This was m first ever clutch!

[timothyh]

First a little information…
I started with…
I paired Fire Het Pied X Banana Pied and got 12 eggs, and Pinstripe X Banana and got 10 eggs. All 22 eggs were viable showing veins. There were a few with nice strong veins but most of them look kinda weak and not looking good. They were incubated at 88 degrees at day 60 I candled them to see how they were doing all the ones from the Pinstripe X Banana were showing green on the inside and an egg or two from the Fire Het Pied X Banana Pied were green but the rest looked good. At 64 days I got my first pipe. I waited about a day or two and more followed. About 5 came out on their own 2 I cut after they didn’t pipe. One was perfectly fine just a late bloomer while the 7th one was tangled up in its cord so it needed help. The last of them were cut open but only looked half developed and were dead looked like they started to turn. So total out of the 22 eggs only 7 survived. Im not sure if I did something wrong or they just weren’t strong enough to survive. I did cut open the green eggs from the pinstripe so I could see their development and they looked about half grown and passed along the way. The temp stayed to 88 and I used press and seal as I was advised and I may have candled once or twice during to make sure they were ok and let fresh oxygen in, but was told not to often as it would decrease the humidity.
Another thing 4 of the 7 appeared to have detached themselves from the yolk too soon, and I say that because they weighed in in the 20’s. The weights were 25g, 22g, 25g, 27g, 41g, 51g, and 52g, and all of them needed to be assisted with their first feeding and all are good and gaining weight at a nice pace. After a Pinkie rat a week the ones that were in the 20’s are now in the mid to high 40’s about 40ish days later and are very active and eating on their own. If anyone has advice on what they know/think I may have done wrong it would be greatly appreciated!

Now for the Current!
Like I said the only ones that survived were 7 from the Fire Het Pied X Banana Pied
All the Pieds are Females and the banana is a male
I believe the Peids are Fire Pieds but I have a hard time seeing the difference from a normal pied. I would really appreciate some guidance on the genes, If not I would still like to show them off . I numbered them 1-7 with 2 photos of 6 and 7 because they look different.
#6 appears to have both fire and banana marking but I thought Fire was a color enhancer and that it would make it look like half and half like this one does.
#7 I was told was just a regular banana but to me the patterns are irregular and there appears to be high white marking on the sides. It almost looks like some other unknown gene is at play with this one.

BABY #1

BABY #2

BABY#3

BABY #4

BABY #5

BABY #6

BABY #6(AGAIN)

BABY #7

BABY #7(AGAIN)

[armiyana]

what kind of setup did you have with the eggs and incubator?
was there a hydrometer and thermometer inside the egg tubs? Were they directly in the media or on a light diffuser?

it almost sounds more like the issue was too much water in the substrate or the temps could have been off in some way. One clutch failing from weak veins is understandable but almost 2 is a bit extreme.

those are some good looking babies though. I can’t even tell who the small ones are.

[timothyh]

I used the incubator from CSerpants with a hydrometer/thermometer from Govee. I mixed 50/50 Perlite and Vermiculite 4 cups total with about a cup and a half of water. I let it sit and soak in then poured out the excess water. I used a light defuser to sit them on and covered with press and seal.
The only main difference between the eggs was the fact that the second clutch that all failed were stuck together in a large pile. I tried to separate them but felt I would not be able to without damaging some so I left them be. So it sat as a pile of 10 eggs the whole time.

[noodlehaus]

I don’t work with BPs, but I’m pretty sure you’ve got a problem with your incubation setup somewhere. There’s no reason a whole clutch should fail merely because they were left connected. I’d be monitoring your temps with more than one method. Does your Govee have the app to tell you if there were any temperature spikes or drops? Also, there’s really no reason not to check them more often, you can easily replenish any lost humidity by just adding more water to the media. For those you said detached from the yolk too soon, was there yolk left in the eggs?

[c_nichols]

Congrats on the first clutch! The ones that made it to term are nice. I would have to agree with others that something maybe off with your incubator setup. We have the same similar setup with the incubator. If it helps I can list my process of incubator setup. I am no pro but have had a few years of successful clutches in the same incubator. The eggs may have got to moist. By either water dripping on them or media being to damp and touching the eggs. Depending on thermostat the temps may have not held steady or fluctuated. If the incubator is in a cold room the outsides may have been to cold for proper incubation even if the middle is toasty. Using improper size tubs to incubate (oversized for clutch) I have seen be an issue if not enough media is present. Just a few things to consider that may have been the reason for some of the eggs not to go full term.

[timothyh]

Yes there appeared to be more yolk then the couple that were bigger. The glovee has an app and you can set it to alarm it it spikes or drops below a certain temp.