Many late deaths - What am I doing wrong?

[LikeTurkeys]

So maybe the best thing to do to get this particular incubators issues ironed out would be to hatch a few less eggs and change up your settings and see. We know the temp was too high with the early hatchers but I would still be concerned with it being still too high and causing deaths. I lost half the batch of quail eggs (at lockdown) to a temp issue when I was using my newest incubator only to find with a THIRD thermometer that it was way too hot.

not sure what your thermometer is like; I don’t like the ones that I can’t fuss with somewhat. Lol. I use the probe type meant for reptiles. They’re cheap enough you can put a few of them in there and have a relatively accurate average in there. I use the ice water test with those and it seems to work fine. Do you have a known accurate thermometer you can compare it to?

you would have taken care of variables by rotating the eggs through the incubator so I doubt that’s the issue.

I guess the next question is the age of your breeders. Older hens and roosters have been known to throw more problem eggs/chicks or have decreased fertility so something like that may be possible if they’re older. I forget the actual percentage numbers for different ages, but as same as any other species, the older they are, the higher the chances of problems. It wouldn’t be uncommon for one or two eggs from any given hen to not hatch, especially in not “ideal” incubation conditions, but definitely interesting that there were so many from those few ladies.

I don’t know that the later stage turning would have caused late deaths with chicks not even internally pipping. There’s been plenty of people that have had chicks hatch early in the turner with no assistance at all.

I can try, I don't think I'm going to be hatching till January though. I already have three thermometers if you count the built in one, and I purchased this one because of it's great reviews and narrow range. The two hens that had the most dead eggs are 10-11 months old and their rooster is only 7-8 months old. I had another rooster who is 20 months old, but I can tell which chicks were his (he's a Dominique, so all of his offspring are barred, in other words black with a white spot on their head). My whole flock is under 2 years of age though, and that is the when fertility starts going down I believe.

I trust my new thermometer even though I haven't calibrated it, and I don't have a 'known' accurate one because I'm not even sure if I can rely on the freeze test. What makes for a 'known' accurate thermometer? And if it reads 32 in the ice water, does that mean it will read at 99.5 accurately? Just trying to make sure.

Here is a link to my newest thermometer. https://www.ruralking.com/spot-chec...fr80KukvdKY_WRqvWHh1272BhGXy5uZRoCbc0QAvD_BwE

 

[wolfwalker]

First, what is your elevation?

and second and more important, run a new hatch with no more than 20 eggs. My first thought when you said you had so many DIS in the last couple of days is that there was not enough oxygen. I have found when I lived at a higher elevation the more eggs I tried to hatch the more late deaths due to suffocation before pipping. Frankly, even though the manufacturers add air exchange holes and a vent it really is not enough air flow in my opinion if you are going to max out the egg space.

 

[LikeTurkeys]

First, what is your elevation?

and second and more important, run a new hatch with no more than 20 eggs. My first thought when you said you had so many DIS in the last couple of days is that there was not enough oxygen. I have found when I lived at a higher elevation the more eggs I tried to hatch the more late deaths due to suffocation before pipping. Frankly, even though the manufacturers add air exchange holes and a vent it really is not enough air flow in my opinion if you are going to max out the egg space.

@wolfwalker, I think you are onto something. My elevation is not that high (in my opinion, though I could be wrong) - it is around 1,400 feet. I will follow your advice and run a smaller batch (probably around 10-15 eggs) when I'm ready for the chicks, likely late December/early January. (My big batches were meant for sale).

We have an oxygen generator, I wonder if having the tube go into the vent hole on top would help? It's a little noisy but would be an interesting experiment. Or perhaps I could also enlarge the vent holes?

I should mention that my 20 egg batch had half the eggs mostly incubated by a broody hen. I moved them into the incubator during the last couple days due to predicted 104+ temperatures outside. And during that hatch I had 5 DIS, all of which occurred inside the incubator during the last couple days.

Just out of curiosity, did your eggs internally pip? Or were they still deriving oxygen from through the membrane?

For sure I will let you know how my smaller batch goes, and thank you for your feedback!

 

[wolfwalker]

@wolfwalker, I think you are onto something. My elevation is not that high (in my opinion, though I could be wrong) - it is around 14,000 feet. I will follow your advice and run a smaller batch (probably around 10-15 eggs) when I'm ready for the chicks, likely late December/early January. (My big batches were meant for sale).

We have an oxygen generator, I wonder if having the tube go into the vent hole on top would help? It's a little noisy but would be an interesting experiment. Or perhaps I could also enlarge the vent holes?

is 14,00 correct? Because hatching issues start to come in at 5000 above sea level. over 10,000 feet you can expect DIS in 75% minimum.

I have with extremely rare eggs added oxygen from a concentrator before to get a good hatch. Does your incubator have holes in the bottom you can plumb the air hose too?

 

[LikeTurkeys]

is 14,00 correct? Because hatching issues start to come in at 5000 above sea level. over 10,000 feet you can expect DIS in 75% minimum.

I have with extremely rare eggs added oxygen from a concentrator before to get a good hatch. Does your incubator have holes in the bottom you can plumb the air hose too?

Yes, 1400 not 14000, the extra 0 is there by mistake. The incubator does have small holes in the bottom.

 

[LikeTurkeys]

@wolfwalker, Since I am under 5,000 feet, are my hatching issues because I maxed out the incubator like you said?

 

[wolfwalker]

@wolfwalker, Since I am under 5,000 feet, are my hatching issues because I maxed out the incubator like you said?

More than likely, off the top of my head without seeing your setup and being there to perform eggtospies and watching your last few days of lockdown and your temps and humidity are and have been correct.

Long answer to say that in my opinion from years of hatching that I've found out I lose to many at the last minute when I overload the incubator because they suffocate due to not enough air exchange

 

[LikeTurkeys]

More than likely, off the top of my head without seeing your setup and being there to perform eggtospies and watching your last few days of lockdown and your temps and humidity are and have been correct.

Long answer to say that in my opinion from years of hatching that I've found out I lose to many at the last minute when I overload the incubator because they suffocate due to not enough air exchange

I have a photo of my incubator attached in an earlier post along with some photos of my eggtopsies. My temperature was only about a degree off and I'm pretty sure humidity was okay. Thanks for your input, I think I have solved my issue!