Here’s the final report on my first batch of hatching eggs:
Incubator #1: This was the incubator that I sent back and replaced with the HovaBator, which I love. We added the automatic egg turner.
In this incubator were 29 purchased eggs and 1 egg from my Dominique chickens. 5 of the purchased eggs and my one Dominique egg hatched. 24 of the purchased eggs did not hatch. That’s not even a 20% hatch rate — not good! It’s probably not far below average for mail order eggs but I wasn’t happy with it.
Incubator #2: This is the Little Giant incubator I bought from Tractor Supply. It’s this incubator,and I’m happy enough with it that I’m going to keep it. The one from Amazon has an external thermometer/hygrometer, but with a line attached to the inside. Mine does not have that and I wish it did. I’m going to show it to Vince and see if he can do that for me.
In this incubator were 10 Australorp eggs, 2 Easter Egger eggs, 3 Bielefelder eggs, 1 egg from my Dominique chickens and 17 turkey eggs.
Of the chicken eggs, only my Dominique egg hatched. Of the turkey eggs, 7 eggs hatched (including 1 yesterday and 1 this morning). One of those turkeys died. The last two hatched on Sunday. Last night I candled the remaining eggs, none of them looked like they had a potential to hatch so I threw them out.
Incubator #3: This is the little Brinsea Mini Advanced incubator.
I had high hopes for this incubator and used it for a test, of sorts. It holds 7 eggs so I put 3 Australorp, 3 Bielefelder and 1 of my Dominique eggs. Nothing hatched! When candled, only the Dominique showed that it was developing so I think the eggs either weren’t fertile or were damaged in shipping, or a combination of both. The Dominique egg stopped developing at some point. I can’t say it’s the fault of the incubator since I had such terrible hatch rates from the other eggs, and with 2 of my 3 Dominique eggs hatching, that’s a good rate so 1 out of 3 not hatching isn’t something I can say was bad.
So, the final numbers are:
Chicken eggs: Out of 50 mail order eggs, 5 hatched. Out of 3 eggs from my own chickens, 2 hatched.
Turkey eggs: Out of 17 eggs, 7 hatched, and I believe I would have had a better hatch if I had known exactly when they were all laid. You are supposed to stop turning the eggs 3 days before they hatch because the baby is positioning itself for the escape but I didn’t know when that 3 day period began so I had to guess and I’m afraid there were some that would have hatched but I kept getting their position messed up. I feel bad but if I had not turned them, they could have grown attached to the shell and that would have caused problems too.
I’m disappointed and probably should have used just a dozen eggs in my second attempt but, as you can see, the two bigger incubators have been cleaned and loaded again. These were the photos taken while the turkey eggs were still in there but they’re gone now.
Incubator
Since these eggs were not mail ordered, I’m hoping to have a much better hatch.
Incubator
I so hope we get a good hatch out of these.
The little turkeys seem to have so much more personality than do the chickens. They’re inquisitive. They want to see what we’re doing and they “chatter” and have different tones and different sounds. I could see myself getting real attached to a couple of them. I wish there weren’t so many mean critters out here trying to eat the animals I want to raise. Between the snakes, the hawks, the coyotes and whatever else is out there, it makes it real hard to get attached to anything because I’m so afraid I’m going to go out there one day and find a repeat of what happened with the dogs/chickens or the animal that got Roscoe when he was sleeping in the tree top.
Life in the country can be real hard . . but it’s the only place I want to be. Green Acres is the place to be.
wanda ll says
Funny Green Acres is the name of this old Subdivison I live in.
It was plotted in the early 50’s my mom and dad bought these lots back then. We didn’t build house on them till 1963. Then we did ours in 1978..
Now Judy I have a quick question? I must be doing something wrong. How do I get the egg shells off these chicken eggs when I boil them. The shells sticks like crazy and I waste loads of white part. I’ve added salt to water, turned water off putt them cold water and refridgated them. Nothing helps. What and how do you do your boiled eggs.
TIA
Gunda says
TIA, the eggs are to fresh, let them sit for around 3 days and boil them then, the shell will get off so easy.
Judy, I had a zero hatch Eastern, my peeps develpord but died on one point. Was so sad. Got another batch in right now, fingers crossed. Had good luck with shipped eggs. When they arrived, I let them sit for 24 h in my turner, before I moved them in my Brinsea. AND I always have a huminity around 50% in the incubator and 75% in the hatcher.
Fingers crossed for your hatch.
Lost this winter/ all my female ducks to something. think it was a coyote and eagle……….and I stopped to name my chicken/ducks
Gunda
JudyL says
I steam mine for 20 minutes, then dump them in a big bowl of ice water (really icy) and let them sit for about 20 minutes. If the eggs were laid within a day or two, they sometimes still don’t peel perfectly but most of the time, they do.
Katie Z. says
We have six turkey poults, and they do have quite a personality! They watch for me to come out of the house, and are waiting at the edge of their moveable pen for me to feed them. They aren’t even faked out by the “decoy” feed I pour in the grass to keep the meat chicks out from under my feet when I come in the pen. They talk to me, too, which I think is hilarious!
Karin Vail says
I had 50 quail eggs shipped to me – she actually sent 55, but 6 were broken in shipping (quail eggs have very fragile shells). So, I set 49 eggs, and 25 hatched. Not terrible for shipped eggs. I just have a plain/basic Little Giant – and I don’t have a fan or turner. I made a wire ‘corral’ for the eggs and just tilted the incubator several times a day to ‘turn’ them. When it was down to time to not turn them, I took them out of the ‘corral’ and spaced them out so they had hatching room. It worked well, and I think I might be ordering more hatching eggs 🙂 It’s addicting, isn’t it?!
Barbara says
Half way through this post I realized I was reading it while eating my breakfast eggs…rather a funny feeling for a second LOL
Linda in NE says
What a disappointment. Seems like the hens do a better job of hatching out eggs. Maybe if you want some other kind of chicken it would work out better to just buy them from a hatchery.
JudyL says
I’ll try again. I’m not one to give up easily. It’s the process that I enjoy as much as having the baby chicks. We both had so much fun candling the eggs and waiting and watching for the new babies to hatch.
Rebecca in SoCal says
Am I remembering correctly that you were concerned about your mailed eggs getting COLD? It couldn’t have been very long ago, given their hatch times, but what a change in weather!!
Carolyn says
That is a lot of work! You are very dedicated, and I bet I would try to do the same thing!