Hatching, from worst to best.

Well I had the best hatch ever last week. I am still at a loss why the first one was so bad.
Don't understand how all those chicks made it to the pip stage and then died?
Mystery.
I did have to cull four chicks that mangaged to get stuck under the hatching tray and had themselves flattened out, that was a lesson learned. I had left the egg turner on and they were falling down into the hatching tray. Think I will put some of that rubber lining on the very bottom of the incubator so they have some traction.
Anyone else having such good luck?

My first batch of eggs was terrible many infertile or problem because of the weather or the flight, very poor hatch, then a few small batches after that GREAT, on Tuesday the 19th I have Euskal Oiloa and Wheaten Americanas hatching the air sacks in the WA are huge 50% of the egg but can see some movement, looks good, and on the 20th Buff Brahmas Black Copper marans and Wheaten marans.
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LUCKEY YOU!!!!!


[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] MY hatch was not so good! looks like you have tons of little beauties there!

I have had mixed luck, great hatches in the bottom of my sportsman incubator all winter and early this spring. But seems my sportsman hatcher is not as good...Lots of stuck or piped but not getting out of shell chicks. Seems too much temperature fluctuations in the old hatcher.
I have had no luck with ducks yet, hoping the ones due today will fair better. If not I am going to try hatching them in the bottom of my sportsman on the next batch and see if that is the issue...
Seems I can't do anything wrong with my barred rocks, fertility is excellent and everthing hatches, tonnes of them.
I also just hatched some Chanteclers from Wyandotte over night, they seemed to hatch well, havent taken them out yet but looks like quite a few made it.

I put some duck eggs in, is there anything I should be doing special? I have four goose eggs in and they are all looking good, of course just put them in whenever I collected and never wrote anything down. They get a squirt of water every day!!

I would treat the duck eggs like the goose eggs. But I might be doing that wrong.

Hidden River wrote:I would treat the duck eggs like the goose eggs. But I might be doing that wrong.

I just have to ask. How do you treat ducks eggs like goose eggs?

Well I have started hand turning my duck eggs, used to use the trays and auto turner in the incubator. I also mist when I turn which is 1-3 times day depending on my memory.
They also go on the bottom level of my bator to get a tad less heat than the chicken eggs, and in the bottom tray of the hatcher as well.

so hand turning them is better than auto turn?So you start misting the eggs from day I?Is this a much better hatch rate?

That is just what the "experts" tell me. I have my first batch done this way due next week. I got 5 ducklings to hatch this last batch and they were in the auto turner. Seems they die around day 18-22 and not sure why? Will see if all my time and effort pays off this next hatch...