Total failure - 1st Attempt!!

[Shaun89174]

So that was a total failure..... Day 10 and out of 6 eggs to candle, 2 we knew were fertile from the candling we did on day 7 and 4 we were unsure about. It turns out that we still had 4 unfertile however, unfortunately the other 2 had given up aswell.

We arnt sure as to why this has happened. We've questioned the homemade incubator (cardboard box), we've questioned the heat light, we've questioned the turning technique, we've questioned the thermometer, we've questioned the hygrometer, we've questioned the candling technique on day 7 literally we've questioned everything and have no answers.

However, as to not quit and give up of having chickens for the children to enjoy and give us delicious eggs we have decided to try again. This time we have ordered an incubator (novital covatutto) does anyone have experience or heard of this? We will also be starting with a larger amount of eggs 12 instead of 6. We aim to hopefully have 4-6 hens come the end of this.

If anyone has any information or tips on where you think we could have gone wrong then please feel free to suggest. We're novices and are all ears.

Thanks in advance

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Questioning everything in a first hatch attempt is a good approach.
I posted the following in another thread earlier this week.
If I can answer any other specific questions, feel free to ask.

"I think there is a huge learning curve to the point of consistently successful incubation.
Where many go wrong initially, including myself is relying on instruments. Most are wrong. The most important things are precise temperature control, frequent turning, adequate weight loss, using fresh eggs that have been properly collected and stored, enhanced breeder nutrition, incubator fumigation and ventilation.

First of all, one has to start with good fresh eggs packed with enough nutrition to carry the embryos to term. That means good breeder nutrition. Most feeds are adequate for producing eating eggs but not for high hatchability. These numbers may be a little different for ducks but for chickens, nutrient amounts in feed should be 0.5% Methionine, 1% Lysine and 0.75% Cystine, 85 ppm of manganese, 5,000 IU vitamin A, 2500 IU vitamin D, 50 IU vitamin E (the vitamin amounts are per pound). Sufficient riboflavin can prevent curled toes.
When buying shipped eggs, one has no control over breeder nutrition or how old the eggs are before they are shipped. If those numbers aren't on a bag of feed guaranteed analysis tag, you should be able to call the feed company to get the numbers.
Then the eggs have to be properly stored. Cool, humid environment and turned at least once a day. One should try to incubate eggs less than a week old.

A clean disinfected incubator is important. Alcohol works but I've found activated oxine to be best as it kills viruses, bacteria and fungi.

One will never have successful hatches with too low or too high of temperatures. A calibrated or guaranteed accurate thermometer is imperative.
Most people start with one or more cheap thermometers like Accu-rite and reptile/aquarium types - or worse. All thermometers are SUPPOSED to be accurate to ±2°F(1.1C). That isn't close enough for hatching. Add to that the fact that most of those are not even within that standard. I had a thermometer from an incubator company that was accurate at 75F and off by 4 degrees at 99F.
The single move that improved hatching for me was to throw all of them away and get a real thermometer. The best thermometer I've found that won't break the bank
https://www.thermoworks.com/RT301WA It is accurate to ±0.9°F (±0.5°C) off the shelf and calibratable.
Another good one is the Brinsea spot check.
https://www.brinsea.com/p-394-spot-check-digital-incubator-thermometer.aspx
Be sure to get it from Brinsea. Some from resellers like Walmart and Amazon have been defective.

Proper weight loss, controlled by humidity, for all avian species is 12% by lockdown. I have a couple pretty good hygrometers now but I gave up on them for years, opting instead for weighing eggs with a gram scale. That has proven effective and IMO, more accurate than measuring humidity. All eggs are different and need different humidity levels but regardless of species, the percentage of weight loss should be about the same.

Using these guidelines can significantly enhance success.
Bottom line is to never trust the temperature reading on an incubator without verifying."

 

[Shaun89174]

Questioning everything in a first hatch attempt is a good approach.
I posted the following in another thread earlier this week.
If I can answer any other specific questions, feel free to ask.

"I think there is a huge learning curve to the point of consistently successful incubation.
Where many go wrong initially, including myself is relying on instruments. Most are wrong. The most important things are precise temperature control, frequent turning, adequate weight loss, using fresh eggs that have been properly collected and stored, enhanced breeder nutrition, incubator fumigation and ventilation.

First of all, one has to start with good fresh eggs packed with enough nutrition to carry the embryos to term. That means good breeder nutrition. Most feeds are adequate for producing eating eggs but not for high hatchability. These numbers may be a little different for ducks but for chickens, nutrient amounts in feed should be 0.5% Methionine, 1% Lysine and 0.75% Cystine, 85 ppm of manganese, 5,000 IU vitamin A, 2500 IU vitamin D, 50 IU vitamin E (the vitamin amounts are per pound). Sufficient riboflavin can prevent curled toes.
When buying shipped eggs, one has no control over breeder nutrition or how old the eggs are before they are shipped. If those numbers aren't on a bag of feed guaranteed analysis tag, you should be able to call the feed company to get the numbers.
Then the eggs have to be properly stored. Cool, humid environment and turned at least once a day. One should try to incubate eggs less than a week old.

A clean disinfected incubator is important. Alcohol works but I've found activated oxine to be best as it kills viruses, bacteria and fungi.

One will never have successful hatches with too low or too high of temperatures. A calibrated or guaranteed accurate thermometer is imperative.
Most people start with one or more cheap thermometers like Accu-rite and reptile/aquarium types - or worse. All thermometers are SUPPOSED to be accurate to ±2°F(1.1C). That isn't close enough for hatching. Add to that the fact that most of those are not even within that standard. I had a thermometer from an incubator company that was accurate at 75F and off by 4 degrees at 99F.
The single move that improved hatching for me was to throw all of them away and get a real thermometer. The best thermometer I've found that won't break the bank
https://www.thermoworks.com/RT301WA It is accurate to ±0.9°F (±0.5°C) off the shelf and calibratable.
Another good one is the Brinsea spot check.
https://www.brinsea.com/p-394-spot-check-digital-incubator-thermometer.aspx
Be sure to get it from Brinsea. Some from resellers like Walmart and Amazon have been defective.

Proper weight loss, controlled by humidity, for all avian species is 12% by lockdown. I have a couple pretty good hygrometers now but I gave up on them for years, opting instead for weighing eggs with a gram scale. That has proven effective and IMO, more accurate than measuring humidity. All eggs are different and need different humidity levels but regardless of species, the percentage of weight loss should be about the same.

Using these guidelines can significantly enhance success.
Bottom line is to never trust the temperature reading on an incubator without verifying."

Thanks for the reply and some very good reading. The eggs were sourced from ebay so literally bought blind. The new eggs we will be getting will be picked up personally from a reputable hen farm. We will also be using a incubator as a pose to a cardboard homemade incubator. Failing that the same hen farm sells chicks so that will be our 3rd attempt if no2 is also a failure

 

[careeka22]

I'm betting a lot of heat escaped the cardboard that the you couldn't see plus the added stress of shipped eggs. Buying local and having a more stable incubator should help!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Agreed. Cardboard wouldn't be the way to go. Most simple DIY bators are made out of coolers due to the better insulation.

 

[Shaun89174]

We really hope so. The thermometer was pretty accurate with the temperature but your right. We don't know how much was escaping through the cardboard. We're hoping with incubator and self collected eggs we will have a much better result.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

A ton of good DIY and general hatching help is in the following link.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...thread-w-sally-sunshine-shipped-eggs.1137467/