Chook Me!

I bought an egg incubator. But the eggs did not hatch after 21 days? What did I done wrong?

1. I have a rooster and a hen so I did not buy this in the supermarket. 2. My incubator has automatic turner, so I dont manually turn the eggs daily. 3. There is a basin below where I put half full of water, after 3-4 days, before it runs out of water. 4. The temp says its 37.5 Degrees C / 100F. Pls help. Thanks. I only have 1 rooster and 1 hen. Both are 1 yr old(approx). I placed the incubator outside the house but under a shade. No direct sunlight. I live in a tropical country. Is humidity a factor? Do i need to place the incubator inside?

Public Comments

1. did u plug it in and turn it on?
2. Maybe the eggs weren't fertile? The only thing I can think of is the humidity level being wrong. Good luck I hope you can work this out :o) Peace
3. If you turned like you said the eggs may not have been fertile. Did you candle them to see if they were. You can always try again. Good luck;^)
4. Here's my situation: I had 2 roosters and 10 Hens. I gave a friend of mine 11 eggs to incubate. After 10 days in the incubator this friend "candles" the eggs. . . . only 2 are good for chicks. Friend says that when there are 2 roosters,they are so busy either fighting or chasing each other away from the girls that they aren't really busy doing their rooster thing. Now,since the first 11 eggs I lost one of my roosters which my friend says will make my chances greater so out of the other 44 eggs I have given this friend I am suppose to hear soon as to whether they are good or not. Now the last "problem". I got my present rooster 3yrs ago and he was full grown. . .beautiful Black Rooster,very Majestic looking. . . . so we have no way of knowing how old he is and the older they get the less productive they are,hard as they may try. Because he is soooo Beautiful I have refused to clip his spurs which are about 2 1/2 inches long which my friend says will hinder him when doing the rooster thing. Morale of the story: Rooster has to be a young lone rooster with very little or no spurs. Friend also suggested that I put only a few hens with the rooster,say 3-4 otherwise he is spread thin with 10 hens and one never knows if he has a favorite and if that favorite is a good layer. My friend sets the eggs and always candles them at the halfway point which would be about 10-11 days. . . you might try this. When he disposes of the eggs that are not any good,he sets more eggs and repeats the process. CANDLING: After 10 days in the incubator take the eggs into a dark room and hold a flashlight to one end. If the egg is a good egg you should see blood vessels and perhaps a partially formed embryo. Otherwise they aren't good and to keep them at incubation temp will only speed up the "rotting" process. GOOD LUCK !!!!
5. How many roosters do you have and how many hens.How long did you store the eggs before placing them in the incubator.As well what was the manor you stored the eggs before placing them in the incubator.Are you using the thermometer that came with the incubator and did you calibrate it to make sure it was accurate.Where you placed the incubator was any of the bottom exposed to ambient air.Is your incubator a wafer thermostat or is it a solid state.There are many things that can be done wrong.Di d you candle the eggs to check their development at one week 2 weeks and then 2 days before hatch.Did you remove the red plugs from the top.Did the incubator ever go above 105 degrees.If they didn't hatch by the 21st day either the embryo died prior to this time or your temp has just been to low.embryo death and to low of a temp are the number 2 causes of no hatch or a late hatch.There is a way to check and verify which could have caused this though it is a bit much for this venue.If you wish you can contact me direct.A 1 to 8 ratio of roosters per hens is recommended for good fertilization.This mean one rooster per every 8 hens.