From incubator to broody?? Shipped eggs.

[Companihen]

I had the same question with my girls - whether or not they would stay broody! The two nicer hens had been broody already for several weeks before I got these shipped eggs. Then it turns out that they broke themselves like 2-3 days before the eggs hatched (because I had another not so nice hen go broody and kept kicking them out of the nest boxes, sigh) If they had stayed broody I probably would have stuck these chicks under them but I will just raise them in the brooder because I don’t want to put them under the unfriendly moms. I’d love to hear how your hatch goes!!!

Thanks for the well wishes on the lavender - I hear they are very easy to kill So I am just praying I can keep this one alive!!

I have 2 chicks so far this morning, day 19/20. Both from the same set of eggs but very different looking chicks. A few more pips too... I wasn't expecting them to pop out this early tbh. Don't have my brooder box ready yet!

 

[wrathsfarm]

I have 2 chicks so far this morning, day 19/20. Both from the same set of eggs but very different looking chicks. A few more pips too... I wasn't expecting them to pop out this early tbh. Don't have my brooder box ready yet!

Yaaay !! Hope you have a great hatch.

 

[Slothinc]

I have 2 chicks so far this morning, day 19/20. Both from the same set of eggs but very different looking chicks. A few more pips too... I wasn't expecting them to pop out this early tbh. Don't have my brooder box ready yet!

That is so exciting!!!!!! Fingers crossed for the rest of those eggs to keep hatching!!!!

 

[Companihen]

This is great were day 20 now. 4 successfully hatched, 6 more with pips. This is out of 18 shipped eggs I bought online. Keep going little chickies. There were still a few more that haven't pipped yet that were looking good when we candled on day 18 too

Fun fact, the 2 yellow chicks neatly zipped round the whole egg and came out gracefully. The 2 darker chicks made a large pip... and suddenly burst out of their eggs after a big wriggle!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

As for your incubator being trash, it could just be faulty readings. Unless you are using a calibrated thermometer, you can't trust what the incubator says. Same for a hygrometer but not as critical as temperature.
Also, cheaper incubators with low wattage heat elements (40 watt) and fickle thermostats are a recipe for disaster.

 

[Slothinc]

As for your incubator being trash, it could just be faulty readings. Unless you are using a calibrated thermometer, you can't trust what the incubator says. Same for a hygrometer but not as critical as temperature.
Also, cheaper incubators with low wattage heat elements (40 watt) and fickle thermostats are a recipe for disaster.

I have been using the incubator with 3 additional thermometers inside (govee and thermpro) and don’t know what the problem is even after all of these batches. There do seem to be some spots in the incubator that are warmer or cooler by a degree - found by experimenting and moving all of the thermometers around to check temps throughout incubation.

But the weird thing is that the chicks that do develop most of the way (which isn’t many because I believe most of them didn’t develop/stopped very early due to shipping issues), but the ones that do develop most of the way are dying between 18-21 days. And those who do make it to 20-21 days aren’t pipping because of shrink wrapping. I have experimented with almost every variable and still can’t figure it out but the eggs that spent the most time under the broodies were the most successful.

With one batch I had 25 eggs in the incubator and 3 under a broody… not one of the 25 hatched (though several made it to lockdown) so 100% failure with the incubator. But under the broody, one egg hatched, so only 66% failure. I wouldn’t recommend the chickcozy incubator to anyone. I may try it again when I am able to get my own fertilized eggs. But not with shipped eggs again. And I don’t have hope for my own eggs because in the last batch I put in 6 local eggs and put 3 under the broody for most of the time. All six in the incubator didn’t develop/or didn’t hatch, and 2/3 that spent most of the time under the broody did hatch (I did have to help one of them out.) so weird. But if anyone ever reads this in the future, I guess the moral is to not buy chick cozy incubators!!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

So I'm gathering that eggs from the same source hatch under a broody but not in an incubator?
If that is it in a nutshell and you are sure of your thermometers, it could be frequency of turning. Frequent turning the first 2 weeks is critical. Does your Govee have the means to download the temperature over time? If so, you can investigate if there are dips and spikes in temperature.