Today was hatch day and I have no idea how to interpret the results. Hovabator 1588, 99.5-100 solid through out incubation, 40% humidity consistent, 65-70% on Lockdown. Candled on day six and removed 2 out 18 for non-fertile. The rest had good veins and embryo development, but was out of town for day 18 so I didn't candle. The wife checked the temp and humidity daily and everything stayed pretty consistent. I lost power for about six hours once but had the incubator on the generator in about 4 minutes, so the temp never got below 98, and was below temp only briefly.
-70% Hatch rate
-1 early hatcher pipped on day 19, hatched on day 20
-1 pip and no hatch, chick dead, I assumed drowned, plenty of moisture in egg, chick covered with yellow material, looked like yolk (no idea what that is)
-5 no pip, today is day 21 so I am assuming that with no more pips the last 5 are no hatches
-1 hatch but intestines outside vent, not going to make it.
-10 healthy
No consistent problems other than the non stellar hatch rate, seems like a hodge podge of issues. The only thing I can think contributed is I had to add water on day 19 because someone didn't follow directions and add enough, so I had to open the lid to add more. Temp seemed to fluctuate also more during hatching, 98-99, and I removed the vent plug on day 20 for more ventilation. Humidity stayed above 65% for the hatch. I had two digital thermometers/hygrometers and two cheap mercury thermometers in there, all read different temps. The two digitals and the one that came with the HB were from 98-100, another mercury I had in there was consistently 2-4 degrees higher than the rest reading 102-104, so I will count that one as inaccurate.
I also forgot completely about the temperature spike on day 19 and read 102 on the smaller mercury thermometer, 100 on the digital, not sure if that killed some. Overall I guess an acceptable result, not the best, but acceptable. I would have liked to get a couple more out of my $150 eggs, but oh well.
-70% Hatch rate
-1 early hatcher pipped on day 19, hatched on day 20
-1 pip and no hatch, chick dead, I assumed drowned, plenty of moisture in egg, chick covered with yellow material, looked like yolk (no idea what that is)
-5 no pip, today is day 21 so I am assuming that with no more pips the last 5 are no hatches
-1 hatch but intestines outside vent, not going to make it.
-10 healthy
No consistent problems other than the non stellar hatch rate, seems like a hodge podge of issues. The only thing I can think contributed is I had to add water on day 19 because someone didn't follow directions and add enough, so I had to open the lid to add more. Temp seemed to fluctuate also more during hatching, 98-99, and I removed the vent plug on day 20 for more ventilation. Humidity stayed above 65% for the hatch. I had two digital thermometers/hygrometers and two cheap mercury thermometers in there, all read different temps. The two digitals and the one that came with the HB were from 98-100, another mercury I had in there was consistently 2-4 degrees higher than the rest reading 102-104, so I will count that one as inaccurate.
I also forgot completely about the temperature spike on day 19 and read 102 on the smaller mercury thermometer, 100 on the digital, not sure if that killed some. Overall I guess an acceptable result, not the best, but acceptable. I would have liked to get a couple more out of my $150 eggs, but oh well.
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