Bad hatch

[ijon]

I have bad luck with my incubator hatching chicks. One out of twelve eggs. Lone chick called Chirpy. I tried to get it some buddies at Farm and Home, because they had some last year at this time, but no luck this year.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Sorry about the bad hatch. Did you do any candling along the way to monitor development? If so, at what point did the failed eggs quit? What type of incubator are you using and what was your process (temp, humidity, turner/no turner, when did you lock down, etc)?

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I have bad luck with my incubator hatching chicks. One out of twelve eggs. Lone chick called Chirpy. I tried to get it some buddies at Farm and Home, because they had some last year at this time, but no luck this year.

If you are looking for help and hints and opinions you've come to the right place. All you have to do is tell us about the type of bator what you are running for temp and humidity levels and answer the million questions we would have.

 

[ijon]

The incubator is a Hovobator and the humidity was fifty-five.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

The incubator is a Hovobator and the humidity was fifty-five.

If your humidity was 55% for the first 17 days, I would venture to say that that was part of it. The styrofoam bators do much better with a low humidity method and monitoring air cells for guidance, such as this one: http://letsraisechickens.weebly.com...anuals-understanding-and-controlling-humidity. I run about 30% first 17 days and 75% for hatch Of course for any method to work a checked and accurate thermometer(s) and hygrometer is very important. Even a brand new thermometer can be really off and cost you your hatch, (it did my first one.) Never trust the gages on the incubators unless they've been checked as well. They are often wrong too.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

The incubator is a Hovobator and the humidity was fifty-five.

Was the 55% humidity maintained during the entire incubation, or was that what it was increased to at lockdown? What temperature did you maintain?

 

[Ridgerunner]

After the hatch did you open the eggs to see what stage development stopped? Candling can help you determine that but opening the unhatched eggs is by far the best method of determining when they stopped, if they ever started. How can you solve a mystery if you have no clues?

If you look through these you can see some of the reasons you may have had problems. There are a lot. Without clues you just don’t even know where to start. Even with clues it can be pretty difficult to know exactly what happened.

Mississippi State Incubation Troubleshooting
http://msucares.com/poultry/reproductions/trouble.html

Illinois Incubation troubleshooting
http://urbanext.illinois.edu/eggs/res24-00.html

 

[ijon]

Yes I opened the eggs. They were fully formed. But did not pip.