the late night move will cause little or no stress. Alright, folks, it is very dark out here and this flashlight might need some new batteries. We are going quiet for just a moment... ... ... ... *still whispering* The move was a success. She has settled in nicely. *no more whispering.* Now for those long awaited results, and we have pictures! First up was contestant #1. She took twenty eggs and sandwiched them between two cutting boards and stacked about 30lbs of books on top. Don't worry, folks, these are infertile store bought eggs. No potential chicks were harmed during the course of this challenge.
Contestnat #2, not to be outdone, took it a step farther and had the youngest member of their group, weighing in at 56.5lbs, stand on the eggs without even a single crack. It was a success!
Wow! talk about a tense moment! Contestant #2 has taken the "egg" in this challenge! Oh, sometimes I just "crack" myself up. LOL! okay, okay, enough of the puns. Another eggciting day has come to a close here at Incubator Wars. Stay tuned, folks, tomorrow night will be our first candling. For now have a Good Day and Happy Hatching!
