URGENT - Incubator help!

[MeepBeep]

Well if you insist your temp and humidity are perfect, then look beyond that... What are you cleaning and sanitizing the incubator with between incubations? Are you rinsing and airing it out properly after cleaning? What about the conditions in your house? Do you have smokers in the house? Do you have air fresheners in the house? What about other cleaning agents do you use in the house? What about pest control sprays or applications? Have you experimented with washing/cleaning/sanitizing the eggs prior to incubation vs natural as laid? Have you tried hand turning a batch vs using the auto turner? Have you tried candling every say 2 days and monitoring progress of the embryo to see if there are any issues? Have you weighed the eggs prior to incubation and every day during incubation to see if they are losing the proper amount of water weight over the incubation period? Have you tried using distilled water vs tap water inside the incubator? This is where those detailed logs can come in handy as you try to narrow down the cause...

 

[BackyardDove]

Well if you insist your temp and humidity are perfect, then look beyond that... What are you cleaning and sanitizing the incubator with between incubations? Are you rinsing and airing it out properly after cleaning? What about the conditions in your house? Do you have smokers in the house? Do you have air fresheners in the house? What about other cleaning agents do you use in the house? What about pest control sprays or applications? Have you experimented with washing/cleaning/sanitizing the eggs prior to incubation vs natural as laid? Have you tried hand turning a batch vs using the auto turner? Have you tried candling every say 2 days and monitoring progress of the embryo to see if there are any issues? Have you weighed the eggs prior to incubation and every day during incubation to see if they are losing the proper amount of water weight over the incubation period? Have you tried using distilled water vs tap water inside the incubator? This is where those detailed logs can come in handy as you try to narrow down the cause...

I never said it was perfect. Just good enough that 14 or so healthy, fertile, growing eggs should be hatching, or at the very least, more than one should be hatching. I rinse and clean off any visible debris, then spray bleach on the turner and incubator, then thoroughly rinse off all the bleach after letting it soak on for at least a couple hours. I make sure there is no sent of bleach before I let it dry. For drying, I position both the turner and the incubator in my bathtub so that it can adequately dry and any excess water to drip off. I leave it to dry overnight. If it's not completely dry the next morning, I use a paper towel to make sure it's completely dry, then I place it in the box it came in, tape it up, and store it away until I need it again. We have pets in the house, and so there is dander, but nobody here smokes. We do not use air fresheners in the house, or any kind of pest controls spray, or cleaning agents that is harsh or permeates the air. No, I haven't tried cleaning the eggs beyond gently cleaning off clumps of dirt. If the girls can have a 100% hatch rate with fertile eggs that might be a tiny bit dirty, then I should be able to as well. No, I haven't tried hand turning, I'm not always at home to turn them three times a day every day for 18 days. I use to candle every few days, but I stopped doing that. I do normally check them at least once a week to monitor the air cell size. I don't weigh the eggs prior to incubation; I've never heard of anybody even doing that before now. I have not tried tap vs distilled, but I have used filtered water once before.

 

[jrose1970]

Well, that's like me. If you are getting one to hatch, you are hitting real close to the target. We just have to start tweaking things one at a time. If you tweak two things at once, one could work and the other could hurt you, but there would be no way to know. LOL

 

[BackyardDove]

Okay, so today is day 24, the only chick who hatched has been running around for several hours now, so I called it quits on the hatch and removed the eggs. I noticed that two other eggs had pipped, but their pip hole had been facing downwards, and they didn't successfully hatch. The one chick who did hatch also pipped in this way. For some odd reason, my pheasants laid a couple more eggs even though it's been a week out of season, so I'm going to go ahead and try incubating again. I've got four pheasant eggs, two Silkie eggs, and six Booted Bantam eggs so far that I plan on putting in the incubator.

I have no idea how this hatch may go. Most of the pheasant eggs are older, and I haven't been keeping track of the pheasant hen's protein intake since I didn't think I'd get another chance to incubate more eggs, so those eggs may not even be fertile still. Almost all of the eggs have just a tiny bit of dirt on them too, but since I don't have any egg cleaner supplies, I can't do much about it. But, I'm still going to try and hatch them, and this time I'm planning on using only filtered water, weighing the eggs and more closely monitoring their air cell, as well as placing them in the upwards position on their side whenever lockdown comes. Currently, the incubator has been cleaned and is drying, but later today I'm going to set it back up and restablize my temp and humidity. I also want to add in another thermometer, but since we don't have any extras anymore, I'll have to wait until it comes in the mail.

I also just looked at the chick who did hatch and, of course, his foot is a bit deformed. Nothing serious, but his toes are pointed to the left rather than pointing straight. I put a bandaid on his foot and I guess I'll see whether or not that fixes the problem.

 

[jrose1970]

Well good luck. I have a sneaky suspicion you will do better this time around. I just learned yesterday about turning the air sack up for lock down. LOL Shows what I know. Be learning is part of the fun. If you had an 85% hatch rate the first time, you would probably quit. I knew a feller who went deer hunting for the first time, killed two and never went back. LOL So just hang in there and "try, try again"!

 

[BackyardDove]

Well good luck. I have a sneaky suspicion you will do better this time around. I just learned yesterday about turning the air sack up for lock down. LOL Shows what I know. Be learning is part of the fun. If you had an 85% hatch rate the first time, you would probably quit. I knew a feller who went deer hunting for the first time, killed two and never went back. LOL  So just hang in there and "try, try again"!

I sure hope so. If these tricks I'm gonna do don't work, there's really nothing else I could do Learning is fun and I don't mind a bit of hardship trying to get things right, but after three incubations resulting in failure, it gets quite discouraging. I do get tired of throwing away dead eggs after putting so much work into them for 21 days!

 

[jrose1970]

I know what you mean. It is tough to do. For one to hatch though, you are very close.

 

[BackyardDove]

I need help again. I just made a realization on why I might be having such bad hatches. I've been putting my eggs on my turner so that the pointy end is up, and the round part(air cell) is down. Maybe the air cell part should be up instead of down? I've searched on the internet for the best egg position, but could only find information on egg position for lock down. Anybody have any advise??

 

[MeepBeep]

Yes, the air cell side should be up, pointy side down...

If you put them in the turner the other way they can drown themselves when they internally pip and you will have lower hatch rates...

 

[BackyardDove]

Yes, the air cell side should be u, pointy side down...

If you put them in the turner the other way they can drown themselves when they internally pip...

I'm talking about the first 18 days of incubation, they shouldn't be internally pipping then??