Help, what am I doing wrong, one lone chick hatched!!

[megshenhut]

I had 13 eggs in the bator. Some were mine, some were shipped. Only one of mine hatched. I opened them up this morning and found 8 fully formed chicks, two had pipped the inner membrane. None had absorbed the yolk. My temps were right on throughout the process. My humidity stayed pretty good throughout too. I was anticipating a great hatch. The only problem is that I live in a dry climate and have to add water daily (except I put a cup in the last 3 days to up it to 70%+ and then I didn't open the bator.) When I open it the first 18 days to add water the humidity drops drastically, but climbs right back up pretty quickly. I have a styro hova bator. How do I fix this problem? I'm pretty discouraged right now. I've done two batches this spring and only one baby.

 

[morelcabin]

I have a hoovbator as well, and get the same results...not sure what I'm doing wrong either...last spring had one lone chick hatch. And that was from my own eggs. lots of fully formed chicks that died. I'm going to try the dry hatch method some day

 

[Three Cedars Silkies]

I have a homemade styrofoam bator and handled adding the water this way.

I poked a tiny hole in the side and slid a piece of clear tubing through and placed the end underneath the sponge that I had placed in a medium sized soap dish. This is directly below the light bulb and fan.

When I add water I just pull up very warm water into a 35cc syringe and "inject" it through the tube. I never have to open the lid at all. I saw photos that some people had hooked the tubing to a bottle of water but I like to add ver warm water so I prefer the syringe technique.

Surprisingly I have to add plenty of water each day...probably about 6 oz...and I'm in Florida. However, my bator is in our a/c'd house that is set at 77 degrees. I'm sure that keeps the humidity in our house low but it is consistent and the temps and humidity in my bator are now staying very consistent as well.

My first hatch was a big "0"...I'm on day 2 of my second hatch so I'm keeping my fingers crossed!!

 

[megshenhut]

I had heard about the hose idea somewhere and think I'm going to try that. I'm not going to let this thing beat me. If other people can hatch something in styro bators, so can I. I hope!!

 

[morelcabin]

Practice makes perfect, they say I am planning on trying to hatch a few batches this year just for the sake of practice, because I really need it

 

[Myst4]

I have a Hova Bator and live in a humid climate. My first hatch was 100% and my second hatch was 24 out of 28. I love my Hova Bator. I added very little water, until the 18th day and added what I thought would be good. I think,personally, that the smaller the amount of eggs being hatched,the less water needs to be used and with the larger amount of eggs to hatch, the more water should be used. I never montitored the humidity %. But, I'm not saying to go to any extremes. I'm not expert at all...but it worked for me. Sorry about your hatch.