Incubation Troubles.

[Pollopato]

Hey guys,

I am having a hell of a time hatching eggs. Its been three summers of one or two chicks in each run. I have a home made incubator i built from a wine cooler fridge. I put the eggs in egg cartons with fat ends up. I cut the bottom of the paper egg cartons off for air circulation. I turn the shelves twice a day 45 degrees like a hovibator egg turner. My temperature control is with a STC-1000. I am checking the temp today with a glass of ice water to see if i need to re-calibrate. I am throwing out 6 dozen eggs from ducks and chickens. I candled each egg and almost all the eggs are developed about 1/3 of the egg. Almost showing half the egg as solid. Any ideas? Could this be a temperature thing or something else? Any advice would be very welcome. So damn frustrating.
Thank you.
Jeremy.

 

[Pollopato]

Oh, the humidity is 40 percent and then i increase to 60 percent for the last three days. I dont weigh the eggs to see how moisture is affecting them. Maybe i should be.

 

[Kiki]

I am not sure what your location is but maybe your current humidity levels are too high

Do you feed your flock extra vitamins and minerals for a while before collecting eggs to hatch?

 

[WVduckchick]

What breeds are you trying, and whereabouts are you located?

The Humidity article link in my signature may help you. Sounds like they might not be losing enough moisture

 

[WVduckchick]

Also turning twice a day probably isn't enough. They need good movement for proper development of the blood vessel network

 

[cmom]

My incubator trays turn every two hours. When I have hand turned the eggs I usually have done it around 7am, 3pm and 11pm. It's not rocket science and I could have been off a little on the time one way or the other but it was close and the hatches still turned out great. I do dry incubate. If I ever had the occasion where I needed to raise the humidity some I would also mist the eggs especially when the chicks are hatching and I take them out of the hatcher, then I mist the eggs still in it.

 

[JaeG]

What's your ventilation like - how is fresh air getting into your incubator? The common causes of embryo mortality around the stage you describe are insufficient ventilation or incorrect temperature. The eggs can suffocate if they don't have access to fresh air and it's an often overlooked aspect of hatching.

There are some good troubleshooting guides online and this is one of them:
https://poultrykeeper.com/incubating-and-hatching-eggs/incubation-troubleshooting-guide/

Hopefully you can figure out what's going on as it must be very frustrating.

 

[Pollopato]

Wow! Great advise. Air vents may be an issue. I figure this size of the incubator and opening the door to turn the eggs would be enough but maybe i need to put some vents in.

I live around the 49th parallel. Victoria BC so pretty much the west coast on the Canada/US boarder. Humidity could be too high. Not sure how to lower it though.

Vitamins are another good idea. Ill look into that for sure. Not doing anything at this time except whatever is in the layer pellets we feed.

Ok, more egg turning for sure then.

 

[Kiki]

Wow! Great advise. Air vents may be an issue. I figure this size of the incubator and opening the door to turn the eggs would be enough but maybe i need to put some vents in.

I live around the 49th parallel. Victoria BC so pretty much the west coast on the Canada/US boarder. Humidity could be too high. Not sure how to lower it though.

Vitamins are another good idea. Ill look into that for sure. Not doing anything at this time except whatever is in the layer pellets we feed.

Ok, more egg turning for sure then.

You may want to look at this sheet I am working on.
There are specific feeds that some companies make for breeding flocks and there are some listed here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1upDVFXEQPK8PUIF6Sj3Bt5CUQfX1PlTEhg799sDT-qM/edit?usp=sharing

This can give you an idea of how much more of which vitamins and minerals are in these breeder type feeds compared to a layer feed.

 

[Pollopato]

You may want to look at this sheet I am working on.
There are specific feeds that some companies make for breeding flocks and there are some listed here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1upDVFXEQPK8PUIF6Sj3Bt5CUQfX1PlTEhg799sDT-qM/edit?usp=sharing

This can give you an idea of how much more of which vitamins and minerals are in these breeder type feeds compared to a layer feed.

Thank you very much. Ill have a look. I am trying to incubate khaki campbell ducks and chanticleer chickens.