Incubation Tips

[envious]

Hello, so after my unsuccessful hatch the first time, I want to try again. I have no idea where it went wrong - when we broke open the egg, the yolk wasn't fully absorbed but it just never pipped (I do have pictures but unsure if I should post because it's rather messy). Is there any tips on what I should do? My cousin, who incubated the eggs my parents gave to her, has a higher success rate the second time around (all eggs pipped), but the problem is, she is doing everything opposite of what I've seen online. We live in a rather humid climate, and her humidity is 70-85% the first 18 days and now during lockdown, it's at 97%. She opens her incubator every day to turn eggs herself despite the machine being automatic and also sprays water on the eggs when she does that. I'm pretty sure she sprays during lockdown, but I'm not 100% sure (my mom the one that talks to her, not me).

We use the same egg incubator - it was some free one my cousin got online through Amazon Vine. My parents did agree to buy a new egg incubator for our second try, but I think they are somewhat regretting it now because they see my cousin with all her eggs pipped. I'm just confused how it happened. The first time around, we kept the humidity around 40-65% during first 18 days (the incubator emits a rather loud beep if it dips below 40% for 2 hours so dry incubation isn't a choice during the first batch and machine doesn't let me control humidity) and during lockdown, we kept it at 70-80%. Only one hatched of the seven that went to lockdown, the others never pipped on Day 25.

The eggs we use our from our own chickens. I did candle it to see, and all of them are slightly porous. It's not excessive, but could that have caused an issue? Do they need a different humidity? Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[cavemanrich]

Is your temperature correct??? Just because the incubator displays a temperature,, does not mean it is the actual correct one.
Use a people thermometer to check temperature inside incubator. The basic kind, not electronic.
Since you are in a very humid area,,, Try to do a dry hatch. (meaning, do not add water to your incubator. )
Then for Lockdown,, also don't add any water. Your ambient humidity should be sufficient.
Remember that Broody chickens do such naturally, and are successful in hatching chicks.
Experiment. Do smaller batches, and then evaluate.


WISHING YOU BEST,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,and

 

[envious]

Is your temperature correct??? Just because the incubator displays a temperature,, does not mean it is the actual correct one.
Use a people thermometer to check temperature inside incubator. The basic kind, not electronic.
Since you are in a very humid area,,, Try to do a dry hatch. (meaning, do not add water to your incubator. )
Then for Lockdown,, also don't add any water. Your ambient humidity should be sufficient.
Remember that Broody chickens do such naturally, and are successful in hatching chicks.
Experiment. Do smaller batches, and then evaluate.


WISHING YOU BEST,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,and

Not sure if temperature is correct because I didn't realize it would be inaccurate until much later. But the thing is, my cousin had a successful hatch with A LOT more water compared to me. It's literally almost 100% humidity during lockdown... I just don't understand how she managed to get all the chicks to pip. I do incubate inside the house, and around this time, humidity tends to be 80%+ outside. I did want to try dry hatching, but unfortunately, the first incubator didn't allow us to do so. I also don't think no water during lockdown is a good idea since it'll drop below 40% without it (since we do inside house).

Thank you!