Incubating gone wrong

[calliescluckers]

Hi everyone,
I'm hoping to get some help/answers to what went wrong with my hatch.
I purchased a "made in china" egg incubator through a company in Alberta that sells and services them. I'm not a serious hatcher so I didn't want to fork out $500 for a brinsea... Although now kind of wish I did.
The incubator I got can hold 48 eggs, has an automatic turner and fan. It reads temp and humidity and days.
Before I started I tested the temp inside with a weather station and the temp was reading low. I contacted the seller and he said not to trust those as they aren't accurate. He stated he has sold over 250 of these and they have been accurate.
A way I went, I purchased 48 eggs I wanted, set the temp to 37.8 and humidity at 45%.
I never candled, day 18 I took the turner out and increased to 60%.
Late on day 21 I had ONE egg hatch. Another about every 12 hours thereafter and 3 on day 25. The rest are history.
I knew the temp would be off and I wish I trusted myself now. What else could have gone wrong??? It is a plastic incubator and I did not use the styrofoam box that it came in. For the next hatch maybe I will put it in the box to decrease cold spots???


Any advice?

 

[goodb]

#1 - your temperature was to cold. You NEVER trust the thermometers the incubators come with. Always verify with a second or even a third.
#2 - You ALWAYS candle at least once. Day 10 is good if that's the only day you do it . I do it on days 7, 14 and 18 before lockdown.
#3 - there needs to be insulation, the styrofoam does a great job at that...I recommend using it.

#4 - you should have trusted yourself.

As an also-said, temperature in almost every case is an issue. I hatched in one I made, no hatches until day 22. The latest I bought hatches early. My 2 hatches in it began at day 19. go figure!

Also, research the dry-incubation method. https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/how-to-incubate-hatch-eggs-using-the-dry-incubation-method
I've had no issues since implementing it.

 

[calliescluckers]

Thank you for your reply. I cracked open approx 10 of the remaining eggs and they were all at the same spot. Almost ready to hatch. I'll add a pic. I'm choked that I got 8 chicks out of 47. But live and learn. What do you use for thermometer?
And dry incubation... I'll read it. So you don't use any water?

 

[goodb]

the dry method writeup is good but not complete. I think the target is 35% in the incubator during. In dry climates you may have to add. Then on day 18 I shoot for 80%. They pop out like popcorn!!

 

[farnorth]

I have the same incubator. The temperature reading on it is not accurate and neither is the humidity reading. You will need to get something accurate to read the temperature and the humidity.

I shoot for 30 to 35 % humidity for first 18 days. then 65 - 75 % for the hatch.
When I tried to use 40 - 45% humidity for the first 18 days I had a lot of chicks die in the shell without attempting to hatch.
To get my humidity down to 30 - 35 % I can barely put any water in it...maybe 2 to 3 oz each morning and let it evaporate then add again.
To get my humidity up to 65 - 75% I usually fill about 4 or 5 of the channels on day 18.

Although you are supposed to incubate at 99.5 I usually go for 100 to 100.5 and my eggs usually start to hatch late on day 20 and on day 21.

I set the bottom of the incubator in the stryrofoam but I don't use the top Styrofoam.

I usually candle the eggs day 5, 10, 14 and 18 or 7, 14, and 18. I keep notes, if an egg is still clear by the 2nd candling I usually discard it.

I drilled some very small vent holes around the lid for better air circulation.

I have not perfected my hatching in this incubator but I'm getting better each time I use it.

 

[WVduckchick]

Ditto on most everything farnorth said for me! Only difference is I don't use the Styrofoam. I wrapped it with some Reflectix insulation. And another thing I will add is that the temp setting on the incubator is a "maximum" setting. It heats up to that, then cools down a degree or so, then heats up again, so your average temp is no where near the right temp. I set it at 38.1-38.2.

 

[Sarafena1982]

I thought this incubator would be the death of me!!!! But after some great people with the same one I have got it working good. I am going into lock down tonight with 22 alive one I know is underdeveloped but I don't have the heart to take out because it's still alive. I did loose all my first batch because of temp and humidity. Now I have the foam on the bottom which helped a ton. A along with three more temp and humidity readers. Note I can say last night it was like the incubator wouldn't heat up at all. I ended up putting a heater in the room which helped. Today it started working again. Ugh any way I wish you the best on your next hatch.

 

[WVduckchick]

I thought this incubator would be the death of me!!!! But after some great people with the same one I have got it working good. I am going into lock down tonight with 22 alive one I know is underdeveloped but I don't have the heart to take out because it's still alive. I did loose all my first batch because of temp and humidity. Now I have the foam on the bottom which helped a ton. A along with three more temp and humidity readers. Note I can say last night it was like the incubator wouldn't heat up at all. I ended up putting a heater in the room which helped. Today it started working again. Ugh any way I wish you the best on your next hatch.

Happy for you! Good luck with lockdown and don't count the little underdeveloped fella out just yet! Keep us posted!

 

[Sarafena1982]

Happy for you!  Good luck with lockdown and don't count the little underdeveloped fella out just yet!  Keep us posted!

Thanks my temp went back down last night to 97.4 for a few hours then got up to 98.3. I can't seem to get it any warmer so I'm crossing my fingers at this point. I hate lock down lol Just hoping all this temp fluctuation hasn't affected them too much.

 

[WVduckchick]

Thanks my temp went back down last night to 97.4 for a few hours then got up to 98.3. I can't seem to get it any warmer so I'm crossing my fingers at this point. I hate lock down lol Just hoping all this temp fluctuation hasn't affected them too much.

Yikes, that's a little low, but they retain heat for a while, so they could still be ok. Keep the humidity up and we'll all keep our fingers crossed!