Worst incubation EVER, so discouraged, let's speculate 😭

[theprov31gal]

I started 70 Pekin duck eggs in 2 farm innovators incubators, automatic turning.
-Well, 7 days later only 50 had started. Blah.
- 7 days later , there were 45 , 4 blood rings. And one near explosion. GAG.
- 7 days later we have only 42 , more late death
- today I candled before lockdown and MORE DEATH , there are now only 40.
And if that 40, 2 look dead but somehow have a baby moving in them , albeit small movement. Like really the egg looks dead. Few veins, lots of free blood splotches. They are probably dying as we speak.
And now one is INTERNALLY PIPPED, on day 24, who knows how long. It's moving but, it's too soon.
One incubator many air cells are a bit too small for my liking , though I kept both at the same humidity.
I've always been MAGIC at duck eggs, this is DEPRESSING. What is going on?
I'm worried hatch day will come and go with nothing but a big RIP .
And the kicker is I hatched there as a favor for my friend who is too busy.
She's going to be disappointed and I'm going to have to go insane and go somewhere and buy 50 ducklings and pretend I hatched them for her because I'm criminally insane.

 

[casportpony]

So sorry. Where did the eggs come from?

 

[theprov31gal]

So sorry. Where did the eggs come from?

My friends farm, parent birds are 12 to a drake and only a couple years old.

 

[mcdze]

still .. thats alot of ducks if you 'only' wind up with 35-40 .. its hard to pinpoint problems also for me, the more layers im gathering from .. just like you did, chuck them all in the bator, over 50% is alot of birds lol

 

[BastyPutt]

@Pyxis knows a lot about duck incubation.

 

[BastyPutt]

And if that 40, 2 look dead but somehow have a baby moving in them , albeit small movement

I once took an egg out thinking it was dead just before lockdown , and set it on the counter. Two days later, I saw a pip and faster than I have ever moved in my life it back in the bator and a chick popped out shortly thereafter. Never again will I pull eggs before lockdown.

She's going to be disappointed

Any friend who would get upset expecting someone to get a certain hatch rate isn't a good friend. You never, ever know what is going to happen with incubation.

What are you using for temp/hygrometer monitoring? If it is the factory reading, this very well could be your problem. Don't skimp on a good unit. Get one that can send real time updates to your phone in the form of alerts. We use the Govee H5075 which is their Bluetooth unit. H5103 is their Wi-Fi unit.

Did you make adjustments after removing the Turner? We use a similar incubator and because you move the eggs farther away from the element when you remove the Turner, usually the temp needs to be increased by 3 or 4 degrees.

 

[BarnyardChaos]

Don't skimp on a good unit. Get one that can send real time updates to your phone in the form of alerts. We use the Govee H5075 which is their Bluetooth unit. H5103 is their Wi-Fi unit.

Thank you for this information. I've been struggling with several cheap (cheap, as in cheaply made) units in my incubators, never giving accurate readings, never agreeing with each other or with the incubators. I looked up the Govee bluetooth above and found the pricing is the SAME as what I've been paying for crappy units. I've just ordered a 3-pack.

 

[theprov31gal]

I once took an egg out thinking it was dead just before lockdown , and set it on the counter. Two days later, I saw a pip and faster than I have ever moved in my life it back in the bator and a chick popped out shortly thereafter. Never again will I pull eggs before lockdown.

Any friend who would get upset expecting someone to get a certain hatch rate isn't a good friend. You never, ever know what is going to happen with incubation.

What are you using for temp/hygrometer monitoring? If it is the factory reading, this very well could be your problem. Don't skimp on a good unit. Get one that can send real time updates to your phone in the form of alerts. We use the Govee H5075 which is their Bluetooth unit. H5103 is their Wi-Fi unit.

Did you make adjustments after removing the Turner? We use a similar incubator and because you move the eggs farther away from the element when you remove the Turner, usually the temp needs to be increased by 3 or 4 degrees.

