- Jan 6, 2009
- 3
- 0
- 7
Just finished second hatch of chicken eggs. The first hatch I got 11 out of 46 eggs to hatch. My turner quit during the process and I did not know when. When we took out the baby chicks after a 5 day wait between first and last hatched baby, there was a bad smell. On our second hatch when I took the eggs out of the turner I noticed a bad smell again. I wondered if some of the eggs were no good and smelling. After the poor hatch rate of the first batch we check the unhatched eggs and there were 21 that were fully developed, but did not hatch. I had a friend tell me that I should plug the holes on the top of the incubator and that would not happen next time.
So second time I filled the water trays and plugged the holes on top. There was condensation in the windows and I had read on the instructions this was not good, but trusted my friends advise since she incubates constantly year round. I had three eggs hatch quickly and so clean this time, they just popped right out. I thought GREAT! Well one died about an hour after hatching. I opened up to get the dead baby out, and WOW HORRID SMELL!! I gagged tons could not escape the smell and just about puked. I put the lid back on and hoped for the best. After a day I noticed the chicks were not fluffing out and still looked so wet and heavy. SOOOO.... I took out the plugs and popped a corner open. No more were even trying to hatch. I waited till next morning hopping that more would hatch and the two would fluff up a bit before taking them out. NO, No. Next morning another one was dead. He had lived two days, then gone. I decided we had better take him out and hope he would live. The smell was AWFUL.
We cleaned out the incubator, got rid of the unhatched eggs and dead baby. Five of the remaining had fully formed babies and some of the others were partially formed. I used a 10/1 bleach solution on all the incubator parts.
What is going on? Is this a bacteria growing in the warm moist conditions? Does it kill the forming chicks and newly hatched chicks? What should I do? Will the bacterial still be in the foam? I read of others using a vinegar solution, should I do that too? I cant handle the death rate and unhatched formed babies. I want to give up. Should I? What should I do?
So second time I filled the water trays and plugged the holes on top. There was condensation in the windows and I had read on the instructions this was not good, but trusted my friends advise since she incubates constantly year round. I had three eggs hatch quickly and so clean this time, they just popped right out. I thought GREAT! Well one died about an hour after hatching. I opened up to get the dead baby out, and WOW HORRID SMELL!! I gagged tons could not escape the smell and just about puked. I put the lid back on and hoped for the best. After a day I noticed the chicks were not fluffing out and still looked so wet and heavy. SOOOO.... I took out the plugs and popped a corner open. No more were even trying to hatch. I waited till next morning hopping that more would hatch and the two would fluff up a bit before taking them out. NO, No. Next morning another one was dead. He had lived two days, then gone. I decided we had better take him out and hope he would live. The smell was AWFUL.
We cleaned out the incubator, got rid of the unhatched eggs and dead baby. Five of the remaining had fully formed babies and some of the others were partially formed. I used a 10/1 bleach solution on all the incubator parts.
What is going on? Is this a bacteria growing in the warm moist conditions? Does it kill the forming chicks and newly hatched chicks? What should I do? Will the bacterial still be in the foam? I read of others using a vinegar solution, should I do that too? I cant handle the death rate and unhatched formed babies. I want to give up. Should I? What should I do?