Heat level question(coturnix quail)

[NY Coturnix]

I plan to start my 3rd hatch later this week, I'm new to this. My first 2 went awful. 19 of 60 and 9 of 35. In both cases I had fully developed chicks that just didn't hatch. The first time I cut the eggs and the second time I could tell by the weight of the egg that it had a chick in it. First hatch I bought a cheap digital thermometer(it was on sale by the register at Valu Home) and it matched with my Little Giant auto turn forced air incubator so I thought I was good. Second hatch I bought one from Walmart that had the temp and humidity. This one was close on temp but the humidity was off so I just made sure I had some water in the incubator and filled it at lock down. My mother has had a couple very successful hatches with chickens and told me I needed get a hydrometer and sent me a link for the one she uses off of amazon. It came the other day and it appears my thermometer in my incubator was reading low by about 3 degrees. What I thought was 99.5 was really more like 96.8. I've been running it for 2 days now and I've got 3 different thermometers that are within half a degree of 99.5 and my little giant is reading 103. I guess my big question is has anyone else experienced their incubator being this far off and would this have caused my chicks to develop but not hatch. What has me baffled is both hatches did have healthy chicks hatch between 17 and 21 days. Did I just get lucky with those?

Any advise is appreciated.

Ron

 

[igorsMistress]

Good morning. It is not unusual for the temps to be off on the incubator. I use a plain old outdoor type thermometer in my bator.

The hygrometer needs to be calibrated before you use it. Have you done that yet?

 

[NY Coturnix]

No I haven't and to be honest didn't know I could. Its just a little digital one. Is this something I can figure out to do on youtube or is there a trick to it? Also would chicks develop at 96?

Thank you for the quick response.

 

[NY Coturnix]

Just did a quick youtube search and figured that out. Thanks again I had no idea that needed to be done.

 

[igorsMistress]

Just did a quick youtube search and figured that out. Thanks again I had no idea that needed to be done.

Glad you found it. I didn't know either and my first hatch wasn't great. Some folks suggest you calibrate each time you hatch FYI. Good luck with your hatch!

 

[Ted Brown]

Do not intend to hijack this thread, was going to post a very similar questions and thought the answers here would suffice.

However, an augmention query is what variations in temperature (primarily) and humidity are tolerable during the incubation period? I currently have 62 eggs on day 5 in two incubators, I see small (.1 - .5 degrees) variations in temperatures using a digital probe thermometer.

Thanks.

 

[igorsMistress]

Do not intend to hijack this thread, was going to post a very similar questions and thought the answers here would suffice.

However, an augmention query is what variations in temperature (primarily) and humidity are tolerable during the incubation period? I currently have 62 eggs on day 5 in two incubators, I see small (.1 - .5 degrees) variations in temperatures using a digital probe thermometer.)

Thanks.

Those variations are certainly acceptable. I had an issue with temp fluctuations in my bator when one of the grandkids kept bumping the thermostat as they peeked into it. Eggs still hatched no problem.

 

[NY Coturnix]

just to throw this back out there...I'm pretty sure my 1st 2 attempts were done at about 2.5 to 3 degrees low. Would chicks develop just not hatch at this temp? In the back of my mind I was kind of blaming the low hatch on shipped eggs more than temp because I did get a couple health chicks from each hatch? I do now know it was low temp.

 

[igorsMistress]

just to throw this back out there...I'm pretty sure my 1st 2 attempts were done at about 2.5 to 3 degrees low. Would chicks develop just not hatch at this temp? In the back of my mind I was kind of blaming the low hatch on shipped eggs more than temp because I did get a couple health chicks from each hatch? I do now know it was low temp.

I would guess both shipping and low temperatures would be factors. Shipped eggs are notorious for having low hatch rates. If you can buy eggs in state so they don't have to fly you might have better luck. I did.