Can anyone help?

[WendyBaaa]

Hi I have been trying to incubate chicken eggs with very little success. I bought a Chinese 56 egg automatic incubator and 20 eggs from eBay for my first attempt, all seemed to go well until the lockdown and then only three eggs hatched, when checking the remaining eggs they all had almost full term chicks with even their feathers but ...all dead, it was heartbreaking!
I thought maybe the incubator was struggling to maintain its temperature during a cold spell and perhaps had got too cool during a couple of nights ( just guessing) so tired again with seven eggs , this time same result but all dead on day 22 sigh!
the incubator was not moving the eggs very well so I was turning them manually the temperature seems fine, the humidity was around 60%-69% all the time , is that the problem? Also there is no way of altering ventilation on the incubator so the only way to reduce humidity would be to lower the temperature.
any advice would be welcome
the three chicks who survived the first attempt are doing well though!
thank you
WendyBaaa

 

[Rose Quartz]

Hi I have been trying to incubate chicken eggs with very little success. I bought a Chinese 56 egg automatic incubator and 20 eggs from eBay for my first attempt, all seemed to go well until the lockdown and then only three eggs hatched, when checking the remaining eggs they all had almost full term chicks with even their feathers but ...all dead, it was heartbreaking!
I thought maybe the incubator was struggling to maintain its temperature during a cold spell and perhaps had got too cool during a couple of nights ( just guessing) so tired again with seven eggs , this time same result but all dead on day 22 sigh!
the incubator was not moving the eggs very well so I was turning them manually the temperature seems fine, the humidity was around 60%-69% all the time , is that the problem? Also there is no way of altering ventilation on the incubator so the only way to reduce humidity would be to lower the temperature.
any advice would be welcome
the three chicks who survived the first attempt are doing well though!
thank you
WendyBaaa

yes that humidity is too high. a bowl(or other container that would fit) of dry rice could help to bring down the humidity. Depending on the local humidity, you might need it to be lower than you think.

Where I live ambient humidity is usually around 80 - 90%

I run my incubator at 20% for the first 18 days.

60 - 69% is what I aim for, for lockdown.

 

[WendyBaaa]

yes that humidity is too high. a bowl(or other container that would fit) of dry rice could help to bring down the humidity. Depending on the local humidity, you might need it to be lower than you think.

Where I live ambient humidity is usually around 80 - 90%

I run my incubator at 20% for the first 18 days.

60 - 69% is what I aim for, for lockdown.

 

[WendyBaaa]

Thank you rose quartz, I will try again!