Discouraged New Chicken Lover

[Robin K.]

Your humidity is a little on the high side but I would not think that this was the issue that caused you to have such a low hatch rate. So several questions still, were you incubating shipped eggs? They can be tricky, especially if they had a rough ride getting to you. Does your incubator have a fan or is it still air? If it is still air then your temp was too low, needs to be at around 102degs, if no fan. Were you handling the eggs, candling etc. a lot?

My unit has a fan. Yes, the eggs came through the mail. I only candle my eggs once at 14 days. My unit also has an automatic turner. Once I set the eggs I try no to handle them.
I want to raise Chocolate Orpingtons in the worst way and I cant find anyone with day old chicks to purchase. That is why I tried to hatch my own.

 

[oregonkat]

OK, I reckon the fact that you were incubating shipped eggs may have been the major issue here, your humidity may also have contributed. Just as an example, I have some Barnevelder eggs in my bator right now, I broke my own rule this time and ordered eggs from the other side of the country instead of only buying from one state away from me. Got 12 eggs, box badly damaged on one end but no broken eggs. Candled all of them before incubating and all had detached air cells, 5 had air cells that I could move to the pointy end of the egg. I put all in the bator with an upright turner (more on this in a minute) and at day 7 candled them.
The 5 with the slipperiest air cells had nothing to show me, the other 7 were developing but with air cells that were badly saddled. Upon cracking open the 5, the yolks were totally scrambled along with the albumen and the membrane. Not surprising given the condition of the box.
I like to incubate shipped eggs in an upright turner, it keeps the air cell where it needs to be and allows the membrane around a detached cell to stabilize. I keep my humidity at 35 -40%.

When you candled at day 14, were the embryos doing well, air cells looked OK?