I am using 3 separate units. 2 farm innovators, and one little giant.
I have a thermometer in there and one farm innovators is doing well, the little giant is going well, but the second farm innovators is DEFINITELY a problem. I knew it seemed like it was running hot. And I couldn't keep the humidity up.
Low and behold last night , on day 26 I got several pips. This evening they are almost all dead. Pipped at the wrong end never zipped. I opened one up and it is STICKY, like hard dried glue.
3 hatched ok. The rest are not looking good. Pipped and alive , but nothing else. I know ducks take days, but things aren't looking good.
Hopefully it'll go right with the other 2 batches.

I don't think she'll be angry at me in any way, lol, I just feel disappointed that she won't get all the baby bucks I wanted her to have. You know?
And I'm kind of crazy, and because I don't want her to be sad I would do something ridiculous like go buy a bunch of baby ducks. But I have to keep telling myself that's insane lolollolol

So this incubator has to go. It's also much louder than any other I've had.

 

[byc_user]

I am using 3 separate units. 2 farm innovators, and one little giant.
I have a thermometer in there and one farm innovators is doing well, the little giant is going well, but the second farm innovators is DEFINITELY a problem. I knew it seemed like it was running hot. And I couldn't keep the humidity up.
Low and behold last night , on day 26 I got several pips. This evening they are almost all dead. Pipped at the wrong end never zipped. I opened one up and it is STICKY, like hard dried glue.
3 hatched ok. The rest are not looking good. Pipped and alive , but nothing else. I know ducks take days, but things aren't looking good.
Hopefully it'll go right with the other 2 batches.

I don't think she'll be angry at me in any way, lol, I just feel disappointed that she won't get all the baby bucks I wanted her to have. You know?
And I'm kind of crazy, and because I don't want her to be sad I would do something ridiculous like go buy a bunch of baby ducks. But I have to keep telling myself that's insane lolollolol

So this incubator has to go. It's also much louder than any other I've had.

I bought a Farm Innovators incubator recently, thinking it was a good deal as it came with an egg turner. I hatched 4 of 12 copper maran/orpington eggs and 0 of 10 silkie eggs. A few eggs were infertile, maybe 4 eggs. There were a lot of early deaths. I had Muscovy eggs in it too and about half of them died early (I put them in a different incubator). I spoke to someone I was buying hatching eggs from a few days ago, he also bought a Farm Innovators incubator. This person is an experienced hatcher (I am not.) He had a low hatch rate with it and had to assist many of the chicks that did hatch. He said his Kebonnix 12 egg incubator always gives him 100% hatch rate if they are fertile. He uses it for test hatches and for custom hatching. After doing some research (mostly using this website), it appears the Kebonnix and Maticoopx are supposedly good Chinese incubators. However, the Farm Innovators is like all the rest of the Chinese incubators you see on Amazon. They fluctuate in temperature and produce poor results. I bought a digital Hovabator (2370) from the local feed store. ($152+tax Canadian, cheaper than on Amazon). I put the egg turner in the Hovabator plus some extra in the empty space. It's been less than a week so I don't know how well it works, but it seems to keep the temperature constant. The heat cycles on and off every few seconds. The Farm Innovators incubator seems to fluctuate in temperature a lot. One issue with it maybe be that the heater is too powerful and the fan isn't powerful enough. It comes up to temperature very quickly. It's also much quieter than the Hovabator I purchased recently. The Hovabator fan is very loud (it whines too). After the Farm Innovators cooked most of my eggs, I wanted to throw it in the trash. I thought about giving it away, but I wouldn't want to put that on someone else. I am using the Innovator Farms right now because I had to clean one of my incubators. (I am doing a staggered hatches and I bought too many eggs.) I have a Fisherbrand Traceable clock/humidity/temperature I am using monitor the temperature and humidity. (They use them at the hospital and throw them away after their calibration expires). I am monitoring it closely.

