After what I have just experienced, I am about ready to throw in the towel and quit! If this had happened the first time I incubated eggs, I would have quit! Here's the story.... I hope someone can help me diagnose!!
I have 13 Buff Orp hens and 3 Buff Orp roos. All were about 7 months old when the eggs were collected. The temp inside the weasel ranged between 99.2 and 99.9 with the major portion of the temps being dead on at 99.5. There was one exception to this that I will explain below. The humidity dropped steadily from the initial set at 47% down to a minimum of 29%. At that time, I added some water to the trough and I maintained a level of between 35% and 38% RH to the end.
Day one, I set 47 eggs (that's all my turner will hold) in the automatic egg turner in my Hovabator incubator. The weasel temp was 99.5 before I set the eggs. It dropped to 78.7 before stabilizing at 99.5 the next afternoon. The humidity was at 47%.
Day 7, I candled all 47 eggs and found 3 clear one which I removed. The remaining 44 eggs appeared to be fertile and developing properly.
Day 14, I re-candled all 44 eggs. Every one of them seemed to be right on track.
I checked the temp and humidity many times each day to ensure that they were at acceptable levels. It was either day 15, 16 or 17 (I can't remember which and I forgot to write it down) that I was unable to check the temp and rh except around 6:00 AM and then again around 10:30 PM. When I checked everything that night, for some reason the temp inside the weasel had spiked to 103.8. I dont' know how long it had been that way, but that's what it said the high was when I pushed the "hi/lo" button.
Since yesterday was day 21 and I had seen no sign of pipping and had heard absolutely no sound from the eggs, I decided to check a couple. Long story short (or is it too late for that??) all 44 eggs had chicks that were developed to what appeared to be the same stage with little to no down on them. As "healthy looking" as they were, they were dead!!
This made me physically sick! Would you say that the probable cause of the 100% dead out was the temp spike?? Or do you have any other suggestions to offer??
Thank you in advance for your input!
Robert
I have 13 Buff Orp hens and 3 Buff Orp roos. All were about 7 months old when the eggs were collected. The temp inside the weasel ranged between 99.2 and 99.9 with the major portion of the temps being dead on at 99.5. There was one exception to this that I will explain below. The humidity dropped steadily from the initial set at 47% down to a minimum of 29%. At that time, I added some water to the trough and I maintained a level of between 35% and 38% RH to the end.
Day one, I set 47 eggs (that's all my turner will hold) in the automatic egg turner in my Hovabator incubator. The weasel temp was 99.5 before I set the eggs. It dropped to 78.7 before stabilizing at 99.5 the next afternoon. The humidity was at 47%.
Day 7, I candled all 47 eggs and found 3 clear one which I removed. The remaining 44 eggs appeared to be fertile and developing properly.
Day 14, I re-candled all 44 eggs. Every one of them seemed to be right on track.
I checked the temp and humidity many times each day to ensure that they were at acceptable levels. It was either day 15, 16 or 17 (I can't remember which and I forgot to write it down) that I was unable to check the temp and rh except around 6:00 AM and then again around 10:30 PM. When I checked everything that night, for some reason the temp inside the weasel had spiked to 103.8. I dont' know how long it had been that way, but that's what it said the high was when I pushed the "hi/lo" button.
Since yesterday was day 21 and I had seen no sign of pipping and had heard absolutely no sound from the eggs, I decided to check a couple. Long story short (or is it too late for that??) all 44 eggs had chicks that were developed to what appeared to be the same stage with little to no down on them. As "healthy looking" as they were, they were dead!!
This made me physically sick! Would you say that the probable cause of the 100% dead out was the temp spike?? Or do you have any other suggestions to offer??
Thank you in advance for your input!
Robert
