debbiedoobs Posted July 18, 2013 Share Posted July 18, 2013 Hi everyone, can anyone point me in the right direction for a beginners incubator? Recently I've bought 10 fertilised eggs on 2 separate occasions costing me £40 each time from a breeder and put them under a broody. From those 20 I have ended up with only 1 chick! The first time we think she sat off them and they dint develop. 2nd time we had 3 fully grown but only 1 hatched. So next time we want to incubate then ourselves. Any advice would be great. Thanks in advance x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicken deficient Posted July 18, 2013 Share Posted July 18, 2013 Were the two sets of eggs from the same breeder? I think you should consider the possibility of the eggs not all being fertile? Also, depending on the size of the broody and the size of the eggs, 10 could be too many to sit on? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
debbiedoobs Posted July 18, 2013 Author Share Posted July 18, 2013 Hi, Yeh they were all from the same guy. He is a well known silkie breeder. The first time when I contacted him bout them not hatching he automatically said she had come off them at night. I opened them all and they hadn't developed at all, no blood vessels or growth. Too be honest I just went along with it as I don't have experience and bought some more. So another £40 later I got 10 more eggs. This time 1 hatched on Saturday and that was it. I Candled them on Mon as she wasbeginning toabandon hernest and all showed nosign oflife. So again I opened the eggs, 5 were completely empty as they were before, 1 had a small amount of growth, 1 looked almost fully developed and the other 2 were fully grown but not absorbed their yolk. I have contacted him again telling him and had no reply. Dont think I'll be goin back to him!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coco Posted July 19, 2013 Share Posted July 19, 2013 I would get your eggs from a different supplier. £40.00 seems an awful lot to pay for 10 eggs. I got 6 belgian bantam eggs for 2 pounds of ebay. As the supplier was local I collected them myself. Four hatched, unfortunately one chick had to be euthanized at 5 weeks old but I have three healthy seven week old chicks. Maybe try hatching less eggs under your broody. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
debbiedoobs Posted July 22, 2013 Author Share Posted July 22, 2013 Yeh I completely agree I over paid. Will definitely not be goin back to him again, looks like I've been very nieve about it all. Suppose I just fell for the spiel he gave me bout how good his birds are etc. I've been keeping my eye on eBay and preloved for eggs, but think I'm gonna wait till next spring now until I know the sex of the chick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
