This was our first hatch in an incubator and we had very poor success. We only had 9 hatch out of the 35 that we incubated. We kept the humidity around 40-45 for the first 18 days and then around 60 for the last few days. We have a still air with auto turner. The temp was around 100-101 for the entirety of the process.we are trying to figure out where we went wrong. The eggs seemed rather dry seeing as though 2 were stuck in their shells and halfway piped out but did not make it. We are looking on advise as to how to get a better hatch rate for next time around.
I have a still air with an autoturner also. I find the autoturner creates hot spots because its little motor puts off alot of heat. I did not use it this year and chose to hand turn. I also run my bator at 99. I had fairly good hatch rates this year. Running at 99 does stretch the incubation time to 22 days but I found my hatch rates better. Just my experience. I also dry hatched so 35% and then 55% for lockdown.
All to often thermometers, etc. are inaccurate. Check and make sure the readings you are getting are correct. It sounds like the humidity is incorrect. Are you keeping the incubator closed during hatch and a few days before. Opening the incubator during this time causes changes in humidity that can cause chicks to die in the shell (the membrane dries and sticks to the chick). As aggravating as it is, sometimes things just don't go well for no obvious reason. I have a number of eggs under five broody hens and one by one the embryos are dying in eggs under all five hens. I can see no reason for it; just bad luck. Next time I'm trying a different rooster.
What kind of incubator is it? Still air normally yields better results at 101-102 (shoot for 101.5). Make sure you have checked/accurate thermometers. That is the biggest thing that people do wrong is not check the thermometers/hygrometers for accuracy. I myself made this mistake for my very first hatch. Brand new thermometer. Had one surviving hatcher. The thermometer was 6 degrees off. Styro bators especially seem to produce better results with a low humidity ("dry") incubation, but the key is to monitor the air cells. I use this method very successfully.http://letsraisechickens.weebly.com...anuals-understanding-and-controlling-humidity I highly recommend the method if the hatcher is NOT in a high elevation. My last hatch yielded a 100% rate from lockdown. I prefer a much higher humidity at lockdown/hatch because I am hands on and I OFTEN open my bator during hatch, so I run at 75%, (and it naturally raises during hatch). This gives me adequate humidity so that I don't worry when I open to remove my chicks and shells or assist if I deem it neccessary. Some other quetions would be, do you wash eggs, are they local or shipped? Do you do eggtopsies and at what stage/day are they quitting? Are they developing to lockdown and quitting or before? The ones that hatch, were they on time, late or early? The hatchers are healthy, no leg problems?
