Calculating hatch rate

[Phunktacular]

I only have 3 adult quail hens, at this point, and incubating to increase that number. I have built my own incubator from an old broken beverage refrigerator. I have a controller that I purchased on amazon for $25, a $2.50 heater I found on amazon and a $4 donut usb humidifier, also from amazon. I'm using a automatic turner that I had bought for my little giant foam incubator but, the foam incubator was all sorts of wacky and was never consistent with temperature or humidity. My incubator seems to be working far better than I had hoped.

The question I have is in calculating hatch rates. I collect eggs for 5 days at a time and will have anywhere between 10-15 eggs to add to the incubator. On day 15, when I move that batch of eggs to lockdown, I candle all the eggs going to lockdown. My first batch of eggs was 11 eggs in the incubator and out of them, 6 were viable and developed. In the end, all 6 eggs that I suspected viable had hatched on day 18. Right on time. My second batch, out of 11 eggs, 8 were viable but, I didn't put the 3 non-viable eggs in the hatching tray this time. Out of the 8 viable, 7 hatched. Would you calculate your hatch rate from the total amount that you put in the incubator or out of the viable eggs when candling them. So far, I feel my rate is pretty good, anyway. From total eggs, I'm looking at nearly 60%. If I'm only calculating by the viable, it's 93%. What do you think?

Thank you

Phunk

 

[Ridgerunner]

Calculate it in the way that is important and meaningful to you.

At commercial hatcheries they typically have two separate operations performed at different locations by different groups of people. One group manages the breeding/laying chickens and provides eggs to be hatched. Their interest is in providing hatchable eggs. There are different things that can cause an egg to not be hatchable other than just fertility. Things like how and how long the eggs were stored, health and nutrition of the adults, shell condition like porosity or crack, just different things. Their success is determined by how many eggs they deliver that start to develop or are even in shaope to put in an incubator. That's not a hatch rate, that's a hatchability rate.

If the egg starts to develop, then it up to the people that hatch the eggs to get them to hatch. They call that a hatch rate. According to a man that specialized in chicken reproduction, on average for chickens about 5% of the eggs set do not develop and about 5% of the eggs that do develop do not hatch in the commercial hatcheries, hatcheries that might provide 1,000,000 chicks a week to the broiler or egg laying industry.

Since I do both jobs I calculate my hatch rate as eggs in and chicks out. That's what's important to me. But I do pay attention to how many develop and how many develop but quit along the way. I am selective about which eggs I put in the incubator, the ones I reject because of cracks, being dirty, or weird like double-yolkers are excluded from my count.

 

[Maiahr]

@Phunktacular , by viable do you mean fertile? If yes, I calculate hatch rate only for fertile/viable eggs. BTW, For Quail you say you do a lockdown on day 15? Are you counting the days from 0? I count the days from 0 and I do Lockdown on day 14. I don't know if I am right..... ?

 

[Phunktacular]

@Phunktacular , by viable do you mean fertile? If yes, I calculate hatch rate only for fertile/viable eggs. BTW, For Quail you say you do a lockdown on day 15? Are you counting the days from 0? I count the days from 0 and I do Lockdown on day 14. I don't know if I am right..... ?

I count the day that I put the eggs in the incubator as day 1. Then, 14 days later is day 15. Basically, if I put the eggs in the incubator on a Wednesday (which I like to do so they hatch on Saturdays), 2 Wednesdays later is day 15. I candle them when I move them from the turner to the lockdown. I remove all of the undeveloped eggs. The remaining eggs in the hatching tray, I consider viable. Should I use my percentages from the eggs in the turner or the eggs in the hatching tray?

 

[Maiahr]

Well, I calculate the hatch rate based on eggs that were fertile. I am not sure what you mean by undeveloped - they could be infertile and thus not developed, or they could be fertile, developed to some stage and then died. I only exclude the infertile eggs.

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

Calculate it in the way that is important and meaningful to you.

At commercial hatcheries they typically have two separate operations performed at different locations by different groups of people. One group manages the breeding/laying chickens and provides eggs to be hatched. Their interest is in providing hatchable eggs. There are different things that can cause an egg to not be hatchable other than just fertility. Things like how and how long the eggs were stored, health and nutrition of the adults, shell condition like porosity or crack, just different things. Their success is determined by how many eggs they deliver that start to develop or are even in shaope to put in an incubator. That's not a hatch rate, that's a hatchability rate.

If the egg starts to develop, then it up to the people that hatch the eggs to get them to hatch. They call that a hatch rate. According to a man that specialized in chicken reproduction, on average for chickens about 5% of the eggs set do not develop and about 5% of the eggs that do develop do not hatch in the commercial hatcheries, hatcheries that might provide 1,000,000 chicks a week to the broiler or egg laying industry.

Since I do both jobs I calculate my hatch rate as eggs in and chicks out. That's what's important to me. But I do pay attention to how many develop and how many develop but quit along the way. I am selective about which eggs I put in the incubator, the ones I reject because of cracks, being dirty, or weird like double-yolkers are excluded from my count.

 

[Phunktacular]

Well, I calculate the hatch rate based on eggs that were fertile. I am not sure what you mean by undeveloped - they could be infertile and thus not developed, or they could be fertile, developed to some stage and then died. I only exclude the infertile eggs.

I suppose, I imply infertile eggs as undeveloped. When I candle as I move them to lockdown, the ones I toss glow like a lightbulb. I'm assuming they were never fertile to begin with but, don't know until lockdown. If I eliminate those, I'm upwards of 80% hatches in my homemade incubator.