Coming out of denial - low hatch rates

[alicefelldown]

Quote:
We position the eggs to be on their sides. When you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. We take out the turner for lock down and lay the eggs haphazardly on the wire right? The chicks spend several hours getting into position before pipping. As soon as one hatches, it runs around and rolls all the other eggs. Suddenly, all those perfectly positioned chicks are now sideways or upside down.

tl;dr - your chicks didn't pip upside down, they pipped right side up and were knocked around by the first chicks to hatch.

 

[MomMommyMamma]

Quote:
We position the eggs to be on their sides. When you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. We take out the turner for lock down and lay the eggs haphazardly on the wire right? The chicks spend several hours getting into position before pipping. As soon as one hatches, it runs around and rolls all the other eggs. Suddenly, all those perfectly positioned chicks are now sideways or upside down.

tl;dr - your chicks didn't pip upside down, they pipped right side up and were knocked around by the first chicks to hatch.

And do you only put them in the carton at lockdown? Do you keep them large end up during the first 18 days or on their sides?
Thanks so much!

 

[alicefelldown]

They are in an egg turner for the first 18 days. Large end (air cell) up.

 

[MomMommyMamma]

Thank you all!! I'm saving some eggs today & tomorrow and monitoring the temp of the incubator today with a second glass thermometer (w/ smaller markings) on the egg tray. So far it's been alright though one side of the incubator is slightly warmer. How does one deal w/ something like that? Not put eggs on that side or ???
I'm going to try the "dry" hatch & weighing the eggs. I'm a little confused about the method for weighing. The one I read said to weigh the empty egg tray, then weigh the tray w/ the eggs set. I get that. Then it said weigh again on days 10, 14, 18 and make allowances for eggs that were not fertile or have been removed for other reasons. So you would just take that initial weight and divide it by the initial number of eggs and then subtract out "X" for each egg removed and then figure your weight loss based on the new "original" weight?

 

[dsqard]

Quote:
X2 I got the Spot Check after my first time inucbating eggs. My Brinsea Advance was running at least a degree low at the tops of the eggs confirmed by the spot check. I don't use a hygrometer since I have read so many are way off. I just candle the eggs and check the air cells against this chart.

 

[MomMommyMamma]

Again - how do you deal with uneven temps within the incubator? I want to adjust the temp until I get the correct temp at the egg level I assume.

 

[alicefelldown]

Quote:
We weigh each egg with a simple kitchen scale and a strip of cardstock taped into a circle (think easter egg holders). We weigh each egg individually (candling a full incubator takes maybe 5-7 minutes?), and log the weights into an MS Excel chart. We almost always hatch multiple breeds at a time and some are smaller and lose weight quicker than others.

We do not track eggs that fail/duds and remove them from our calculations.

An example of one recent hatch. We break it out into sections, with different colors for the egg types. (I've hidden most of the eggs here, it's a very wide file. you get the idea

)

PM me if you want a copy of the chart, with the formulas already written. Good luck!

 

[Lark Rise]

Quote:
Yes, when I first got my Brinsea, I ran it for several days, without eggs, adjusting the temperature, not according to the glass thermometer, but the one that was at egg level.

 

[spiritdance]

Quote:
X2 I got the Spot Check after my first time inucbating eggs. My Brinsea Advance was running at least a degree low at the tops of the eggs confirmed by the spot check. I don't use a hygrometer since I have read so many are way off. I just candle the eggs and check the air cells against this chart.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/60251_candlingsl8.jpg

That chart has an error. If your air cells are too small, you should decrease humidity to allow for more moisture loss/larger air cell, not increase humidity.

 

[dsqard]

Spiritdance you are correct. I apologize since that is what I do and didn't read the paragraph closely. Yes, if the air cells are smaller than they should be, decrease humidity, if they are larger increase humidity.
ETA - Once I got the temperature set for 99.5 at the tops of the eggs, I didn't have to change it again. I would check it twice a day and it was staying steady.