What went terribly wrong???

[Bowhunter76]

I was gonna try again this week but my hens decided to take a break from laying....

so I only have a dozen eggs ready.

also I found out that my son had washed the eggs prior to the last incubation. that I hear is a no no...

so this time no egg washing and higher temp and better control of humidity.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I was gonna try again this week but my hens decided to take a break from laying....

so I only have a dozen eggs ready.

also I found out that my son had washed the eggs prior to the last incubation. that I hear is a no no...

so this time no egg washing and higher temp and better control of humidity.

The whole egg washing thing is a big debate in itself. (What isn't in the hatching world.) I don't wash mine.

 

[Bowhunter76]

So this is day 20 on the second attempt.

The two that hatched are coming out of the brooder tomorrow. One sadly has issues, cannot tell what went wrong but one of its legs is not working and it is half the size of the other bird.

I am using the carton idea in the bator. have also a mason jar of water with a sponge stuffed in the top as well as water in the troughs.

hopefully start to hear some peeps in the next day or so.

I candled once at day 15 and took out one quitter and 5 yolkers which left me with looked like 11 healthy looking chicks in the 11 eggs.

 

[Bowhunter76]

Also this time I went to 102.5 degrees instead of 99.5-100.5

the temp looked like it dropped some yesterday. Someone told me that usually around hatch day the temp drops... Anyone else notice this type of change?

 

[ChickenLayD]

Hi All, I'm new here...  I have been scouring the internet trying to figure out what went wrong and I am truly having a hard time figuring this out.

About me...

As a kid we raised ducks and rabbits and were heavily into gardening.  I learned to raise, slaughter and butcher at a young age.

For the past ten years I have raised chickens.  Both for eggs and meat.  I have raised a mix of breeds and had broody hens do the incubating in the past.  That was mainly so the new ones would be accepted into the flock.

More recently, last year I decided to retire my hens and beautiful HUGE rooster to a farm and start fresh..  So I Poured a cement floor in the coop and fixed everything up and did my research on what birds to buy to raise a sustainable flock and not buy birds for eggs or meat anymore except to introduce new genes into the flock.

So I went ahead and purchased 17 new chicks online, 11 cuckoo marans 10 hens and a rooster and 6 gold laced wyandottes.

This year instead of buying chicks I spent that money on an incubator I got the little giant from tractor supply since I already had the automatic egg turner for that model.

I read the instructions and did my research then I took 34 eggs and put them in.  I candled at day 8 and removed some yolkers, then again at day 15 and removed about 5 more either yolkers or quitters.  at day 18 I took the egg turner out and added a wet cloth even though the water troughs were full.  Humidity seemed to be an issue, I NEVER got the humidity up to 65%  Highest was 50%.

At day 22 one chick hatched, at day 23 a second. 

Yesterday sadly was day 30 and I took each egg and candled it to make sure there was in fact no movement in the eggs before my autopsy..

As I cracked them open I was upset to find apparently fully developed chicks in almost every egg and not one had any life to them. 

What the.......

Was it humidity?

I thought maybe it could have been the other chicks that hatched bumping the eggs around too much?

one or two appeared to not have absorbed the yolk sack completely but who knows when it died so maybe it died during that process.

I want to try a second batch but I am disgusted..

Last night I took everything apart and cleaned it.  Added water to the troughs in the incubator and started it up just to test again for humidity and it is still 50%

Any ideas???

. This EXACT same thing happened to me. I am so sorry you had the same experience. I am 100% sure it is the incubator. Little Giant incubators are very inaccurate in both temp. and humidity. For me, two hatched out of about 25 eggs. After this happened, I ordered a 1588 Genesis Hovabator. We had a 99% hatch rate with local eggs and 85% hatch rate with shipped eggs. It is a little more expensive but totally worth it in the end.

 

[Bowhunter76]

. This EXACT same thing happened to me. I am so sorry you had the same experience. I am 100% sure it is the incubator. Little Giant incubators are very inaccurate in both temp. and humidity. For me, two hatched out of about 25 eggs. After this happened, I ordered a 1588 Genesis Hovabator. We had a 99% hatch rate with local eggs and 85% hatch rate with shipped eggs. It is a little more expensive but totally worth it in the end.

Well I have since spoken to several local people. that use the same incubator as I do. get very high hatch rates but do not even check humidity just have water in troughs from day one set temp at 103 (which seems to result in 102.5) and wait 21 days with good success rate...

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Also this time I went to 102.5 degrees instead of 99.5-100.5

the temp looked like it dropped some yesterday. Someone told me that usually around hatch day the temp drops... Anyone else notice this type of change?

If you use an automatic turner and remove it at lockdown you may see a slight drop cause you loose the heat the turner motor gives off, but generally you tend to see a slight rise (if your bator is not temp controlled) the last few days because the chicks themselves are starting to give off their own small amount of body heat.

Well I have since spoken to several local people. that use the same incubator as I do. get very high hatch rates but do not even check humidity just have water in troughs from day one set temp at 103 (which seems to result in 102.5) and wait 21 days with good success rate...

Many people have to set the lgs a good 3 degrees higher because they are so off. You can get good hatch rates in them, if you figure out the bator and what works for you. they are just a pain in the butt to conquer.

 

[Bowhunter76]

great point on the turner, I forgot all about that... that motor does throw some heat.

Makes sense on the 3 degrees higher. especially since it is a still air...

 

[AmyLynn2374]

great point on the turner, I forgot all about that... that motor does throw some heat.

Makes sense on the 3 degrees higher. especially since it is a still air...

I stopped using my auto turner because of the amount of heat it threw off. The corner where the heater was would be was a good 3 degrees higher than my perimeter. When I only did half a turner full I just kept the eggs back away from the corner it was in, but then I had a full turner and couldn't and the eggs closest to that corner were growing at an excellerated rate and then quitting. I pulled the turner and hand turned and had awesome results so I switched to hand turning.

 

[ChickenLayD]

Well I have since spoken to several local people.  that use the same incubator as I do.  get very high hatch rates but do not even check humidity just have water in troughs from day one set temp at 103 (which seems to result in 102.5) and wait 21 days with good success rate...

I am sure people have had better success than us with that particular incubator. Just wanted to make sure you knew about the Genesis Hovabator and how it is just known to be more accurate. I hope it goes well for you.