anitazoechang
In the Brooder
- Dec 7, 2022
- 12
- 8
- 36
Hi everyone!
I've recently incubated my first/second batches of eggs but wanted to do a bit of troubleshooting/verification around my process and see if the deaths I got was user or seller error.
I purchased 6 French wheaten maran chicks and began incubating them in a Janoel 12 borrowed from a friend. I incubated them in this incubator for about 6 days before I received my "yellow box of death" incubator from Catch. I let the yellow incubator run for a day with my own thermometer (used a second thermometer to validate) and hygrometer set up to see how it worked and ensured that the temperature was stable. I continued using the thermometer and hygrometer to monitor the temp/humidity throughout the entirety of incubation. I then moved my FW maran eggs into the yellow incubator, along with 36 olive egger eggs purchased off of Facebook, to incubate away. I had the eggs sitting at 37.8°C and 55% humidity before bumping it up to 65% humidity during lockdown on day 18 (FW marans were moved back into the Janoel for lockdown).
All of the FW marans hatched bang on time (6/6), however, I ran into significant issues with the OE. Of the 36, only 7 successfully hatched, of which one was stuck and had to be helped out of the egg. I have a two main theories around why things may have worked out this way – would love to hear what you all think.
Theory 1: the FW marans were sufficiently developed before I put them into the yellow incubator, and the yellow incubator itself is responsible for the poor hatch in the OE (fluctuating temp/humidity that I didn't pick up on using my own thermometer and hygrometer)
Theory 2: dud OE eggs. The 36 I picked up off of Facebook had some air sacs that were on the side of the egg (storage issue?) and the person said they needed a week to collect enough eggs to sell me a dozen, however, changed this story and sold me 36 eggs two days after enquiring. One third (12/36) of the eggs weren't fertile and of the remaining 24, I think maybe 6 died between the start of incubation and lockdown, leaving 18 eggs that could've hatched. I cracked open all the eggs that didn't hatch on day 26 and they all appeared to be perfectly formed chicks that simply just never hatched.
I'd love to nail down what might've happened with the fully formed chicks that never hatched so I can avoid making the same mistake in the future. I've heard that using older eggs that weren't stored properly could impact on hatch rate, could this have been the case with the OE? Is my own thermometer and hygrometer enough to continue using the yellow incubator in the future? The incubator was placed in my basement where the temperature doesn't fluctuate a great deal.
Thanks in advance!!
I've recently incubated my first/second batches of eggs but wanted to do a bit of troubleshooting/verification around my process and see if the deaths I got was user or seller error.
I purchased 6 French wheaten maran chicks and began incubating them in a Janoel 12 borrowed from a friend. I incubated them in this incubator for about 6 days before I received my "yellow box of death" incubator from Catch. I let the yellow incubator run for a day with my own thermometer (used a second thermometer to validate) and hygrometer set up to see how it worked and ensured that the temperature was stable. I continued using the thermometer and hygrometer to monitor the temp/humidity throughout the entirety of incubation. I then moved my FW maran eggs into the yellow incubator, along with 36 olive egger eggs purchased off of Facebook, to incubate away. I had the eggs sitting at 37.8°C and 55% humidity before bumping it up to 65% humidity during lockdown on day 18 (FW marans were moved back into the Janoel for lockdown).
All of the FW marans hatched bang on time (6/6), however, I ran into significant issues with the OE. Of the 36, only 7 successfully hatched, of which one was stuck and had to be helped out of the egg. I have a two main theories around why things may have worked out this way – would love to hear what you all think.
Theory 1: the FW marans were sufficiently developed before I put them into the yellow incubator, and the yellow incubator itself is responsible for the poor hatch in the OE (fluctuating temp/humidity that I didn't pick up on using my own thermometer and hygrometer)
Theory 2: dud OE eggs. The 36 I picked up off of Facebook had some air sacs that were on the side of the egg (storage issue?) and the person said they needed a week to collect enough eggs to sell me a dozen, however, changed this story and sold me 36 eggs two days after enquiring. One third (12/36) of the eggs weren't fertile and of the remaining 24, I think maybe 6 died between the start of incubation and lockdown, leaving 18 eggs that could've hatched. I cracked open all the eggs that didn't hatch on day 26 and they all appeared to be perfectly formed chicks that simply just never hatched.
I'd love to nail down what might've happened with the fully formed chicks that never hatched so I can avoid making the same mistake in the future. I've heard that using older eggs that weren't stored properly could impact on hatch rate, could this have been the case with the OE? Is my own thermometer and hygrometer enough to continue using the yellow incubator in the future? The incubator was placed in my basement where the temperature doesn't fluctuate a great deal.
Thanks in advance!!
but that's just me.
