Let me start with a bit of info: I have always used LG incubators. Had some trouble, but overall was able to have halfway decent hatches. Then, the hatch before this one, I had a 100% hatch! And so, imagine my surprise when my current hatch BOMBED. A guy my BIL knows asked to split a hatch with me. He gave me the eggs: 14 Lakenvelder and 27 Brown Leghorn. I got half and he got half of what hatched. I know that I should probably have asked for more as I did the work, but I was okay with a 50/50 split. Incubation went pretty well...no serious spikes in temp, a couple of lows, but nothing major. Candled at day 18 and went into lockdown with 12 Lakenvelder eggs good and 22 BL good. Pretty happy with that considering that I don't know how the eggs were stored before they came to me, or the health of the parent flock. Fast forward to hatch day(s). It took 3 days start to finish, which was RIDICULOUS as the last hatch was less than 1 day, several hatched out with unabsorbed yolk, two were crippled, and overall the majority died in shell before pipping. I ended up with 1 (that's right, 1) Lakenvelder and 9 healthy BL. I am disgusted right now. I also had a few bantam eggs from my BIL in with them, and they hatched out perfectly with no issues. I ended up giving the guy all the chicks except one crippled one that I have banded its legs in the hopes it will correct itself. I did this to save face as I am so embarrassed that this happened! I am also, obviously, sad. Nothing worse than doing an "egg-topsy" and seeing perfectly formed chicks dead without reason. All this in my old "trusty" LG.
So...another reason I am bummed today: I bought a new Exo Terra cabinet style incubator....like a repti-pro. Was so excited when I got it!!! But now I have discovered that the eggs on the top shelf are getting too warm and the ones on the middle shelf too cool and the bottom shelf is only hitting 90 degrees. I can't win! To top it off, I saw that TSC had LGs on sale for 39.99 so I figured, why not? My new incubator isn't working out, so I got a NEW LG. Ran it a couple of days, it held temp, so I put another 3 dozen eggs from this same guy as before in it. Woke up this morning to a temp spike of unknown duration of 108!!! My fingers are crossed that they make it as they had only been in the thing for less than a day when the spike happened...
I just need a hug.
Very last thing I have to moan about: I HATE culling little chicks right after they hatch...and a few minutes ago I had to do just that with a chick that was crippled and couldn't even sit up on its legs. It constantly laid on its side and kicked with its eyes closed...couldn't eat or drink and was suffering...
