GQF 1502 Cabinet- multiple hatches are going HORRIBLY!

[ChickyPants]

I have absolutely no idea what's going wrong. I just got back into chickens after about 6 years. I've always used either a genesis hovabator or the old 1200 series GQF incubators.

I splurged and bought myself two 1502 GQF incubators, fully digital.

My first hatch went great. They were just random cheap mixed breed eggs I got from a local farmer. I put water in at the beginning and then right before lockdown and everything was good. Had a great hatch rate. This is what I'm used to with the old style incubators, very straightforward.

However...

2nd time - I tried that exact same thing a second time with very expensive eggs and had a horrible hatch rate. Maybe 40% of the eggs hatched. They're from the same breeder but from two different breeds. 30 to 40% humidity during lockdown, 60 to 70 during hatch. Temp consistent at 99.9.

3rd time - another horrible hatch, this time I paid way more close attention to the humidity during lockdown and was making sure it was always above 60%, usually 65 to 75. Three different breeds of chickens, from two different breeders. Got like 15% hatch rate from the one breeder and maybe 50% from the other.

4th time - Right now I have some more eggs hatching from a completely separate breeder and I so far have two out of 12 eggs that have hatched in a 24 hour period. It is not looking good again and I am getting so so sad and upset


I have been monitoring humidity and temperatures religiously. I bought wireless thermometer / hydrometers that are in these incubators. I'm monitoring as much as I reasonably can.

Chicks are fully formed and air cells look good when they go into lockdown.

I read somewhere on here that someone said the blower motor in the bottom of the incubator blows way too much hot air onto the chicks and dries them out and they don't hatch so I did as they suggested and put saran wrap over a large portion of the brooder box in the bottom. Going by the two chicks that have hatched out of 12 that are in the incubator, it's not going so well.

I've tried hatches with both vents open, I've tried hatches with one vent closed and one vent open and then I've also tried with both vents closed (not fully closed, I stuck paper towel in one so there's still some airflow)

I'm so frustrated and it deeply upsets me when so many chicks are not hatching as it's such a waste! I've been scouring the internet and I just don't know what I'm doing wrong.

 

[Debbie292d]

Your hatch rates from these eggs you bought sound similar to the many shipped eggs I've bought this year. Are those shipped? If so, that's the not the incubator, it's the shipping.

 

[ChickyPants]

Not shipped! All picked up locally.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'll link an incubating troubleshooting guide. Maybe it can help you determine what might be happening.

https://anrcatalog.ucanr.edu/pdf/8127.pdf

It sounds like your incubator is calibrated as far as temperature. Is the thermometer you are using to calibrate them calibrated? That would be my first concern. Your eggs are local, are they getting shaken up while transporting? I ruined a batch like that. I'd leave the vents open, they need fresh air especially late in the incubating and hatching process. When do you stop incubation? You're not stopping at 21 days are you? I've seen that before on here. Sometimes hatches run late.

I assume this is happening with both of your incubators. It doesn't sound like an incubator issue but more with what you are doing in general. I can't see anything specifically that you are doing wrong but three straight batches just doesn't sound right.

 

[CraziChknLady]

Is it possible it could be the time of year and the breeds? I would think if it's in fall, most chickens are starting to molt rather than breed or the breed type could have low fertility as well. Is it possible, several of the eggs weren't fertilized to begin with?
Several factors could be at play here...

 

[Susan Skylark]

Are you differentiating between infertile eggs and quitters? Open eggs if you aren’t, any development (blood, embryo, white membrane stuff day 1/2) indicates the problem is with the incubator or stress on the eggs and no development (just an egg, maybe a watery or broken yolk) on the majority of your eggs means the fertility of the eggs is the issue. Sounds like you are looking into temp/humidity but also check the turning, a faulty turner days 3-10 or so can tank a hatch. Also consider preincubation stress on the eggs, cold exposure for even a few hours can also wreck your eggs, as can age, shipping, and heat. My February hatch rate is 50% vs 90% in June, even collecting eggs every couple hours, they develop fine but die prehatch at a much higher rate. If temp isn’t the issue and your eggs are fertile, check the turner and consider local temperatures for your source eggs.

 

[ChickyPants]

Thanks for your reply! These were all eggs that I confirmed were viable/had chicks in them. I remove any quitters or infertile around day 10 to 14. And then check again before lockdown. So they all appeared to have chicks inside.

I've invested in a bunch of Wi-Fi thermometers and hatches are going a bit better.

I honestly want to find one of the old GQF, I didn't have problems with them!

 

[verybella]

I was having the same problem with mine and then I figured out through trial and error that if I have too many eggs in there the airflow isn’t good enough, at one point the thermometer I had on the center rack was getting to 103-104 degrees even when the machine was set to and reading 99.5
So I started pulling the duck eggs out more frequently to cool a bit and spaced them out a lot more so I was only running trays about 50-60% capacity- but it helped. I later put some usb powered fans in there to help circulate the air more in the lower compartment since the internal fan is really only at the top back - and this allows me to fill the trays to 70-80% if its duck/turkey eggs. Chicken and quail eggs don’t seem to put off quite as much heat as the big ones so I imagine I could do more.

It’s super annoying for an expensive piece of equipment, but when you take the whole thing apart; it’s very rudimentary - a fan, a motor control for the turners on metal rods held in place with bolts, internal and external thermometers, hydrometer and a coil on ceramic insulators for heat and the control panel. I just gutted, cleaned, painted and restored one from like 10-15 years ago this week after buying it on craigslist).
I think it runs into the ‘why improve it if it works’ and leaving the design as archaic as possible so there is less to break.
But the little squirrel cage blower fans really helped with the temperature stabilization in my newer one (I ordered more I am still waiting on for the rehabbed one) and it was just a $13 add on - you can even just stick them on with velcro strips and move them around as needed.