37% hatch rate on local eggs

[browning6]

I will try to be brief in my story telling. I incubated 90 eggs from a local hatchery and only about 20 hatched and only 16 lived pasted a week old.

I was pretty discouraged having hatched plenty (over 150) of my own eggs with 60 to 90 % hatch rates. So i posted and found out my humidity was too high too long. So I corrected teh humidity and threw 26 of my eggs in the incubator and 18 ended up being fertile and of the 18, 16 hatched (one oriented backwards and another pipped at the bottom of the shell and died.) all 16 are still alive.

So out of pride to show that i can hatch chicks. I purchased 120 more eggs, candeled them, ate the cracked eggs and ended up with 112 in the incubator. Of the 112 about 75 to 80 developed normally.

I put the eggs on lock down and on day 20 eggs started pipping. By the end of day 21 I had 30 fully hatched chicks and not a single other egg pipped. So i candeled them again and saw almost no movement. So i started doing eggtopsies on them. of the remaining 45 to 50 eggs only two chicks were still alive. only 3 had broken into the aircell, and the rest were dead mostly grown and most without absorbing the yolk sac. so I would say they died between day 17 and 20.

I have read the hatching 101 post a dozen times and love it. But i cant figure out what I did wrong. I kept the humidity between 20 and 30% as suggested i turned the eggs at least twice a day. I have three fans to circulate air ( two of which slowed down near the end but never stopped working.).

I built this incubator out of an old mini fridge and my air holes are 8 1/4 inch holes i drilled in. one right behind the fan for ventilation.

So why did i get such a poor hatch? is there a reason that so many died after developing?

I am open to any suggestions or comments.

In addition, of the 120 eggs 60 were EE eggs. Only 5 hatched, I got 60 brown egg layer mixes and of them i got 25 chicks. all the eggs were mixed and alternated throughout the incubator.

Could it be bad eggs. he said they were fresh, gathered the day before I bought them.

Give me some love BYC experts!

 

[mstricer]

Isn't is expensive buying them from a hatchery, I know the hatchery I get my meat birds from are 4$ an egg. I also know that hatcheries collect eggs and some can be 7 days or more, plus they wash there eggs. This could have been the problem, old eggs.

 

[browning6]

This hatchery is a small local hatchery. They fill their incubators and then sell the remaining eggs that they cant fit in for 5 dollars for 30 eggs. So not expensive at all. I got the 120 eggs for 20 dollars.

 

[mstricer]

That is a good price. What was your temp through out the hatch? Did you bump up your humidity to 60 to 65% for the last three days? Did you disinfect the mini fridge? Lots of questions. I have had a lot of bad hatches, but most come from shipped eggs. My own eggs usually get 95 to 100% hatch rate. But I don't have a homemade incubator. I have 2 hovabators and 1 Farm Master Cabinet incubator. I also have a Brinsea but it isn't functioning at the moment

 

[browning6]

My temp ranges from 99 to 100.5 degrees. When the incubator is full of eggs there are some warmer spots right above and below the light bulbs. I got the humidity up to about 48%. I could never get it any higher. My hygrometer might not be super accurate. It goes up to about 50 then never goes any higher. I have not disinfected my incubator (probably should do that ASAP). My incubator has been great on my own eggs. Just wanted to know if anyone had any ideas of improvements. maybe i will post some pics of my incubator.

 

[mstricer]

It maybe the humidity at what stage do you think they are dying?

 

[browning6]

Well, it is tough to tell exactally but i the dead chicks had plenty of fluffy feathers to them but most of them had the yolk sac not absorbed. so i would say day 18 probably. they never pipped into the air sac or the shell.

 

[donrae]

Isn't day 21 the "average" day of hatch? I don't incubate but my broodies frequently go a few days over. Not sure why you were cracking eggs on day 21. I would have let them go another few days. Don't know if it would have made much difference, but it's something to think about.

 

[browning6]

Isn't day 21 the "average" day of hatch? I don't incubate but my broodies frequently go a few days over. Not sure why you were cracking eggs on day 21. I would have let them go another few days. Don't know if it would have made much difference, but it's something to think about.

I usually wouldhave waited. I only cracked them because I had 50 eggs sitting there without even one pipping. I cracked the first one just to see and when it was dead I started cracking everything that i candeled that didnt move. And all but one were dead.