I've been following along with this thread with my own staggered set eggs (Mar. 7 & Mar. 9). Out of the 21 set on both days, I have only 6 live chicks and, of those hatched, it's fairly divided between those set on March 7 and those of March 9. Incidentally, both sets of eggs hatched out one day earlier than the norm at 20 days. The rest seemed to quit around Day 16.
I have no clue why I get such dismal rates (this is the normal hatch rate here). I have Grumbach incubators, Roll-X incubators, Avistat hatchers, Joe Freed Hatchers, etc. etc. (add dollars signs whenever appropriate). Additionally, I've done everything I can think of including:
-disinfecting between batches
-changing incubators AND re-disinfecting
-calibrating all equipment
-alternating between humidity levels for different sets
-dry incubation
-lock down
-no lock down
-manual turning
-auto turning
-etc.
You name it, I've done it. These eggs are even from different parents, so the answer HAS to be in something I'm doing wrong, not the parent stock.
Any ideas?
Oh! Congratulations to all the new parents on this thread!
(Naptime)
Edited by psittacinekane - 3/29/12 at 5:43am
