[bumpkins]

Hello Everyone - I'm hoping that someone may be able to advise me.  I set 24 hatching eggs 14 days ago - this is my first try at incubating.  As far as I can see, there is now only 1 viable egg   I'm not sure what has gone wrong as I've followed all the instructions to the letter; read up on it etc.  However, what on earth can I do with just one chick on its own??  Obviously that one may go the same way as all of the others.  Some eggs just weren't fertile; some died after a few days and some after they were a bit bigger.  Oh dear - I'm thinking of the poor little chick hatching out all by itself.  Any advice on how to play this???  Thank you all.

[doganjo]

I assume you were 100% sure they wouldn't hatch and dumped them?

Only thing you can do is try to buy a couple of day olds to keep him or her company.  Failing that a cuddly toy, and you'll have to teach it how to peck for food and dpop it's beak in the water bowl to drink.

[Steph Hen]

Fingers crossed there might be more hatch out :-)
I would try to acquire some day olds to arrive in a weeks time (commercial hatchery?) or give your chick away to someone with more.
I like to think (and I have no evidence for this!) that a chick with a hen mum is less sad than a chick in a brooder by itself. Are any of your hens good sitters? Could you try shutting her in a dark place on eggs for a few days to see if she's willing? -that would mean a lot of lost eggs for the weeks she'll be rearing rather than laying though.

Also Sod's law states that a single chick WILL be a boy. ;-)

[Q]

Crikey 1 out of 24 - thats a bit poor. Are you sure your incy is not faulty?

I agree its guaranteed to be a boy too!

I always buy a couple of day olds - only had to do it twice but I was only hatching 6 at a time.

[HesterF]

Oh no -  that sounds bad. Have you left some in on the off chance? What incubator have you got? Any chance it's been spiking on temperature or something? The duck eggs I supplied to school all failed but the incubator had had high temps so a lot were lost late on due to that. The teacher found some day old ducklings and I took in my singleton gosling and the kids were none the wiser - all are good friends now although the gander is imprinted more on people as he had three days at home with us first (and boy did I know he was on his own - he spent a lot of time shouting for attention and getting cuddles on the sofa).

[bumpkins]

Thank you so much for all of your replies.  Yes, I am sure that the ones that I removed are no goers.  Mixture of completely clear or ones with blood spots with red rings where the embryo has died.  It's a digital incubator and I even checked the temperature with another thermometer!
There are about 4 that I'm not sure about so I'm going to leave them in and just keep my fingers crossed that they aren't rotten and explode
Thanks again x

[Stereo]

Where did you get the eggs?

[Womble]

Hmmm, the red rings sound like bacterial contamination. That could well have affected lots of the eggs, hence the poor hit rate.

[HesterF]

Aren't red rings just early losses?

[Marches Farmer]

When we collect potential hatching eggs only clean ones are picked up individually using clean hands and a clean tissue, then put in clean egg boxes and the whole box is tipped from side to side several times a day while we gather enough to set.  Incubators are thoroughly cleaned after every hatch and no eggs over five days old are set.  You note the repeated use of the word "clean"!

[HesterF]

I'm far less fastidious - the only things that get cleaned thoroughly are the incubators between hatches (and this year it's only been the incubator that is actually used for hatching) and I've been washing goose eggs with egg cleaner because they've been so mucky. If you need to be that clean, I have no idea how any natural hatch ever happens successfully - none of them have clean hands or tissues. Mind you, my kids live in muck most of the time and clearly have great immune systems as a result - very rarely sick.

[Womble]

 
Incubators are such fantastic breeding grounds for bacteria, it makes sense to be as clean as possible I suppose. HesterF - you're right that the red ring is an indicator of early death of a fertile egg, but my understanding is that this is often caused by bacterial contamination. I'm sure someone more knowledgeable will be along to confirm or dismiss shortly.
 
I bought a load of eggs from fleabay this week, but one box arrived with the eggs covered in sh*t, egg yolk and bedding  . I disinfected all of the eggs before setting, but I've deliberately set them in a different incubator just in case.
 
Too fastidious? maybe. However, if it only takes one bad egg to spoil the incubator......

[bumpkins]

Again, thank you all for replying.  Yes, the hatching eggs came from eBay!  Firstly I checked that the seller had a good hatch rate and all of the eggs arrived in perfect condition - all clean.  Next time, I'm going to use proper egg wash on them as I have also read that the red rings that you see when candling them mean a bacterial infection.  The incubator is being used for the first time but I sterilised it with Milton before I started.  Oh well - I'm just waiting to see if I get anything at all from this lot.  I'm not going to candle at all now and will just wait and see
Thanks everyone x

[Anke]

I would not by eggs through the post, can you get some where you can collect yourself? Maybe not the actual breed you want, but a lot safer for hatching successfully.

[cans]

Hi We had a chick on its own and it was quite happy with a little wind up chick to keep it company.  It did look a bit odd as it grew as the chick was a buff orpington, and yes it was a male!