First Time incubation problems

[cmfarm]

Did you candle the eggs to check for fertility?

 

[Wi_Pida]

I didn't have any better success with my attempts at hatching. I got 13 out of 56 1st time. 0/45 the second time(all double yolkers) I now have 12 viable out of 25 for tomorrows lockdown. I attribute my poor success to poor quality cull eggs, cheap chinese incubators, and fall/winter poor fertility rates. I'm starting to believe these styrofoam incubators might have an advantage over cheap plastic. From what I read the high end incubators like brinsea, etc. might be better. Keep the faith we're all learning together!

I have one of those cheap Chinese incubators also and found out that you can not go by the temp or the humidity on the panel. I put an internal combination temp and humidity monitor inside in the center of the incubator. Then calibrated the panel temperature to match the internal temperature.

The humidity is tricky. I had to adjust the panel humidity down to the lowest setting which is about a 20% difference. The humidity was still off so I put a small piece of cardboard between the lid and incubator. By doing this,it seems to be working.

Yesterday morning, day 18, I put the eggs on lockdown. I've already had one hatch out 8 hours later and a second at 2am today. So far I have 4 more pipping. I have a total of 17 eggs. I don't expect the rest of the chicks to start hatching until tomorrow. With the Chinese incubators you really need to work at keeping humidity regulated it seems. If you don't mind a little work you can still get nice results. You just have constantly monitor the humidity by watching the internal combination temp/humidity monitor.

I did candle each egg 2 days before lockdown and they were all showing movement.