Chicken hatching on day 19 not 21

[Seanryan0775]

Last week I joined BYC to get help with my new Brinsea 56EX Ovation humidity in the last 3 days. I manually added water to increase the humidity but the chicks started hatching on day 19. I had a hatch rate of 24 chicks from 37 fertile eggs. It would appear that the humidity was not right in the few days before hatching which must have had some negative impact on the final hatch rate. The remaining unhatched eggs had fully developed chicks inside. One of my friends has told me that the early date of hatch is not good. The temp was a constant 37.5 degrees Celsius (99.68 Fahrenheit) and he thinks I need to turn down the temp. The incubator was in an air conditioned room at 23 degrees Celsius.

What advice do members have to assist me.

I am treating it as a learning curve with view to maximise the hatch rate.

 

[Debbie292d]

What kind of chickens? I have the same incubator, and have silkies. They hatch a day or two early all the time. I have two other Brinsea's too. Only one is right.

Humidity should be about 70% for lockdown/hatching.

I'd get a thermometer/hygrometer to test it. I use only Govee brand. You can get deals on Amazon on them. If it's right, then yes, you could turn it down a tiny bit but actually 99.7F is just fine and it's not an issue if they hatch a day sooner, but I think that would only equate to a few hours sooner.

 

[Seanryan0775]

Thanks for your response but it was on the 19th day not the 21st. I am also finding the chicks are dying for no apparent reasons. We have stock that have a leghorn line and more recently there have been some Hawaiian chicks imported onto the island, I have 3 of these. In the past we have used another incubator where the same stock eggs hatched out and the mortality was very low post hatching. I am wondering if the early hatching has caused issues with the chicks survival. Just looking to find answers or being pointed in the right direction by those who have been doing this for much longer than me. Keen as to learn as much as possible.

 

[Jayson_Black]

when you start again, check the air cells every 5 days after the first 7. If air cells are growing too fast then you need higher humidity, if air cell growth is too slow then you need less, much less humidity. Low Humidity can cause shrink-wrapping and suffocation of the chicks if not outright dehydration. too high humidity can cause a too-small a air cell and chicks never get to breathe, you can also drown chicks if water starts to form in the air cell.

As for temperature issues, run multiple thermostats and take the average between them all. if you put in 5 but one thermometer is way away from all the rest, toss it out. Then, the average of the thermometers with the most consensus will be close to correct. You can attempt to calibrate your thermometers and hygrometers. there are home processes you can use to do this. you could also try to borrow (if you know someone) a commercially calibrated scientific thermometer. but you will need to google that or this post will be too long. Borotto Incubators are supposed to be calibrated and certified. I assume some other expensive brands are too.

P.S./FYI: AIR CONDITIONING REMOVES MOISTURE FROM THE AIR!

I cannot help but wonder what role the "Airconditioner" Played. not only with Humidity but I can picture scenarios where an aircon could mess with an incubator's temperature regardless of what its 'set' temperature is.

 

[Debbie292d]

Here are a bunch of articles about incubating. Maybe one or more could help you.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/categories/hatching-eggs-raising-chickens.22/