Help! Incubating at 4500 ft but shipped eggs were sea level!!!

[GJ_Kate]

I live in western Colorado at about 4500 ft elevation. I've received 5 shipments of well packed eggs and have not gotten ONE to hatch!!!!!!!!!!!! The most common problem is that they make it to the day before lockdown and then fail! WHY?????? I know they need more oxygen so I'm only putting them in my forced air Hovabator and I'm trying to keep the humidity around 30%. I have NO problems with my own eggs. I had 2 Polish to go into lockdown today, I candled and one had failed since yesterday. I'm scared to even move the other into my LG still air with higher humidity, fearing that it'll suffocate! What should I do????

 

[Mrs.brown]

I have the same problem. I think this because my humidity stayed at 30-40% all hatch long. I'm doing my 3 hatch right now. I hope I get it right this time! Maybe a more experienced bycer will come and help.

 

[GJ_Kate]

What is your elevation?

In addition to being high in elevation, we are incredibly dry, high desert actually. Maybe we should start a "High Elevation Egg Chain"... it would probably be sooo slow though.

 

[Mrs.brown]

I have no idea but I live in lafayette indiana

 

[jvls1942]

first off .. there is plent of air in the bator,, the chicks will not suffoate.. I could go into a long explanation, but just take my word for it..

second, 30% is way too low at HATCHING time.. get your humidity up to 60%.. If you have a lot of chicks hatching, that humidity might go above 70%.. that is OK..

 

[GJ_Kate]

From what I've read, the air (or lack thereof

) is a problem here in our high altitude. The shells are less porous in sea level laid eggs, so they don't get as much oxygen in them as an egg laid here at our altitude. Here are some articles I've found here in the archives, but no one seems to post how their hatch went when I read through the posts. They talk about it when they first start, but don't follow through with their results.

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/1123/hatching-at-high-altitudes

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2375702/?tool=pmcentrez

Also, I'm not hatching at 30%, I'm just incubating at 30%. I haven't gotten any shipped eggs INTO the darn hatcher yet because it seems they all fail by the day of intended lockdown...

My hatcher is my LG still air and I try to keep it above 50% for chicken eggs (higher for my turkeys).
I was able to get ONE (that's right, just ONE

) polish egg into the hatcher today... I'll let you know tomorrow if it's made it through the night...
My own eggs do just fine, both chicken and turkey... just no luck on shipped eggs.... Why oh why does most of the country have to be at sea level????

 

[Chickenrandomness]

your problem is with the humidity, in lockdown, you need around 60- 70% humidity

 

[GJ_Kate]

But this is the first time I've ever had a shipped egg make it to lockdown. They quit the 2-3 days before lockdown.

 

[jvls1942]

well, I do not buy into that porous egg theory..

Your problem might be just that you are dealing with shipped eggs.. I do not order shipped eggs anymore.. I will drive a 100 miles one way, to pick eggs up for eggs that I really want..

I would look for a different reason for your eggs failing.. just in case it is not lack of oxygen..

 

[corvidae]

Having twice moved from sea-level areas into higher altitude areas (4500 feet+) and suffered altitude sickness from it each time, I could definitely see a potential problem with eggs being shipped from sea level up to this kind of area-- pressure changes, oxygenation changes, whatever the case may be. Perhaps it is a problem. I think the best potential way to tell is to have eggs sent from a similar altitude along with eggs sent from sea level and incubate them together. Won't be definitive, by any means, since it doesn't account for all the variables, but it could help eliminate shipping or incubation method as the main problem. Should both hatch out at similar percentages, that is. If they all continue to fail, then the altitude wouldn't be the likely culprit. In fact, you might add some local fertile eggs into the mix as a control. Just a thought. Not sure if it is at all helpful.