FINCHforum

I have a pair of blue hen and Pastel male which are about 2 years old. They started to lay 4 eggs since two weeks ago. They seem are not interested in incubate the eggs so I put these eggs in the Rcom mini incubator. I candled the eggs in about 6 days and found out 3 eggs are fertile. I was so excited at that moment! However, after about 16 days, there are no hatching. I candled them again and believed 3 eggs are all DIS because there are no movements. Embryos seem stop developing about the same stage and just died for some reason. What did I do wrong? Does anybody have similar situation like me? The temperature is set to 37.5° C and I checked the humidity is always about 60 to 70. I even double checked with another thermometer and the temperature is very close to 37.5° C. The incubator seems works fine all the time. So now I wonder if it is because of birds nutrition or genetic problem. Maybe I should have left these eggs in the nest and let the parents take care of them. I am very frustrated now!

chiachicho100

Sorry to hear about your eggs.

It's hard to say why some eggs die.

I am not an expert on raising eggs in an incubator, but Babs is, lets hope she pops in.

chiachicho100

Sorry so slow with my response. (Im on about twice a week).

There is a definitive reason why the eggs didn't go all the way.

I've have my own experiences with the Rcom mini. And its not a bad incubator .............for larger eggs.

Problem is the rough rotation of the eggs. It rotates violently on small finch eggs and results in scrambling them in the shell so hard it bursts the veins of the delicate forming chick (I can see that probably happened here).

Very few can survive it. I think I have had two hatched out of about 25 eggs my first year when hens didnt sit. Thats a terrible hatch rate.

No one rotates delicate eggs better than the parents. As they do it little by little and gently throughout the day.

If your hen isnt sitting, she is afraid to sit in the nest at night or her male isnt making her feel protected at night. Try switching the nest's location or use a different type of nest that makes her feel safe to sleep with her clutch at night.

Stick to the parents. Let us know how it goes.

Thank you for your great advice, Babs. I never really thought that rotating eggs too fast will hurt them until you pointed out.

They laid 5 more eggs after that clutch and I let their parents to take care of them. This time my birds seem more calm and sit on eggs most of the time. Today I candled the eggs and saw only one egg is fertile. So will lady Gordian finches keep laying eggs when there are already eggs in the nest? I don't know why but last time 3 out of 4 eggs are fertile. However, this time only 1 out of 5 eggs is fertile. Is it just because of luck?

Do they have a supply of bath water when the eggs are ready to hatch after the parents bathe they make the eggs moist and easier for the chicks to hatch out of the shell you could be candling a day after they have tried to hatch therefore they have died inside the egg due to the shell being to strong

Fraza

These were incubator-raised. The first and second eggs also looked like they died fairly early on, so that points to non-humidity-related issues.

Icearstorm yeah I read about the incubator, I meant to right for the future but I wrote it in the wrong tense , but I also ready he’s got ones now sitting on new eggs

Fraza

Ah, whoops, I misunderstood.

Icearstorm it’s alroght I wrote it in a funny order as usual

So in day 7 when I candled one finch egg, I noticed the veins started to disappearing but the embryo was still alive. Then after 3,4 hours the embryo died. Can it means that rough vibration/turning killed my egg? (I use auto turning) How much angle should I turn these finch eggs to achieve the best hatching result?

chiachicho100

Any major jarring motion could have detached the blood vessels and killed the egg. At the same time, it looks like too little turning could slow embryonic growth: Artificial Incubation. It's unclear what could have happened.

Eggs can hatch on their sides or with the large end with air cell up, but it's not good for the non-air side to be up during hatching.

Icearstorm

Thank you for your suggestion. I believe it turned too much and the vibration might have killed it. The auto turn seems turned at least 150-180 degree. I read some articles online and they mentioned egg turning angle should be 45-90 degree. I hope next time I can save some eggs when their parents don't sit.

chiachicho100

Hopefully that fixes the problem. Wishing you success!