 

[BastyPutt]

I bought a Farm Innovators incubator recently, thinking it was a good deal as it came with an egg turner. I hatched 4 of 12 copper maran/orpington eggs and 0 of 10 silkie eggs. A few eggs were infertile, maybe 4 eggs. There were a lot of early deaths. I had Muscovy eggs in it too and about half of them died early (I put them in a different incubator). I spoke to someone I was buying hatching eggs from a few days ago, he also bought a Farm Innovators incubator. This person is an experienced hatcher (I am not.) He had a low hatch rate with it and had to assist many of the chicks that did hatch. He said his Kebonnix 12 egg incubator always gives him 100% hatch rate if they are fertile. He uses it for test hatches and for custom hatching. After doing some research (mostly using this website), it appears the Kebonnix and Maticoopx are supposedly good Chinese incubators. However, the Farm Innovators is like all the rest of the Chinese incubators you see on Amazon. They fluctuate in temperature and produce poor results. I bought a digital Hovabator (2370) from the local feed store. ($152+tax Canadian, cheaper than on Amazon). I put the egg turner in the Hovabator plus some extra in the empty space. It's been less than a week so I don't know how well it works, but it seems to keep the temperature constant. The heat cycles on and off every few seconds. The Farm Innovators incubator seems to fluctuate in temperature a lot. One issue with it maybe be that the heater is too powerful and the fan isn't powerful enough. It comes up to temperature very quickly. It's also much quieter than the Hovabator I purchased recently. The Hovabator fan is very loud (it whines too). After the Farm Innovators cooked most of my eggs, I wanted to throw it in the trash. I thought about giving it away, but I wouldn't want to put that on someone else. I am using the Innovator Farms right now because I had to clean one of my incubators. (I am doing a staggered hatches and I bought too many eggs.) I have a Fisherbrand Traceable clock/humidity/temperature I am using monitor the temperature and humidity. (They use them at the hospital and throw them away after their calibration expires). I am monitoring it closely.

Hello

I use the little giant deluxe, which is going to be similar to your farm innovator in style, and I absolutely love it, but it isn't perfect.

Sometime ago, I purchased 2 Govee wireless transmitting thermometer/hygro meter. And it was 2 because there was a special deal on Amazon. Anyway, at the time I had a nurture right 360 and was experiencing some bad hatch rates - from the beginning with that thing.

The beauty of the Govee is #1 it is prized for its accuracy and factory calibration. And #2 it uploads data to your phone 24/7. You can check down to the minute what temp is was and when. As we speak I have quail hatching - attached is a screen shot of the hatch froM the Govee app. You'll see how well my incubator held temp for the entire hatch. There is one drop, and that is my one and only candling. (Celadon quail eggs are super dark and hard to see into. Attempting to candle after then is pointless)

It will do this same thing for the humidity.

Anyway, back to the nurture right. I ended up sticking both govees in there and found that the units temp reading is off (which is standard for hobby bators) but more concerning were the cold spots. The NR turns every hour, and you'd see these hour long peaks and plateaus on the whole graph, and the difference was +\- 5 degrees F. I wasn't suprised my eggs weren't hatching.

NOTE: I did recently just get a keebonix incubator for the same reason, fun or test hatches. It also hatched its first chicks today, and it was 6 out of 7 on a bantam batch. So I wouldn't recommend just yet, but im impressed with it.

Moral of the story(ies) - if you have a box, that can hold the right climate in order to hatch whatever eggs you have, you turn the eggs, and the eggs are fertile - those eggs are going to hatch.

The Govee or other monitoring devices will eliminate all this uncertainty you have about your incubator. I recommend the 2 pack for calibration purposes, and so you can run the machine for say 5 days and move the monitors around within them. See if you have hot or cold spots, or if any spot doesn't get as much circulation, etc.

Govee Hygrometer Thermometer H5075, Bluetooth Indoor Room Temperature Monitor Greenhouse Thermometer with Remote App Control, Notification Alerts, 2 Years Data Storage Export,LCD https://a.co/d/iLSWoQt