serious incubator troubles with sportsman 1502 digital incuabtor

Hello everyone I have read a lot of the posts on these incubators but I am having horrible luck. I've yet to get above 15% hatch. All fresh eggs, fairly steady room temp, 50% hum. Incubation, 65% hatching. 7000 ft elevation. Any help is welcome very frustrated thank you

You might be running your humidity too high if you're doing 50% the first 18 days. Have you tried dry hatching? It works much better for me rather than going by what the incubator instructions say.

ChickenLegs13 said:

I aint the fastest horse on the track either. By viability I mean the quality of the hatching eggs and the quality of the parents that produced the embryo.
Bacteria can enter the eggs and kill the embryo causing blood spots or rings. Said bacteria can originate from many places; the coop, nest, germs on your hand, storage conditions and also the incubator itself.
Some people only use the cleanest eggs, wash their hands before handling them, and disinfect the bator before and after use.

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Were the current year's eggs laid by the same birds as the eggs set from the previous year? All mannor of hatichability or viability problems can be traced to the diet, age, and health of the laying flock.

Don't emerce your hatching eggs in water. If for any reason you need to set a soiled egg lightly sand it.

It is especially important to sterilize the incubator before setting eggs by both cleaning it and fumigating it. That is if your incubator is robust enough to stand up to fumigation. Some fumigating agents are corrosive to metals so look at what your incubator is made out of.

Still air incubators are difficult to fumigate because there is no easy way to insure sufficent air ciruclation

The eggs themselves can also stand fumigating. But that is an iffy proposistion for a beginner.

http://msucares.com/poultry/reproductions/poultry_fumigate.html

http://msucares.com/poultry/diseases/sanitation.html

There used to be a very good fumigating agent that was both easy to use and very effective but the Federal Government banned it because perhaps some over curous souls were sticking their heads into their incubators while they burned this fumigation agent to observe its fumigating action and ended up "fumigating" themselves. In my estimation that is a positive outcome but we are too squeemish and PC today to call the fools who can't read and follow simple instructions fools, so everyone must suffer for the dubious benifit of a few.

On most cabinate incubators keep the air vent holes closed for the first 3 days then open them from 1/4 too 1/2 untill lockdown. At day 18 open them all the way.

Google..... "Clemson University incubating chicken eggs"

howfunkyisurchicken said:

You might be running your humidity too high if you're doing 50% the first 18 days. Have you tried dry hatching? It works much better for me rather than going by what the incubator instructions say.

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I have not tried dry hatching but I just set 20 more eggs and that's exactly what I'm going to try. My air sacks do seem to be a lot smaller then most of the examples I see. The air sacks seem a lot smaller from the first time I mark them though also so? Most are about the size of a dime on day 0

The high humidity is causing the small air cells. If its humid in the incubator, the eggs can't loose moisture so the air cells can grow.
I've had a lot more success hatching dry than I did using 40-50% humidity.

howfunkyisurchicken said:

The high humidity is causing the small air cells. If its humid in the incubator, the eggs can't loose moisture so the air cells can grow.
I've had a lot more success hatching dry than I did using 40-50% humidity.

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Yes that is what I am getting from a lot of the info. I'm am going to try it how low is too low it Is very dry here and am just curious I guess so long as it doesn't get under 25% or so? Thank u for the advice I have pm'd a couple of people with no response

I try to keep mine above 25% but lower than 35%. Sometimes it'll dip a little low for my liking, but I just add a teaspoon or two of water and it goes back into my safety range. The best way to judge whether or not your humidity is too high or too low is to candle your eggs and judge them by the size of the air cells. If they're too big, you're running too low on humidity and need more. If they're too small, it needs to be dryer. You can print off charts by Googling something like "chicken egg incubation" to get an idea of what size they should be on which days

howfunkyisurchicken said:

I try to keep mine above 25% but lower than 35%. Sometimes it'll dip a little low for my liking, but I just add a teaspoon or two of water and it goes back into my safety range. The best way to judge whether or not your humidity is too high or too low is to candle your eggs and judge them by the size of the air cells. If they're too big, you're running too low on humidity and need more. If they're too small, it needs to be dryer. You can print off charts by Googling something like "chicken egg incubation" to get an idea of what size they should be on which days

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Gotcha I did do a lot better my last hatch over 50% which I know it isn't good but it's a spite better than before. I am going to try to keep the humidity lower. I'll let you know what the outcome is . Adding to the problem I hatch in the same incubator so for 4 days a week my humidity is closer to 70% I'm sure this is part of my problem. Should I possibly go lower than 25 % to get the average?