Trying again.

[Kayleighdons]

Hi all, so after attempting to save some chicken eggs we had a 0% hatch rate .
It was our first time hatching and it was sprung on us. We managed to find a old incubator off one of the neighbours popped them in done some research and hoped for the best. Unfortunately they managed to fully grow in the egg but couldn't get out of the egg.
We are going to try again this time we will plan it. We don't have any fresh laying eggs where we live, so we will have to order them online and have them shipped.
So my first question is, Is this safe to do?
I know air cells can become detached or saddle shaped during shipping.
My second question is can you guys recommend a egg incubator with temp, humidity and auto egg turning on a budget. (we are in the UK)
The eggs we had were saved from our neighbour who's pen got broken into by foxes. Unfortunately none of the hens or roos survived so we was hoping the eggs would.
My neighbour still wants some chickens and he is quite heartbroken, bless him.
But like I said previously there is nowhere local to buy them so our only option is to buy online.
Thanks all for reading.

 

[Kiraeh]

From what I hear the Nurture Right 360 is the best budget incubator around, everything you're looking for and still reliable, if you can find it.

Do you want to diagnose your old hatch and maybe use that incubator with the issue fixed? Or is it too small/ no auto turn anyways

For eggs, pop into the UK thread https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/uk-member-please-say-hi.655508/

Likely someone there can give you advice on where to get eggs shipped from to minimize those issues. Or maybe someone will turn out to be near you and have a few to sell!

There's a lot of often contradictory information on how best to deal with shipped eggs, and I have no personal experience to help you with there. Often folks prop them upright at a angle and turn by hand for the first week or more, some don't turn at all for a few days, some treat exactly normal. All methods do result in hatches at least. The only real consensus is to let them rest point end down for up to 24hr before they go in the incubator.

 

[Kayleighdons]

From what I hear the Nurture Right 360 is the best budget incubator around, everything you're looking for and still reliable, if you can find it.

Do you want to diagnose your old hatch and maybe use that incubator with the issue fixed? Or is it too small/ no auto turn anyways

For eggs, pop into the UK thread https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/uk-member-please-say-hi.655508/

Likely someone there can give you advice on where to get eggs shipped from to minimize those issues. Or maybe someone will turn out to be near you and have a few to sell!

There's a lot of often contradictory information on how best to deal with shipped eggs, and I have no personal experience to help you with there. Often folks prop them upright at a angle and turn by hand for the first week or more, some don't turn at all for a few days, some treat exactly normal. All methods do result in hatches at least. The only real consensus is to let them rest point end down for up to 24hr before they go in the incubator.

Thank you I will have a look and see if I can get one, Alot of them are out of my price range.
The one we have at the moment looks like an antique, it is literally just a incubator with no nifty gadgets or even a thermometer. We hand turned the eggs every 2 1/2 hours for 17 days. We bought the thermometer and humidy control to pop into it. But it is huge and heavy, I personally don't think it's reliable.
The eggs we tried to hatch had a rough start so we really wasn't expecting any to survive but some of them were growing strongly. I purchased the titan egg Candler and it was incredible you could see everything. When we seen development we all got so excited and prepared a brooder, purchased all the equipment and now we are all left feeling a little gutted.
Now that our covid 19 lock down restrictions have been lifted we can actually travel so I will do a bit of googling to see where I can get them from, maybe the towns surrounding my area has some. If not last resort I will purchase online.
My neighbour wants chickens again, and we have decided that we have such a large garden that we will keep some aswel. My hubby is a carpenter so he will build a chicken pen that foxes can't get into he has already built a stone base on my neighbours to prevent them getting to the chicks we thought we was going to have.
We are all prepared and full of knowledge this time around.

 

[Kiraeh]

Yeah! You were in a really difficult situation the first time, doing your best with no time to prepare. It's fascinating to candle and watch them grow, my favourite part, but heartbreaking to lose them right at the end. Your next hatch will be better I'm sure, whatever incubator you go with.

I ended up building my incubator, it needs to be watched a bit and doesn't have auto turning, but for the amount of money I spent i think it's better than spending the same amount on the incubators I could find locally/online, there aren't a lot of options in my area. But hand turning is a big commitment.

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

The most important thing no matter what incubator you use is having at least 2 additional calibrated thermometers with hygrometers.

 

[Kayleighdons]

Yeah! You were in a really difficult situation the first time, doing your best with no time to prepare. It's fascinating to candle and watch them grow, my favourite part, but heartbreaking to lose them right at the end. Your next hatch will be better I'm sure, whatever incubator you go with.

I ended up building my incubator, it needs to be watched a bit and doesn't have auto turning, but for the amount of money I spent i think it's better than spending the same amount on the incubators I could find locally/online, there aren't a lot of options in my area. But hand turning is a big commitment.

OK so the Harris farm nurture 360 is unavailable in the UK. The best ones I can seem to find are the brinsea branded ones. I have also managed to find a farmer 20 miles away who will sell us some fertile eggs in the next few days. So I'm hoping in 4 weeks I will be a chick mum I never thought this was something I would do or ever considered getting into .

 

[Kayleighdons]

The most important thing no matter what incubator you use is having at least 2 additional calibrated thermometers with hygrometers.

Sorry if I sound a bit thick here, but does that mean have an extra 2 thermometers just to make sure it's a correct reading?

 

[Kiraeh]

Yeah! If you can find a brinsea that fits your budget they're great incubators, just a bit more expensive.

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

Sorry if I sound a bit thick here, but does that mean have an extra 2 thermometers just to make sure it's a correct reading?

Yes. Every incubator I've owned has been off on temperatures.

 

[Kayleighdons]

I collected my eggs today.
I got 12 mixed eggs, the farmer I bought them from has a very large chicken flock, breeds include Bovans Brown, White, Lavender Araucana, Black Copper Maran, Copper Neck Maran, Black Maran, Dark Silver Sussex, Speckled Sussex, Welsummer, Bresse Brahma.
I'm excited to see which we have. And hope that things go well this time around.