1 healthy chick out of 13 eggs

What if the humidity outside the incubator is above 50? Last 3 days I had 2 wet sponges and water channels full and humidity only stayed between 60-62


If both water channels are full plus 2 sponges and you only read 60% I think your hydrometer is whacked and your humidity is lots higher than you realize and that may be your hatching problem.
 
I'm no internet chicken expert but if you feel your eggs were good and the humidity was close that only leaves 1 simple explaination, there was a problem with the temperature. My temp/hydro gauge records the high's & lows and lets me see peaks & dips in the temp that I was unaware was happening. Not saying that was your problem, just guessing here.
Here's a link that might help you troubleshoot your hatch. Beware, it has some gross pictures of dead unborn chicks:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/363717/eggtopsy-what-happened-to-my-egg-graphic-pictures
 
There are a lot of different things that can affect the hatch, not just temperature and humidity, though those play a big part. I suggest you calibrate your thermometer and hygrometer to assure you are getting good readings. Due to manufacturing tolerances, your instruments can be off, maybe by a lot.

Rebel’s Thermometer Calibration
http://cmfarm.us/ThermometerCalibration.html

Rebel’s Hygrometer Calibration
http://cmfarm.us/HygrometerCalibration.html

That link to the eggtopsy photos is a real good one. If you open the unhatched eggs you can determine about what stage they were in when they quit. In general, if they fail to develop or stop in the first week, it had something to do with the eggs before incubation, maybe fertility, diet or health of the parents, or how they were handled or stored. If they quit the last week, it probably had something to do with your actual incubation. Even if you can determine when they quit there are still a lot of possibilities. It can be a real challenge figuring out what went wrong.

If you open this link and then open the “incubation troubleshooting” article, you can see some of the things that might have caused the problem. That can help you narrow it down.

http://urbanext.illinois.edu/eggs/res00-index.html

You’d think that the best humidity inside the incubator would be the same for all of us. It’s not. There are several different reasons for that. Still air versus forced air makes a difference. The temperature and relative humidity of the air going into the incubator from outside makes a difference. Height above sea level affects the air pressure which can make a difference. There can be differences in eggs too. Some eggs will have thinner shells, more porosity, or more watery whites, all of which can cause a difference in how much moisture is lost. I’m sure there are other factors I’m not aware of. Just moving the incubator from one side of the same room to another can make a difference. The good news is that there is a window of humidities that will work in your conditions, but you do need to be within that window. Instead of trying to match what someone else does, look at your unhatched eggs and see if yours was too high or too low for your unique conditions.

Is your LG model a still air model? If so, where you take the temperature in there is extremely important. Warm air rises. In a forced air the fan mixes up the air so the temperature should be the same no matter where you take it. But in a still air, the hot air rises to the top. You can have a lot of difference in temperature depending on the height you take the measurement.

Good luck on determining what went wrong. That’s not always easy. Here’s hoping that second one made it.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom