Decided to hatch some chicks after many years. Mine are free range so there is some natural loss and I'm not set up to brood large quantities, and my local stores only sell them once a year. Didn't want huge investment so I bought a little giant.. I read the new model with the digital thermostat was problematic so I searched until I found an old manual version. I also have the fan and rocker. I had two a long time ago and never had an issue with them, always got decent hatches even without the fan and rocker in the early days. This time around I've had nothing but problems. I moved between then and now and had a humidity issue (it's way more humid in LA than OK)... which I should have fixed with the addition of a digital hygrometer/thermometer.. though maybe not "sigh". I originally had it set up in my kitchen on a counter away from the stove/sink.. I had stable temps but my cats kept monkeying around with it so I moved it into my art studio and since then I've had temp fluctuations with no apparent cause. I have it on top of a large wire cage I use for older chicks and it could be less insulated because of the wire? The weird thing is it runs hot, not cold (the room should be the same temp as the rest of the house if not slightly cooler) and I'm having hatches a day or two early.. once they were still in the rocker. No matter where I put it though I'm having massive issues.. I usually have one or two chicks that self hatch. The others do not no matter how long I leave them. Many are improperly positioned in the egg. I've tried letting them "settle" for a day or two before putting them into the incubator but it didn't help. If I help (and I have experience with that having raised quail that required a lot of help) I find at least half are "gooey", and at least a quarter are not close to done. I've had a couple that were deformed, including one with an exposed brain (eeww). If I don't help they all suffocate. I've tried waiting different times from the point the few self hatch before helping, I've tried only piping and leaving them (they seldom ever finish the job successfully). I'm getting 1-4 viable chicks out of 20-30 set eggs which is ridiculous. I've done around eight batches and pretty much gave up. Help please?