Incubators Anonymous

[stryker]

Well I just put 63 welsummer eggs in the incubator last Sunday at 3:45pm. I am doing a test run to see how to get a better hatch rate better than last year average of about 30% . I am doing this before I fill it up for the season in March. I just love the color of the eggs. Some are 14 days old but who is counting wen it comes to hatching...




Hope all have a Happy New Year!!!

 

[cppeace]

I had so much fun hatching out my ducks a few months back, my home made incubator did great and I hatched 5 out of 7 eggs- one didn't develop and one died shortly after starting to develop. I sold them all at a few days all- they were so cute. I can't wait to hatch out more but my ducks have not laid in 2 months They got scared by a predator that killed several and haven't laid since
Good luck all who are winter hatching

 

[gander007]

Well I just put 63 welsummer eggs in the incubator last Sunday at 3:45pm. I am doing a test run to see how to get a better hatch rate better than last year average of about 30% . I am doing this before I fill it up for the season in March. I just love the color of the eggs. Some are 14 days old but who is counting wen it comes to hatching...




Hope all have a Happy New Year!!!

Drat attitude, Wish you well with your hatch

 

[Flowerbh]

Well I just put 63 welsummer eggs in the incubator last Sunday at 3:45pm. I am doing a test run to see how to get a better hatch rate better than last year average of about 30% . I am doing this before I fill it up for the season in March. I just love the color of the eggs. Some are 14 days old but who is counting wen it comes to hatching...




Hope all have a Happy New Year!!!

What temp/humidity settings are you using for the first 15 day? 18 days? Lockdown? What type of incubator? You should be getting a better rate than 30%

 

[gimmie birdies]

I had been getting good rates my last batch 16/17.

This batch after pulling my clears I had 6 (it was a planned small batch) due 30th. Then on the 28th I had to leave town on emergency for a couple of days.house got cold, I thought I lost my whole bunch but this egg hatched.

 

[Faraday40]

Well I just put 63 welsummer eggs in the incubator last Sunday at 3:45pm. I am doing a test run to see how to get a better hatch rate better than last year average of about 30% . I am doing this before I fill it up for the season in March. I just love the color of the eggs. Some are 14 days old but who is counting wen it comes to hatching...

Hope all have a Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year to you too!

What happened to cause such a low hatch rate? Were they all shipped eggs or was there an incubator malfunction?

 

[stryker]

I have a homemade cabinet 200 egg incubator and I didnt have enough air holes so the first wave would zip out fast then the rest of the majority suffocated in the shell during hatch and they didn't even pip. The other problem was that I had a roo over 20-25 hens so at day 18 I would throw away about half due to being clear with not even any red marks. They were perfectly good eggs, but I was not going to eat them and in the trash they went. So out of about 90 eggs I would be happy to get 40-50 hatch. My smallest hatch was 30ish and last largest hatch was I believe 53 I think.

At the end of the hatching season, I thought that it was the heat or humidity being off and the design sucked so I changed some things as I went from 150 watt heat to a 200 watts of heat. I then added anther fan so the air really moves around and then added a 1 inch hole at the top back of the incubator for more air during hatch time. After doing all this I was about to rip it apart and start all over. " thinking in the winter too much does this to a person". The wife said she had some dataloggers

so I used them with an empty incubator. The temp was spot on and it had a nice straight line along with the humidity. I adjusted the humidity two percent so it was not even worth adjusting but I did it anyway.

I currently have 2 different roos over 18 hens so hopefully they will get the job done.

I am running the humidity at 36% from day 1-18 then 60% until day 20 it will hopefully be 65-70 or higher to 75%by the time the rest hatch. I kind of forgot that winter is drier so we will see if I can get the humidity that high. I can easly lower the humidity if needed. So this is where I am and I am not going to fill the incubator until I get better with my hatch rates. I figured if I have a better hatch this time then it is the lack of oxygen during hatch... I am going to run the dataloggers today and see how everything is encase if anything needs to be adjusted.

 

[DMRippy]

ok. I have a friend who has Golden Cuckoo Marans. He has had a hard time hatching their eggs because the shells are really thick. (The color coating on them is thick plus they have lots of calcium) So, my thought is they need to be hatched with really low humidity for the first 15 days. That will enable the humidity to escape the egg and make the air sack bigger, right? (I tried to hatch some of his eggs and noticed that the air sacs were really small at hatch time. Only hatched 50% and two died soon after hatching.) Then increase the humidity to around 60-65% so that the shell can be less hard. My friend says he thinks just the opposite. He wants to have the humidity at 55% until lockdown and then increase it to 65%. I am thinking that the shell is too thick and the air sac will be too small. What do you guys think>? For those of you who hatch Marans eggs, what is the secret? Do we need to sand the shell as some books suggest? Any advise is appreciated.

I don't add ANY water to the incubator so sometimes my humidity does not even register. I just hatched a HUGE batch of cuckoo marans. How old are his hens? I find the older the hen the less likely the eggs are to hatch.

 

[PD-Riverman]

I am doing a test run to see how to get a better hatch rate better than last year average of about 30% . I am doing this before I fill it up for the season in March. I just love the color of the eggs. Some are 14 days old but who is counting wen it comes to hatching...

Did you change the incubator for this set? How do you figure Your hatch %---from total eggs in or from fertile eggs at candeling?

 

[gimmie birdies]

I count at lockdown. You do not have control over clears or quitters, or some genetics leading up to lock down. And do not feel bad about the quitters, just pretend they were roosters.