Ugh... pretty sure I’m only going to be 1 for 12 😭(pics)

[Stephanie8806]

Well, I think I somehow messed up my first ever incubation and I’m heartbroken. We’re set to start lockdown in about 36 hours, and of my 12 hatching eggs(4 OE, 4BCM, 4Amerucana), I can spy ONE SOLE EGG that doesn’t seem to have quit early to be fair, 2 of my BCM eggs are so darkly shelled that I can’t catch anything at all through them, even with the camera.

If I can only hatch one, don’t worry, I will immediately be buying some live chicks so the little baby won’t be alone. I was planning to supplement with a few anyways, but I was genuinely hoping I’d be able to hatch 4-6(seeing as it’s only my first time).

Here’s my photos... I didn’t take pictures of the two that were fully dark due to shell color. I don’t think I’m wrong, but let me know if you see any signs I’m missing that could indicate where/how I went wrong???

It looks as though two may have been infertile to begin with, and a third that has a blood ring, but seems to have quit on the first day or two. Besides those, the rest seem to have made it to the 9-11ish day mark. The one viable one looks to be on track, and the two not pictured are for sure a mystery because they’re too dark to see anything.

 

[CHlCKEN]

@MGG
I agree, a good many of them don’t look at all promising. I’m sorry,

 

[Stephanie8806]

@MGG
I agree, a could many of them don’t look at all promising. I’m sorry,

Ugh. Thanks for the confirmation. Do you think there’s hope for that last one? Should I remove the ones that are clearly no longer viable?

 

[CHlCKEN]

Ugh. Thanks for the confirmation. Do you think there’s hope for that last one? Should I remove the ones that are clearly no longer viable?

I personally know very little about hatching and don’t want to tell you wrong. @Kiki may know what to say

 

[Kiki]

This does not look good.

My first question and the most important one when it comes to incubation is how many calibrated thermometers do you have in your incubator?

Temperature spikes and hot spots are deadly.

 

[Kiki]

Ugh. Thanks for the confirmation. Do you think there’s hope for that last one? Should I remove the ones that are clearly no longer viable?

Absolutely, remove all those dead ones that you are 100% sure are no good.

 

[Stephanie8806]

This does not look good.

My first question and the most important one when it comes to incubation is how many calibrated thermometers do you have in your incubator?

Temperature spikes and hot spots are deadly.

I am using the Harris Farms incubator. I ran it in a test for about 3 days straight about a month before adding any eggs with two additional thermo/hygros inside. It held steady on temp and humidity in the test.

As far as I could tell, the incubation period held those numbers stabile as well(apart from the 4or 5 times I opened it to candle). The temp never went higher than 100 or lower than 99. Seemed to stay right around 99.5. The humidity was higher than my test, sat right at about 40%(I had planned to run a 30-35% incubation). I hadn’t taken into account that the eggs might actually add humidity. But the breeder I got these eggs from recommended 40%, so I wasn’t too bothered by the bump.

 

[Stephanie8806]

It’s in my nature to try and over-control situations like this, so I tried to take a more relaxed tact. I only candled a few times to minimize handling, didn’t stress too much about weight or marking air cells, and just tried to monitor and leave them alone as best I could. It’s hard to soft through all the incubation instructions out there and not be hyper concerned with troubleshooting... maybe that was my mistake?

The last time I candled before last night(day 15/16) was around day 8. Everything looked to be going well, minus the 3 non-starters and two I couldn’t see into. It was around that time that my two year old broke his leg, so my attentions have been primarily elsewhere for the last week and a half-ish.

 

[Chicalina]

Sorry to hear about your son. Mine broke his arm recently so I know how hellos that is as a parent to deal with.

I think on the upside, you've got 1 or 3 babies coming. Sometimes there is a genetic fault that causes early quitters. Don't beat yourself up. These things happen. Try again

 

[Stephanie8806]

Sorry to hear about your son. Mine broke his arm recently so I know how hellos that is as a parent to deal with.

I think on the upside, you've got 1 or 3 babies coming. Sometimes there is a genetic fault that causes early quitters. Don't beat yourself up. These things happen. Try again

Thank you so much! I’ve been so caught up in chick stuff that I haven’t replied anywhere lately And thank you for the condolences. My son has a doing so so so well now, but ohmigosh the mom guilt was/has been TERRIBLE. Thank goodness kids heal so fast!

So it turns out that we had three babies hatch!!!! One Olive egger(the viable one I shared), as well as the two that were too dark to see into(BCMs).

I am overjoyed, and they are all doing great! We bought 15 chicks from our local farm store, and these three added to that 1-2 days later. Two, the OE and the BCM hatched late on the evening of day 20, the other BCM hatched on the evening of day 22. I was able to take pictures and videos, I’ll see what I can upload tomorrow!