incubating successfully

[micah O]

Hello i have not had very good success with my incubating, out of 30 eggs only six hatched but most of them had embryos. Please tell what i did wrong!!!

 

[sumi]

I'm sorry to hear you had such a bad hatch. We need a lot more info to help you figure this out though, as there are a number of factors that can influence the hatch results. Can you tell us:

- What was the temperature in the incubator and was it a still or forced air incubator? (Still air = no fan, forced air = fan)
- What was the humidity during the first 18 days (assuming this was chicken eggs) and during lockdown?
- How did you place the eggs? Upright, or on their sides and if upright, which end went up?
- How often did you turn the eggs?
- How old were the eggs before you set them?
- Were they from your own hens or were they shipped?
- If they were from your hens, how old are the hens and what are you feeding them?

 

[micah O]

Thanks i will keep it in mind. The humidity was 30-50 and they were on there side and were from my hens and were about 7 days old and my incubator is a little Giant forced air. Thanks

 

[sburling1981]

Early this year was the first time I'd ever tried to incubate eggs, been raising farm chickens since childhood but always with broody hen. Out of 4 different batches, I've had 3 great hatch rates and one that was 3 out of 12. Those eggs were in with quail eggs that have a shorter incubation time and I believe the repeated opening of incubator made a difference. I've averaged a 80-90% hatch rate on ebay shipped eggs, and I've heard that makes a big difference. My incubator I also use an automatic turner and that seems to take out alot of guesswork and I dont have to repeatedly open the incubator or try and remember to turn eggs. One other thing I didn't know about was the lockdown period of not turning eggs and not opening incubator the last few days. Just some points I had to learn the hard way.