50% and less hatch rate?

Cedarhillhomestead

In the Brooder
Jun 21, 2021
14
7
26
I bought our first Incubator two months ago. Our first hatch we received a 50% hatch rate. I noticed the 50% that did not hatch all developed and likely passed around Day 18-20. I noticed after candling the eggs their appeared to be a greenish color instead of the yolk color I had been used to. My friend decided we should try his incubator which we did this month. I personally sanitized it even after he did. We receive a 25% hatch rate and all of the other eggs are in there fully developed and dead on the 23 with that same green color inside. I am just confused how an issue could be big enough to kill over 50% of the chickens and yet four of them still hatched. What am I doing wrong?
I will say, I obsessively candled the first time because it was fascinating and I didn’t know better. This time i candled about 4 times. I up the humidity to 50% before candling so it doesn’t drop too low. While candling it’s never gone below 40% humidity and 90 degrees (it only got that low once abd for under 5 minutes). Can I watch my chickens hatch their eggs, they get up several times to eat and what not. Could that really be the issue?! Ugh I’m heart broken.
 
How many hens do you have and how many roosters? How old is your rooster?
As far as fertile layers… 2 Serama hens & 1 Serama rooster. Not related. Both hens eggs have had some hatch some not. I actually don’t now how old the rooster is. Both hens are about 1-1.5 years old.
 
Are the eggs you’re using clean or do they have poop smudges?

How old are the eggs before you begin incubating them?

What temperature and humidity do you use from day 0 to 18?
No poop smudges. I don’t clean them but I don’t use dirty eggs. I collected this batch over the course of 8 days, stored pointy end down. 99.5 temperature and humidity at around 40-45 until day 18 then up to 60%.
 
As far as fertile layers… 2 Serama hens & 1 Serama rooster. Not related. Both hens eggs have had some hatch some not. I actually don’t now how old the rooster is. Both hens are about 1-1.5 years old.
I know it is recommended to have 10 hens/pullets for one rooster to have good fertility. More members in the flock reduces fertile eggs because of all his rooster duties. Sounds like you have a small flock of 3, fertility doesn’t sound like it is the rooster unless he is older.
 
I know it is recommended to have 10 hens/pullets for one rooster to have good fertility. More members in the flock reduces fertile eggs because of all his rooster duties. Sounds like you have a small flock of 3, fertility doesn’t sound like it is the rooster unless he is older.
We have 12 hens total but the rest are full sized. They definitely keep him busy but he can’t properly mount them 😅 but yeah I don’t think fertility is it either
 

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