Incubation sucess rate

[mystil]

Hello.

I have heard that eggs bought on with an incubator is not a good idea as the sucess rate is a lot lower than if you left a chicken or other animal to bring them on.

What levels of sucess have you had in an incubator? (e.g 6 out of 10 etc..)

Just curious to know what the rates are possibly going to be like for my eggs.
Thanks

 

[12321]

I just finished my first hatch last week and had 75%. 22 out of 29. I thought it would have been a bit better since none of the eggs were shipped, but still happy with it. I don't think I'll do anything different the next time.

 

[Nyssa03]

Congratulations!

What did you hatch?

 

[mystil]

congrats

and what was your humidity like through out?

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

over an entire spring season we averaged 97% success hatching our goose eggs in 2012, 98% on our duck eggs, and 99% on our chicken. All for 2012 spring season. We run multiple cabinets with various settings depending on what eggs are being incubated. No one setting fixes all as they all have different needs.

 

[12321]

Congratulations!

What did you hatch?

congrats

and what was your humidity like through out?

We ended up with 7 Ameraucanas from bought eggs, and the rest were our own eggs. 7 black sexlinks (Jersey Giant over Barred Rock), 6 Welsummers and 2 Welsummer/bantam Cochin mutts just to see what they would look like.

Humidity was usually just over 40%. I refilled the water about every 3 days when it got to 30%. At day 18 we went with 70%.

We used a 1588 Genesis incubator with a turner. Just plugged it in, filled some of the water trays in the bottom (not the ones they said in the instructions), after 45% was stable, added a couple jam jars to find where 65% was. It took a couple days to make sure it was all good.

It was a lot of fun. Now I'm looking to upgrade our flock - just because.

 

[12321]

over an entire spring season we averaged 97% success hatching our goose eggs in 2012, 98% on our duck eggs, and 99% on our chicken. All for 2012 spring season. We run multiple cabinets with various settings depending on what eggs are being incubated. No one setting fixes all as they all have different needs.

For your chickens, do you turn for 18 days, then move to a hatcher for lockdown? Do you keep the eggs upright for the last 3 days or lay them on their sides and let the hatched chicks play soccer with the unhatched eggs?