However the temperature can affect the hatching, a little too low and they 'cook' slower and hatch a bit late, a little too high and they 'cook' a bit faster and hatch early. Much too high or low and they just won't hatch at all.
One egg started hatching late on day 22 and two more on day 23. None of the others made any attempt at it. This is clearly disappointing!
The incubator had read correctly throughout, so we are now looking in to what happened. I measured the temperature of the eggs and they were nearly 3C below what they should have been though the incubator readout was showing the temperature they should have been at. It appears from studying the internet that there may be a fault with the incubator, which can be fixed by resetting to factory settings.
Of the three that hatched two got trapped at the side of the heat pad and died. I suspect they were weaker than they should be from having grown so slowly and then had more struggle than normal to hatch. The one and only remaining one is called Chesney (after Chesney Hawkes who had a song 'The One and Only')
It is a shame as I really wanted some Orpington chickens. The person we got the eggs from has a waiting list at the moment so we will put some others on to test the fix... fingers crossed the setting reset has worked and all will be good this time.
I have also thoroughly cleaned the incubator having taken it apart. They do get clogged up with chick dust and little tiny feathers etc. It seems a bit drastic having to dismantle it to clean it, but apparently this is a good idea...
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