Hatch Rates

[igorsMistress]

If you candle eggs before hatching you may notice that some are more porous than others. Those that are very porous tend to loose more moisture. If your humidity is high then some chicks may drown while others don't. If it's too dry, the opposite is true and they can become shrinkwrapped and not be able to turn and zip. So differences in porosity can affect eggs in the same environment differently.

 

[Cindymf]

The exact incubator that I have.... and my hatch rate was also very low. Kept the humidity at about 45% Day 1 thru Day 18, then kept it at about 70%. Temp is very accurate. Over half died at about Day 18 or so. What's going wrong?

 

[as110]

The exact incubator that I have.... and my hatch rate was also very low. Kept the humidity at about 45% Day 1 thru Day 18, then kept it at about 70%. Temp is very accurate. Over half died at about Day 18 or so. What's going wrong?

Good question. I have the same incubator. I ended up with 4 chicks. This is the most I had hatch and the first time in the incubator.

Even though the environment is the same for all eggs in there, it is possible the eggs come from different hens and roosters. My guess is some of my hens are old. I don't know if the age of the rooster is significant in passing good or not so good genes that can affect viability at any stage of the incubation and hatch.

my 4th and last chick pipped on day 24 and hatched on day 25. The other chicken before this one from the same batch hatched on time on day 21. Of the other 3, one was dead at around day 10. The other two were malpositioned and died at full term, never pipped internally so they didn't drown. They just seized.

I will be watching next time which eggs come from which hens and roosters and pick the youngest ones. My hens are anywhere from 1 year to 4-5 years old. The first 2 chicks that hatched are from on older hen so I am not really sure at what point we can say the hen is too old and her eggs are not suitable for incubation.
Many of my other eggs were not fertilized. With 2 roosters that is a surprise. One is 3 and the other is around 5 years old.