Here are some things I have learned so far in my incubator experience.
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I have been trying to hatch American Bresse Chicken eggs for the last 7 weeks. I bought 12 eggs from eBay, and I was excited to hatch my first ever American Bresse Chickens. I followed the directions of the incubator, and I followed lots of advice that I heard and read about.
Checking the Temperature of the American Bresse Chicken Eggs
I checked the egg temp with digital infrared laser thermometer, and the shell temperature was 94-95 degrees. So, I turned up the temperature of the incubator so that the egg shell temperature was 96-98, depending on where the egg was in the box.
Candling the American Bresse Chicken Eggs
I candled the eggs at day 10, and they all had veins and looked good to me. I am new; so, I really did not know exactly what I was looking for, but I did check. On day 18, I checked, and they all had air cells and dark spots, but I really had no idea. They all looked alike.
Checking the Humidity of the American Bresse Chicken Eggs
I kept the humidity at around 55% for the entire first 18 days, and then I upped the humidity to 69% for the remainder. On day 19, I heard a peeping sound. One egg hatched 10 minutes later. Then nothing. I cracked all the eggs after day 23. They all had chicks that were the size of my thumb nail. They had just stopped developing.
I had only one chick out of 12 eggs. People told me that is what happens when you buy eggs through the mail. People told me I used too high of humidity. People told me I should only dry hatch.
I cleaned my incubator and let it set outside in the sunlight to sterilize it.
I went to a livestock auction to sell some animals from my farm. At the auction, they were auctioning fertile hatching eggs. I bid on a lot of 30 American Game Fowl hatching eggs. I won them for $10.
I brought the eggs home and set them up to settle, little end pointing down in a room where the temp was around 70°.
I set these eggs in a dry incubator. The humidity stayed around 32%. I checked the egg shell temp with my laser and set it at 98-100.
I checked at day 10, and once again I could see spiders in the eggs. Day 18, I checked, and every egg had a nice air cell and dark spots like a chick shape.
Oh, on day 15, I smelled something. I checked, and one egg had some stuff bubbling out. I carefully picked it out and cleaned up the mess as best I could. I am glad it did not explode in the box!
On day 18, I upped the humidity to 60% and set them on lockdown.
On day 19, one egg hatched. Then nothing. So, out of 30 eggs, only one hatched.
I have a friend who has a farm. She is a fun person who loves her animals. She has hundreds of chickens and almost 50 goats. I asked her what I was doing wrong.
She came over to my place with 20 eggs she gathered that morning. She also brought her incubator. She has hatched 500 birds this year in 4 incubators just like this one. Her eggs she bought on eBay have had a 90% hatch rate. She has lovely birds. She raises birds for rainbow colored egg baskets.
She set a beautiful clutch of eggs in her incubator, and she said let’s see how you do with these.
Today, I checked the egg shell temp with my laser, and the shells are only 93°-95°. I think I overheated my other batches! I am learning something every day.