Chicks not hatching?

[RachelM]

Hi all,

I've just wrapped a batch of hatching and had some disappointing results. Out of 2 dozen Red Bourbon turkey eggs, I have only 6 live poults (Plus 1 who pipped but died before hatching). I cleared out in the incubator today and opened up the remaining eggs to find that they all contained fully developed, but dead, poults. All 6 living seem to be strong and healthy. What would cause this? I had similar results with a batch of chicken eggs in a separate incubator, where only about 1 in 4 of the developed eggs actually hatched and lived, so I'm quite concerned as to what I'm doing incorrectly.

Help!

 

[wynn4578]

The most common cause of a poor hatch always seems to be incorrect temp/humidity levels. What kind of incubators are you using? Are you using after market temp/humidity gauges or the ones that are on the machine?

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Shipped eggs will do that. I'm a day or two from hatching shipped eggs myself and even though I've 18 of 22 making it this far am still nervous.

With local eggs and if your hatching was on time, straddling or day after projected hatch day, then the temperature was correct. If your humidity was too high during incubation then the air cell wont develop nearly large enough resulting in drowning inside the shell. I like to run 30% humidity for incubation period then 60-65% last few days. Calibrate your hygrometer with a salt test or those RH numbers wont mean much.

 

[RachelM]

I have GQF Hovabators, which didn't come with any hygrometer, just a little thermometer. I'll see where I can find one locally or online. Are they available in pet stores? Our feed stores don't seem to carry much beyond heat lamps.

 

[WalnutHill]

Pet stores, or even easier to find a hydroponic gardening store.