New Chicken Dad - 2 incubator run results.

[GTR]

Ok, time for me to post the not so good and the bad.

All chickens have coop and huge run, they free range from about 1 hour after sunrise to 1 before.

I bought 28 chicks from the beginning of last winter. "all pullets" Jersey Giants, Brahmas, Sapphire Gems, Golden Comets Americana, and speckled Sussex. Two Jersey Giants grew into Roosters. I lost 5 birds to fox and coyote over winter and Im down to 23.

I decided to try and incubate and hatch eggs. Bought a maticoopx 30 and started my 1st 30 eggs. Read, Read, Read, and used every AI program I could find. I ended up with 7 did not form and were culled early, 2 piped and died in shell, 8 never formed (no organs and such), 13 hatch and alive. I learned my candling skills are horrid.
Summary started with 30, 13 chicks alive

2nd batch, started with 11 chicken eggs, and 11 duck eggs. on day 18 duck eggs moved to a new incubator (Ibnikixx or something) and on day 19 the 11 chicken eggs were moved under a broody hen. Hen sat on eggs 1/2 the day, went to bed on them and then left them for so long they were cold and 3 eggs were missing (snake?). I put 8 eggs back in maticoopx hoping for the best. 4 hatched, 3 never formed (no organs), 1 peeped in shell for a full day but never piped and died in the night.
Summary 11 chicken eggs, 4 chicks.

The 11 duck eggs are all moving in their shell, I have 2 hatched and 7 piped. we will see how that goes but they have been in other incubator for 11ish days. Update: (4 hatched so far, but the other 7 are not rocking anymore even though they piped yesterday)

This is a long way of telling everyone, I am not performing well with the incubation of eggs. I am checking temp and humidity levels with cheap devices, and although they do not match the incubator, all three systems stay consistent. I have Govee products coming tomorrow and i will put them in with the 30 chicken eggs i have going now which are on day 4.

I have 12+ Whiting True Blue eggs that should arrive tomorrow and they will go in a 2nd Maticoopx 30.

I would like to have a bit better hatch rates, but i know some of my problem is that I have zero ability to candle chicken eggs effectively so I do not know if some were even fertalized. 60 percent of my eggs are dark brown or blue and i just can never see a vein, i see air sacks, i see darkness where light doesn't pass through, but i never know if they are developing. The rest are light brown adn still tough for me to see. The duck eggs clearly developed veins. I have never had an egg not develop an air sac, but the eggs that don't hatch, they do not look like much of anything has tried to develop.


I would appreciate any help or suggestions but I do have another question. Should i try to hatch the Whiting True Blue eggs (shipped to me) alone? Guess Im asking is it an advantage or disadvantage to the WTB eggs if i fell the maticoopx up with eggs along with them?

 

[Debbie292d]

Hi,

I am not familiar with your incubators, but I incubate a ton of silkie chicken eggs. I stagger hatch and have about two dozen hatching every five days.

I was glad to see you already ordered a Govee thermometer/hygrometer, as I would lay a bet you will find that none of your incubators are correct. Once you figure out they are off, for example, the Govee says it's 99F, and your incubator says 99.5, you can set your incubator to 100F.

Humidity isn't as important as it's an average, but they do need more at lockdown.

Here's what I do:

Temp: 99.5
Humidity: 40-45%
Lockdown: 65-70%

As for candling, try get yourself a good little flashlight. I bought this one last year and it's great for seeing into eggs, but I hate it as to shut it off, you have to click through its 4 modes. I'm sure you could find others comparable.

I candle around Day 7 and it's simple that day. If I have unfertilized or non-starters, they look like lava lamps, and out they go. The viable ones have a black blob and veins, similar to looking like a spider. If I can't tell or can't be sure, they stay.

Somewhere in the middle I'm moving them to a different incubator, so then I candle again. You definitely can see movement if you look long enough. If I'm not sure, I write question marks in pencil on them.

At lockdown, they get moved to the hatching incubator, so I candle again. Now they all should be primarily dark except for the air cell in the wide end. You may or may not be able to see any movement so don't count on it, but I do in most. I may have a questionable one or two, so I put a question mark on those. I'm about 50/50 on hatching eggs with question marks, so I'm not so great either!

As for should you incubate more eggs with your shipped eggs, I wouldn't know why more or less in an incubator makes any difference. Just make sure when you get them, you set them pointy side down in an egg carton at least overnight, preferably 24 hours, at room temperature, then put them in a warmed up incubator. Some say don't turn them for their first 1, 3, or 5 days. I go with not turning for one day, as I'm not really sold on that helping much, but I'm going with the flow there. Good luck with those shipped eggs. USPS has been brutal this past year, so I was barely getting 1/3 of them to hatch out of about six shipments. Years past, I got 70% on shipped eggs.

 

[GTR]

Thank you for the reply. The govee's arrived today and I put them in their spots and let it all stabilize.

My temps in both incubators were about 1.7 degrees under 99.5. 7 of the ducks have hatched now and I expect two more at least.

I had read a lot about temps, but I was relatively sure my incubator temps were good, I always had 1 or 2 chicks arrive early and I never had something hatch 3 days past 21. but to be honest what do I know I am brand new at this.

I have 24 chicken eggs on day 5 now, adjusting the temps according to the govees (in 3 different spots).

by Wednesday, I will have another batch of 30 eggs all starting from day 1 but ill use the govees to guide me.

I feel a bit better that I can accurately track whats happening. Sure wish I could program these machines to adjust of the govee sensors.


Im a bit long winded. I appreciate the guidance and did not know that shipped eggs took care instructions.


Thank You

 

[GTR]

A bit of an update: I hatched 11 of 11 duck eggs. the newest egg was about 6 days old when we put them in the incubator. The neighbor had a hen hatch at 13 out of 13 that we found hidden after I started my eggs.

I believe I have the sweet spots figured out on this incubator and it will be a bit smoother sailing in the future.